Restaurant tip of the Week: Don’t do what Morton’s did

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MortonsMarch 11, 2014- By Steven E. Greer

The Morton’s steak house near the 9/11 Memorial invited me to stop by and do the usual photo review. We make genuine new articles, not infomercials, and are never censored or told what to write. We are not paid by the restaurants.

The New York Morton’s staff seemed nice enough, but then the corporate suits from Texas showed up by surprise. The local managers mentioned to the Landry’s people (owners of Morton’s) our pending visit, and received pushback.

The local media person then sent this ill-advised email,

Hi Steve,

Looking forward to your visit. As I mentioned we did have our senior management team in this afternoon and we did mention your anticipated visit. Due to corporate stipulations all photos will have to come from our corporate office.

The write up will need to be reviewed by our Corporate Brand Marketing Manager, Eunice Garcia. I have noted her information below. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you, Steve!

Best regards, Kelly Veasy, Sales and Marketing Manager“.

I called the local Morton’s, cancelled the visit, and wrote an email in classic SG fashion,

Go to hell. What planet do you live on where you dare tell a journalist that you will censor the photos and story?“.

This prompted their PR firm to write,

Hi Steve,

I received your contact information from Morton’s The Steakhouse World Trade Center location. I work for the PR agency for Landry’s, Inc. corporate and I wanted follow up and apologize for the confusion this afternoon.

As corporate policy, we always like to share our own in-house images for the restaurant since we already have  great, hi-res quality images ready to share with any media outlet. I certainly understand that you wish to take your own photos and not share your feature in advance. We are happy to work with you and hope you consider visiting Morton’s again in the future.

Moving forward, please feel free to reach out to me directly and I can be your main Morton’s contact.

Again, my apologies for the confusion.

Katelyn Roche | Account Executive, Dancie Perugini Ware Public Relations”.

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2 Responses to Restaurant tip of the Week: Don’t do what Morton’s did

  1. Resident Gateway says:

    Not sure why you wasted time going there? We have always had a good experience at The Capital Grille over the stock exchange. And they apparently have nothing to hide. We were given a tour of the kitchen by Chef Jason who answered questions we didn’t even think to ask and got a crash course education on aging steak. It was fascinating and made for a truly memorable experience. A bit pricy, but was well worth it. We walked by Morton’s on the way over there and could see the chintz inside and were immediately turned off. Not surprised they did what they did to you trying to run damage control. Pathetic

  2. Mike R. says:

    Morton’s doesn’t even have a butcher. All their steaks come to them pre-portioned in shrink wrap plastic. Total joke. I concur with Capital Grille. I take clients there during the week and never had a bad experience. Staff on point and I met Chef Jason there as well. He even lives in the neighborhood and took really good care of us. I recommend it. Morton’s is for tourists who don’t know any better and they will probably survive on that
    Thanks for listening
    Mike

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