Now, at company dinners as Christmas approaches, it’s happening again at corporate dinners: hordes of people tamper with restaurants, making them look like a clothes market and smell like wet dogs. The reason: The guests use the backrests as coat racks for their damp jackets and coats.
This is a bad habit that has become increasingly common in our country in recent years. When entering the cozy dining room, aprons that provide protection from the outside air should be kept in the cloakroom! The term “wardrobe” has been known in German since the 16th century, and this type of clothing storage has been common here since the 17th century.
Mandatory cloakroom for restaurants!
There is still a cloakroom requirement for security and cleaning reasons, which was common in the entrance area of theaters and museums for a fee initially. It should be promoted for restaurants too! To the benefit of the guest, because a wardrobe serves to ensure the longevity of the garment: it is better to store it on a hanger than a backrest, which can tear the lining and crumple the protruding collar while sitting.
And if by the end of the evening the good piece doesn’t look shriveled like it came out of a cow’s mouth, fondue often smells like it came from a pigsty, as it’s spread right next to pungent dishes like french fries. or fillet grills.
The situation is even worse when the splattered oil or wine falls on the covered backrest – the hosts are happy that their chair is protected. Extremely long jackets and coats that go down to the floor with their legs also wipe the floor. This is why some guests use an empty seat to put on their long outer garments. But then it looks like you’re at a discount bargain shop in a cheap clothing store, and you’re as rude as the bag on the next available seat on public transport.
Landlord’s Legal Obligation
“The Mini Jagge has an inside pocket / wherever there’s a train,” the Swiss band Dabu Fantastic says in one of their hits. In fact, especially men prefer to put their smartphones, wallets and keys in their jackets and therefore take them to the table. Because while women have always had fashionable handbags for this purpose, until recently, only deterrent Horst Schlemmer men’s bags remained in the hands of men. But now there are beautifully designed small format shoulder bags for personal effects.
But even if valuables are no longer in the interior pockets, many fear that branded jackets or expensive winter coats may be lost in the cloakroom through casual mess or deliberate theft. Also, if it says “we are not responsible for the cloakroom”, it is not conducive to trust building. It immediately looks like the landlord could spill tomato sauce on clothes with impunity.
According to Article 100 of the Swiss Code of Obligations (OR), the custodian may be exempt from liability if he has not charged any fees for the guardianship. However, he cannot escape responsibility completely. Because section 472 of the OR states that the landlord enters into an escrow contract with the receipt of a personal item: This obliges the custodian to receive the item entrusted to him and keep it safe.
“This is because of the corona pandemic”
This goes to the heart of the French word wardrobe: it is an imperative combination of the words “gardener” to protect, guard, watch, and “robe” meaning mantle and robe. It’s a commitment that fewer and fewer restaurateurs are willing to make. Especially in the case of the current tense staff, they prefer to abandon the wardrobe altogether, which increases the tendency for the chair to be abused.
“In fact, it can be observed that guests are increasingly taking their wardrobes to the table,” says Daniel Borner, 58, Director of Gastrosuisse. According to him, this is not due to a lack of willpower of the hosts. The reason for this is the corona epidemic,” he says. “As part of their conservation concept, the federal government mandated that cloakrooms be closed and cloakroom service was not allowed.”
Therefore, Gastrosuisse assumes that the situation will change again, against the background of which professional cloakroom service can still be experienced in luxury establishments. Or as Swiss stylist Jeroen van Rooijen (52) once said: “A restaurant that doesn’t offer this service doesn’t deserve to be called an inn.”