How to PX

An upcoming Substack Live with Brooks Reitz

I’ve written before about the fry platter, the only real dish I got on the menu during my time as a line cook. It was an absurd, if-you-know-you-know move. About once a week when we’d get a PX or PPX call in the kitchen — code for a VIP or a very VIP diner — we’d halt standard service, drop two orders of fries and then construct a dipfest using every sauce in house. Black garlic ranch, chicken gravy, nori mayo, chili oil, brown butter béarnaise — eventually we’d find a way to get 12 ramekins of goodies on there.

It was a delightful surprise, and an objectively horrible way to start a long dinner. It’s tough to go through the three courses of fried snacks, crudos, salads and entrees you already ordered after you kicked things off with the richest carbs and fats in-house. Once the initial delight and IG flicks dissipated, the PX customers would politely apologize to their waiters, saying they simply couldn’t finish their steaks and they’d need to skip dessert.

I did have one other PX trick, though. The menu featured a relatively simple shrimp cocktail, served with four pieces in a small bowl filled to the top with ice, a dipper of michelada cocktail sauce and a lime wedge. If someone special was in the dining room, I’d scoop the ice as high as it could go in that tiny bowl, creating a towering Cinerama Dome to feature one or two perfect pieces of shrimp. The servers hated it. A quarter of the time, a shrimp would wobble off its precarious position and hit the floor before reaching the diners. But it was fun and it made people feel taken care of with the smallest sense of luxury, without cratering the rest of their meal.

Getting hooked up at a restaurant is a good feeling. Whether you’re a regular, a friend or an investor, having that back-and-forth with the staff and seeing a few surprises hit the table enhances the experience. There are even apps out there now to help facilitate this level of status for the uninitiated, like

Blackbird Labs, Inc.

and

The Places Review

. But what’s the right hook up? What actually delights PX customers, and what’s more pure indulgence for the front- and back-of-house team?

I’ve been chatting about this back and forth with

Brooks Reitz

, an excellent restaurateur behind the must-read

A Small and Simple Thing

. He’s got plenty of experience on the giving and receiving end of PX dining. We’re gonna dive into all of this in a Substack Live conversation on Wednesday, Aug. 13 at 4:30pm ET / 1:30pm PT. I’ll post the recording for anyone who can’t make it.

Drop your questions or hot takes in the comments if you’ve got em.