El Gaucho Tacoma reopens tonight, and there will still be fire tableside

With its 26-foot ceilings and subterranean speakeasy atmosphere, El Gaucho was set to reopen for in-house dining Tuesday night, replete with tableside preparations and a live pianist.

The menu has lost some dishes, but none of the favorites, said CEO Chad Mackay. The “traditional Gaucho dinner” — Wicked Shrimp, fried Dungeness crab cakes, a Caesar and Chateaubriand prepared tableside, and bananas Foster — remains.

“We still got a party going on,” he said. Servers still will flambe the delectable Niman Ranch steaks tableside, but they will stand more than six feet away rather than four to five.

“I call it, we’re socially connecting while physically distancing,” he said. “I cannot stand that term, social distancing. We can still have fun; we can still be playful.”

All staff will wear masks, so the action of the open kitchen will feel a tad different. Servers will limit contact with their tables, whereas before the restaurant practiced swarm service — that flurry of food’s-here excitement when several runners deliver each guest’s plate simultaneously. In a departure from El Gaucho’s typical water service, servers will determine if guests want their glasses refilled throughout the meal, or if they prefer the bottle be left for self-service.

For many of Fire & Vine Hospitality’s veteran workers, these changes will mean unlearning years’ worth of training that heralded managing minutiae: folding the napkin and pushing in the chair of a guest who headed to the bathroom, noticing the glimmer of an eye darting around for a missing side of béarnaise .

“There are some habits that we have that are super awesome habits in hospitality that we’re just gonna have to fight,” said Mackay. “Just reading tables — servers are awesome at it, but we may have to do a little more if people feel nervous.”

Such as topping off a glass of wine.

“We just don’t know how the typical person is gonna be,” he told The News Tribune in a phone call in early June, shortly before Pierce County was approved to enter Phase 2 of the state’s Safe Start recovery plan.

The group’s three Walla Walla restaurants opened in May, and El Gaucho Portland and Bellevue will open June 16. The Seattle steakhouse is in the midst of moving to the Union Stables, while a sixth El Gaucho should open in Vancouver, Wash., later this year.

In the meantime, El Gaucho has been selling raw steaks and house seasonings for home-cooking, from a two-pack of filet mignons to a “Surviving on Steak” master pack of Niman Ranch filets, ribeye, Tomahawks, Wagyu and burger patties. Three customers indulged in the latter, according to the company.

RETHINKING HOSPITALITY

Three months is a long time to be out of the kitchen and off the floor.

“It’s like opening a new restaurant with senior staff,” said Mackay of the opening-night jitters. “They’re gonna be a little rusty.”

In part to ensure the El Gaucho experience continues with little change from the guest’s perspective, the Tacoma restaurant will require reservations to start. Walk-ins are welcome, but instead of being seated right away, they will be asked to scan a QR code to join a wait list.

Mackay and his team studied restaurants in other cities that already have reopened, including Houston, which initially restricted in-house seating to 25 percent capacity. The busy ones offered reservations or an efficient (and now digital, through text messages to the customer’s phone) wait list.

“They want to know that you’re in control,” he said, though he stressed that walk-ins “are like a little surprise gift from heaven” and encouraged customers to take advantage of the wait list option for last-minute outings.

Check presentation will look different, too. Guests can scan a QR code on the paper receipt, dropped on the table in a rocks glass — machine washable, unlike the ubiquitous vinyl books — to pay online, without ever handing off a credit card.

There also will be branded hand sanitizer on every table starting June 18, which guests are welcome to take home. Throughout service, one staff member will sanitize high-touch surfaces every half hour.

Based on an internal survey of more than 1,300 loyal customers in 10 metropolitan areas, Fire & Vine expects to see about half of them within the first three months of reopening. The primary concern seems to be space, which Mackay said is achievable in their large-footprint, high-ceiling spaces with excellent exhaust systems.

Perhaps they won’t return as often, but he continues to believe in the power of a nice night out.

“What I do know is that from the time my dad has run restaurants — I grew up in them — there has never been a time when people did not want to celebrate life’s moments, whether it’s business or whether it’s pleasure. And you just don’t do that at any run-of-the-mill kind of place. There is still this element of needing connection. Doing that over a beautiful piece of fish, a steak, a bottle of wine — whatever that is — and taking that moment to celebrate, that has never gone out of style.”

El Gaucho

▪ 2119 Pacific Ave., Tacoma, 253-272-1510, elgaucho.com

▪ Hours: Dinner only starting June 9; Tuesday to Saturday, 4-9 p.m. (weekends until 10 p.m.)

▪ Details: Reservations available online and by phone; walk-ins still welcome through wait list at the door

▪ Review the restaurant’s Safe Dining Protocols

This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 2:10 PM.