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In May, The Boston Globe reviewed State Street Provisions, a new presence in Boston’s restaurant world and part of the Grafton Group, finding "not enough to like," as the headline of the article read. The review described a disturbance in the restaurant and took issue with management’s response.
A response came this week, in the form of a letter to the editor that owner and Grafton Group founder Patrick Lee penned after reaching out the Globe to address the night in question.
"Grafton Group is a 20-year veteran of Boston’s restaurant industry, and we owe our success to the unwaveringly earnest care and hospitality of our staff," the letter read, in part. It went on to detail how the staff elected to handle the situation, noting that the owners were in the restaurant at the time and observed no such disturbance as large as what was detailed in the Globe’s review.
"We realize that guests are constantly judging how we handle situations, and our goal is to be as responsible and respectful to both the guests directly involved in the situation as well as the uninformed parties looking on. Mistakes happen: an overly indulgent afternoon does not denote a problem guest and our efforts to handle such things delicately help to build the trust and respect that bolster our relationships within the community."
Ultimately, Lee wrote of the Globe’s article, "To print a hyperbolic four paragraph account of a so-called 'performance' and then blatantly call the management out without taking the time to see if the issues were being handled subtly denotes a grave underestimation of the complexity of the hospitality worker’s role."
Founded by Patrick Lee, his brother Peter, and their business partners Sean Kennedy and Gerry Sheerin, the Grafton Group includes Park Restaurant and Bar, Grafton Street Pub & Grill, Temple Bar, and Russell House Tavern, along with a forthcoming oyster bar, all of which are located in or near Harvard Square. State Street Provisions is the group's first foray into Boston proper, and by various measures, it has been well-received so far, with average ratings of four or more stars out of five on Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, and Foursquare.
