The Situation

A charity gala for 200 guests, confirmed 48 hours before service. Their contracted agency had collapsed. The catering director called us at 11 pm on a Wednesday.

The Response

By Thursday morning we had 14 candidates reviewed and briefed. By Friday evening, twelve trained servers — six with silver-service credentials — were on the floor at The Alderton, each having completed a 90-minute venue walkthrough that afternoon. The client's head sommelier described the team as 'indistinguishable from our regulars.'

The Situation

Maison Verlaine had lost four senior servers in a single month — two to a competitor opening, one to illness, one to relocation. Their two-star reputation depended on floor consistency the GM described as 'a choreography, not a service.'

The Response

We spent three days embedded in the dining room before placing a single candidate. We mapped the cover sequence, the wine programme depth, the preferred greeting cadence. Then we sourced five permanent placements, each with fine-dining pedigree: two from Michelin-listed London rooms, one from a three-star in Lyon, two from domestic programmes with advanced sommelier training. All five remain with Maison Verlaine today.

The Situation

A global financial firm's ten-event summer series required servers fluent in both English and French, capable of managing cocktail receptions for 120 international guests where language was a genuine operational requirement, not a preference.

The Response

We placed a core team of eight bilingual servers across all ten events — maintaining consistency of face across the series so guests built familiarity. Each server was briefed on the firm's client profile and the specific wine and spirits programme for each event. Not one complaint. Not one late arrival. The series ran May through August across four London venues.