'Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day' with the NRA and McCormick & Schmick's

Mel Krupin at the McCormick & Schmick's on K St. in DC is still leading the hospitality charge at the door of the power saloon/dining room. It made perfectly good sense for the Dawn Sweeney, president CEO of the National Restaurant Association to show up with her son and 17 other parents and children from their nearby offices. It's the annual "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work" program that goes beyond the average practice of “shadowing” an adult. The theme is “Making Choices for a Better World.”

Sweeney couldn't have made a better choice than to expose the kids to a working restaurant (with lunch included) and a tour from the master of "working the door." The 79-year-old Krupin has made the choice to keep on leading the way in power hospitality in the nation's capital. Before lunch today, he gave the kids a tour of the restaurant from the host desk with all the reservation/seating equipment to the lounge area (for when they are a little older) to the raw bar, dessert and salad station and then into the kitchen with a view of the prep and cooking lines.

Mr. Krupin did the obligatory "Washington waltz" at the end ... he handed out his business card. He told the kids that a call to him could get them a table when it might seem impossible ... and that's a good thing, but that it "would not be free." That's the business part of the show-biz of hospitality.

[In the foto Dawn Sweeney is on the left and Mel Krupin -- well you know who he is. All of the pictures are in the Foto Gallery ... just click here.]