A dreaded “reply all” on an email featuring hundreds of people is usually enough to leave you with an upset stomach. But one customer’s message back to Seattle fine dining restaurant Canlis and more than 300 fellow patrons is turning into a great dinner story.
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Matthew Kim, a research scientist at the University of Washington, offered up the tasty tale in a Twitter thread, in which he first shared an email he and others received from Canlis. The fancy restaurant overlooking Lake Union in Seattle has been serving up delivery fare as a way to feed more people and keep its employees working during the coronavirus outbreak. For a short time, the restaurant even offered bagels and burgers as takeout options from its parking lot.
Canlis was informing people of some details around its “Family Meal” delivery, including the need to preheat an oven at home to 325 degrees. Kim said the email was sent without a bcc, and, of course, someone replied all.
That person was not happy about the need to reheat a meal that cost $125 per person — something the person “couldn’t imagine being delivered anything other than steaming hot.”
Earlier this afternoon, I got this email from @canlis about our meal delivery order. 1/13 pic.twitter.com/VFxh2x5fs3
— Matthew Kim (@MatthewHKim) April 4, 2020
The email was accidentally sent to everyone (300+ customers) without a bcc. Yes, you guessed it, someone replied all: ?♂️ 2/13 pic.twitter.com/g0RoWJITsa
— Matthew Kim (@MatthewHKim) April 4, 2020
The boxed home meals are in line with the fine-dining fare people can expect when they eat in at Canlis: two whole crabs, boiled potatoes and fennel, two rolls, salad, drawn butter, aioli, a bottle of Prosecco and dessert.
Kim was bracing for the annoyed and inevitable “remove me from your list” replies, but what happened next turned into another example of how being sheltered in place during a pandemic can turn some people into the best neighbors.
At this point, I was bracing for the inevitable "please remove me from your mailing list" message. But instead: 5/13 pic.twitter.com/AuMyP3PEYx
— Matthew Kim (@MatthewHKim) April 4, 2020
Then… This happened 6/13 pic.twitter.com/9FWAqVjovS
— Matthew Kim (@MatthewHKim) April 4, 2020
Kim’s Twitter thread showed numerous donations to Feeding America from people on the email chain reaching more than $2,300.
He said he was “absolutely amazed” that a misguided reply all response generated thousands of dollars in donations to a worthy cause.
Mark Canlis, one of the owners of the family restaurant, jumped in and took responsibility for Canlis for sending an email without a proper bcc. And then they donated $500.
Even the offending email sender happily donated $250 and said “everyone enjoy your dinners tonight.”
Brian Canlis said on Saturday that the total had reached almost $10,000.
“Amazed and joyful at all of it,” he tweeted.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Canlis’ has stopped doing breakfast and lunch pickup service in its Aurora Avenue parking lot.
