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| - A city restaurant without a website - how quaint! I don't think I would have ever discovered it without Yelp. I first sought it out based on reviews a few years ago and I remember thoroughly enjoying a salad on the patio on a fine summer's day. Then, earlier this spring my partner and I stopped by to read the menu - my partner noted the sorta high prices and I noted the total lack of vegan options. Someone from inside popped out to let us know that they weren't yet open for dinner (it was b/w lunch and dinner time) and asked if we'd like to make a reservation for later, all in a very kind and inviting manner. I mentioned that I was hoping to find something vegan and she assured me that the chef could make something. We passed that time (due to cheap partner), but I knew I would return for some al fresco joy, and earlier this week, I did. I called ahead to make a reservation and to make sure they were really ok with making a vegan entree. When we arrived, the vegan thing was acknowledged by our server and we were seated in the best spot on the patio, next to the cute and oddly gregarious turtles! We were handed some well used paper menus and our cheap sparkling wines were properly chilled/corked/stored. From then on, things got awkward. My dining companion, who kept baby talking to the turtles throughout the meal and even feeding them, coerced me into drinking her recently deceased grandmother's favorite cheap sparkling wine (Asti) and we made a toast to this woman I never had the pleasure of meeting. And we were left with crusty menus that which had no apparent vegan selections and waited for the server to, um, maybe, uh mention what they could do. Instead she came to take our order. And I had to explain that since nothing is really vegan on the menu, I needed her to describe what could be made vegan. Uhhhh, the mushroom consomme annnnd a salad...ummm...let me go ask the chef. The chef had an excellent answer, it is a mystery to me as to why he was not consulted earlier. I did try the mushroom consomme to start, which was alright (I would not order it again), and ordered the chef's special with was described as a zucchini stuffed with spiced cous cous. Sounded boring. But as presented, it had a lot going on, I almost feared it had too much going on - tomato sauce, capers, walnuts, basil, golden raisins, cinnamon, bread crumbs...whoa! Was it going to be as clumsy as our service? No! It was well composed and very satisfying to my palate which was maybe only slightly deteriorated from drinking Asti. The chef also sent out some complimentary small bites before our entrees, I imagine because the special dish was expected to take longer than a usual menu item, though it didn't seem like an especially long wait. Awesome gesture, as it proved someone was on their toes. At the end of the meal we had our second most painful conversation with the server, regarding coffee. It should have been a pretty simple exchange, really. I ordered espresso and my friend asked if the coffee was french pressed. Instead of just saying "no," we got some bumbling convoluted answer that left us confused - I was able to gather that no, it was not french press coffee and that either the coffee or espresso (or both?) were from some sort of pod - like maybe a machine that sort of presses a pod...My friend, bewildered, just ordered an espresso, but I had to ask, soooo is the espresso from a pod thingy? Yep...ok, I am sorry but I don't want the espresso, and I joked about drawing the line at imitation "champagne." No fun. I tried to be really kind and easy going to make up for being such a damn snob, an inconvenience at every turn, for trying to understand what was being offered. As I watched our server describe the specials to an arriving table, counting the two of them on her fingers as if she was twisting each special off of a finger and squeezing it into her palm, I felt sorry for those others who came to endure her writhing translations. As much as I appreciated my special dish, and service aside, I probably would not put them through the trouble of having me dine again. I don't believe the menu changes very often, definitely not every day as the name suggests, as it didn't seem particularly seasonal (for example, one of their two desserts featured pumpkin which, even though it's none of my business, I thought was weird for late June), nor much, if at all, different from my previous visits, and certainly not freshly printed.
Nonplussed?
+ Cash only (+ as in bring it)
+ Very pleasant patio for those rare perfect days
+ ^ With friendly turtles, until turtle soup season (maybe next year)
+ BYOB
+ Capable and accommodating kitchen to make up for non-communicative server
= Worth trying, especially if you don't have dietary restrictions, you have expendable cash, it's a nice day to spend with turtles and you want to provide your own Asti.
Hrm, the nonplussed point system might be my new method of expressing cynical optimism.
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