| rev:text
| - Cafe Tranquilo has tranquilo'd a little too much. No, not a little... a lot too much.
And that's bad.
At the tail-end of January 2015, Gallo Blanco chef/owner, Doug Robson, pulled the plug on his locally-loved restaurant, located on the first floor of the Clarendon Hotel. He'd already transitioned to his v2.0 concept on 7th St, just north of Camelback, called Otro (meaning "other" or "another one" in Spanish) and nearly overnight, surprised the pants off the hotel's owner/operator, Ben Bethel.
Well, since then, some of the staff stayed, some tables got spaced out, the overall feel of the space was updated... but the most important thing left: thoughtful, complex, layered flavor.
We tried the new cafe last night with open minds and eager palates. Immediately, 3 things let me know the troubled local reviews may have painted an accurate picture:
1) There were 2 tables in the entire dining room at 7:30 pm. Gallo Blanco never had only 2 tables at 7:30 pm!
2) With a wide-open room, we still were placed at a small 2-top, in the corner. It's nit-picky and also my own personal notion, but if the room's nearly vacant, seat us at a larger table... more room for comfort, for sharing dishes and for breathing in the ambiance. I almost said something, but I wanted to experience Cafe Tranquilo the way they were going to naturally serve us the experience. I feel it's a bad habit to put parties of two in the most Tetris'd 2-top when there's clearly no rush happening and no further parties with reservations. In other words, make it nice for the people who ARE there, rather than saving so many tables for people who may (?) come.
3) Despite only 2 other tables in the entire main dining room, we sat w/o service for about 10-minutes. I'll admit, when a server finally did greet us, he was very cordial and apologized for the wait.
If you read the good reviews about this place, the majority seem to be from out-of-town hotel guests. Well, dig deeper and see what the locals have to say. They're the ones who knew what used to be... and they're grieving. Cafe Tranquilo feels like a cheap made-in-China knockoff of Gallo Blanco. The menu reads nicely enough, but as the food starts to arrive, you'll know you messed up.
We experienced poor flavor profiles, uninspired copy-cat dishes, bad decisions for techniques & ingredients and found the food as lacking as the service.
If you want mediocrity in a hotel lobby restaurant, then get here asap.
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