Does Johnny Chu know who's greeting his guests?
Took my wife and toddler tonight -- instantly given a dirty look when I asked if they had a high chair.
"You're looking at a 20-minute wait, at least" said the abrasive hostess. "Would you like to wait?"
"Yes, we've been looking forward to your restaurant opening. We live down the street! Why such a long wait? I see at least ten open tables..."
"Oh, it's part of our grand opening. All of these tables are reserved," said the hostess.
[thirty minutes elapse. DJ in the booth cranks techno mashups from his Macbook Pro. Japanese anime triple-projected on the white wall behind the bar]
I politely checked back in, and the hostess gave me attitude, again. In a demeaning tone..."another ten-to-fifteen minutes." I solicited for some basic empathy considering that we have a hungry, and increasingly ornery kid.
She repeats: "I said, another ten-to-fifteen minutes."
Half of the tables retain "reserved" status. We probably would have been finished with our meal by now. It was obvious we were not wanted. Especially after my daughter pitched her sippy cup on the concrete floor and got the stink-eye from the mixologist.
We drove to 19th ave and enjoyed a meal at one of our favorite, family-owned places -- Thai Lotus.
Johnny... WTF?