I live in the neighborhood of the Newton--and have anxiously awaited the opening of all the components. Had dinner with a friend last night and we did all the recommended dishes: fried green tomatoes, watermelon salad, and the duck and coconut cake for dessert. I thought all the food was pretty good. I was a little disappointed about not being able to taste/find the sausage that was in the rice that came with the duck--it would have added a nice little spice. The coconut cake was terrific and a nice ending to the meal.
The reason for the three are things with a little work could be fixed:
1. The restaurant is noisy--I think there is a trend that somehow the noise is supposed to be an indicator of coolness--it is a decision that restaurants have to make--it is loud but wasn't intolerable.
2. The service was just off--sometimes very attentive and sometimes a desert. If you are going to suggest splitting a dish that has rice--then by all means bring a spoon out so one doesn't have to transfer the rice from one plate to another grain by grain with a knife and a fork--Obviously we would have asked for a spoon had the waiter not been in the desert mode at the time.
3. Again if people are splitting plates--have the good sense to bring out clean small plates between courses--they were not offered and we could not ask because again we were in the waiter desert at the moment we needed them.
4. In my mind, unless specifically requested, an appetizer and a salad are two different courses and should be served separately so there is time to enjoy them.
5. We had a little bit of the pimento spread left over from the tomatoes and asked from some bread. What we got was something that was spongy and white on the inside and had barely a crust on the outside--I would certainly not call it bread. A restaurant at this level has no excuse for serving yucky bread--if you are going to serve it should be able to stand on its own as well as being a complement to whatever it is going with. A great tasty rye would have been wonderful for the left over pimento or even a robust baguette, but certainly not what we got.
Southern Rail--I really want you to get to your act together --you are such a welcome addition to the neighborhood--It won't take much--but you have to start paying attention to the details. Our little corner of the world is pretty competitive--I can just as easily walk east or west as walk south--Please step up your game so I want to head south on a regular basis.