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| - A friend and I stopped in here on Thanksgiving- we had nowhere to be and didn't want to cook. The place wasn't busy at all. The first bad sign was right away- upon walking through the door, we were given the stink eye by the owner. Still, I asked, "Are you open for dinner?" The answer: "Yes, sure." Uh, OK...
So began a hellish dinner experience that we still can't believe. The owner (I assume) began hobnobbing loudly with a group who came in after us, whom he seemed to know. All the while, he was ignoring us. Not once did he crack a smile at us or ask us how anything was (it was all really crappy, thanks for asking!). I would've asked for one more glass of wine with my soggy, bland mushroom pie and bitter, wilted salad- had I been given the chance. Also adding to the "fine dining" experience: listening to the chef cuss up a storm in the kitchen while talking to the owner (giving him yet more opportunity to ignore us completely). At one point she looked right at me through the kitchen door and mouthed, "oops.". Yeah, oops. :/
We felt extremely unwelcome, and debated walking out more than once during the evening. But, wait- it gets worse:
About halfway through our dining ordeal, something began to burn in the kitchen. "OK, maybe a saute pan got burned a bit or something, and they'll crank the exhaust fan...". No such luck. About 10 minutes later we were enveloped by a haze of disgusting, burnt-smelling smoke. It got thicker, more nasty smelling, and harder to breathe. It actually became hard to see in there. We waited for a smoke alarm to go off- none did. The response from the owner? Amazingly, none. He ignored it completely. So, we sat there dumbfounded at the surrealness of it all. All these snobby-acting people chatting away with the owner while the building burns down around them- oh, how gauche it would be to evacuate.
Why didn't we leave? Well, didn't want to walk out on the check (which was cashed by the owner the next morning by 930AM). Both my friend and I had a cough for almost two days and had to have every single thing we were wearing dry cleaned to get the smell out. We still talk about that night, my dining partner and I, as if it were a nightmare we survived together. Never, ever again.
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