Well I will donate two 100 dollar gift certificates to replace the two that they lost in the mail and ill even walk them over to the sun and leave them with someone.......!

That's very kind of you. Unfortunately we have to pay for everything, and I didn't even want to suggest which restaurant because it might be a conflict of interest, so I let Anne decide.

Why is it that restaurant clientel are often made to feel funny using a gift certificate? After all, the restaurant had use of someone's money for a longer period of time then usual. Some restaurants will not give change or allow the remaining portion of the certificate to be used towards the tip. Payment is payment and whether the place receives $100 cash or a gift certificate that was paid for by $100 cash should not make any difference!!

Bravo! If asking nicely doesn't work, try public shaming.

Hegel would definitely disapprove

Woodberry Kitchen,

You're a favorite spot of mine, but I fear you're in trouble now. Coming from someone who knows what it's like to be on her bad side, all I can say is...

...may The Force be with you.

Alan-
I think it's basic math why some establishments don't want to give change - that's money they lose! Besides, what you don't want is someone to spend $20 on a $100 gift certificate and ask for the balance in cash. You want them to spend that certificate in-house. You get the full experience and they keep the revenue.

What I can agree with you on is limitations on usage, like not allowing tip to be included on the card. That's abusing the good-will between the card-holder and the restaurant.

That said, I'm sure the guys at Woodberry will do Anne and The Own right. My guess is that they're just swamped with work. I mean, I was there last week and their January weeknight looked like a December weekend at most restaurants!

I'm not going to say anything about Woodberry, everyone has a price and now you know what price will silence this gastro-slut.

In a more general view, consider this (with apologies to Gordon Gecko):

The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.

Greed is right.

Greed works.

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, foie gras -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.

And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save (insert restaurant name here), but that other restaurant called the USA.

(and ... scene!)

You've made my morning, Owl Meat! Start the day with a smile...

Paraphrase Ralph Kramden, "Owl Meat, you're the greatest!"

I understand that a restaurant might not want to return cash for any unused balance, but I also think that they need to be prepared to issue another certificate for the difference.

Additionally, there should be a pre-purchase discloser of all rules for use to the purchaser and these rules should be included on the certificate itself. I am sure that the purchaser would not like his guest to arrive at a restaurant to find all sorts of undisclosed limitations imposed on them.

As to the Woodberry Kitchen, there is no excuse for not having issued the certificate and at this point having it hand delivered via messenger to whatever location Owl desires. A dollars worth of gas and a thousand dollars worth of goodwill.

Regina-
No disagreement there. Especially in todays' world with computerized POS (point of sale) systems overseeing all transactions as well as the handling of gift cards, there is no reason a restaurant should not be able to maintain a balance on that gift card.

If you're talking about a place that's forcing you to forfeit the balance, that's another story completely and places like that need to be outed very harshly.

Any word from WK yet? Your public is gasping to know!

Nothing. The Owl has agreed to move on. Details to follow.

Sad hungry owl. Owl would cry but is undernourished and needs salt for tears. Anybody have a Triscuit?

No response yet? I thought the universe reads this blog, Elizabeth (or it seems like it when its about livers, crabs, pizza, diners and Italian food) =) How dare they ignore the power of Big Ace!

There is a space Beyond The Blog. Really. I had no idea. As I am now a second degree Mason I can't really go into it, but let me just say that a bus boy had to die and I now have a speedboat in Boca Raton named Loco Cabron. Stuff happens. Saddle up Rico, we're hunting Wabbits! ¿Está claro? Quien es mas macho now?

*hands the Owl a Trisquit", poor thing!

Woodberry Kitchen contacted me Saturday to get my address to process the refund!

Meanwhile, on Thursday I contacted Salt to purchase OMJ's new gift certificate, which I hope will arrive in the mail to him today. But perhaps I'm too trusting ... :-)

Oops, forgot I asked Salt to mail it to me instead of OMJ... and it arrived already!

Yay, Salt!

Awesome. I am working out hard to get ready to battle the vegan protestors. Their weak little arms are no match for my mighty talons. It will be a welcome change from my usual diet.

OM Gravy: best work on those linking skills.

'The URL contained a malformed video ID.' [from UTube]

(Though I admit to being jealous that you could get Greek characters into your responses.)

Just throw tofu at them.

Hmmm. Adding links is very messy work for me. The Greek characters was a snap. Just go to BabelFish, translate, copy and paste.

I am very happy to report that Salt mailed the gift certificate to me Thursday, it arrived in my office over the weekend and I mailed it to OMG on Monday. He received it yesterday.

Thank you Salt! And Baltimore city postal service.

I was in a bad mood this afternoon until I read your stream of comments above and got my first good laugh since the Hollywood writers' strike! Gastro-Slut?? Taking ourselves a bit too seriously, are we? For new readers, Woodberry Kitchen is fantastic. Great service. Very busy but worth the wait or necessity to reserve in advance and NOT in trouble at all. Ta ta for now, Force! :-)

Tobit

Tobit, what is your relationship to Woodberry Kitchen?

Hi Hal -- my relationship is just having been there three times since December. I go out a lot as part of my job and have had the good fortune of hitting a lot of Baltimore's exceptional (and even the unacknowledged but wonderful) dining experiences. I just find this menu refreshingly different, consistently (well, three times) good and enjoy the ambience of decor and diners alike.

How about you?

Actually, I know some of the staff at Woodberry and this blog came up in a conversation. Evidently there is some disagreement on the dates of conversation with Anne Burger.

Perhaps Anne should contact them again and clear up the details on this problem.

I haven't posted in while but this woodberry siutation is ridiculous. A business that responds to a problem passively via a third party (and a custommer at that!) a month later and the answer is "We dispute some of the dates of your grievance." Jeez. NOt the basic facts. And YOU the customer should contact us so that we can set you straight. We would call but we are far too important and busy with more important matters and people.

As for "Tobit" his words have the appearance of a master of eloquence and articulation or the well-groomed third draft of a PR flack. Tobit is a hilarious nom de plume for a PR person because in mathematics it is a discrete function, which I suppose would make him a discrete functionary. Bravo! So Tobit, if you are indeed so fortunate to eat in the best restaurants for business in the Baltimore area, I dare you to name FIVE restaurants that are equal to and at least one that is better in some way than Woodbery Kitchen, which has only been open a short time. AND make one genuine criticism of Woodbery, and not something like they give until it hurts. I have a bet with my wife that you can't do it. Prove me wrong. I have a hard time believing in the authenticity of someone who enjoys the ambience of "diners"!

Waiting to hear about Jerky/Gravy's Salt experience.

After catching up on other posts, I just realized that the chef at the top is NOT from Woodberry Kitchen, he is chef Joshau Hill from Night of the Cookers. Rare and well done, chef, but we all thought you were an apologist from Woodberry. I will be seeing you soon there (at Cookers) I hope. I also got Anne Burger confused with the real restaurant critic, because, well, burger, ahhhh (Homer Simpson-like noise).

Thanks for coming to my defense, Voodoo Pork!

This would probably be a good time to mention that I haven't received my $100 credit from WK yet. Nor have they attempted to contact me again, although I gather from Jay C.'s post that they are aware of the issue.

This whole saga is a little hard to believe. Ms. Burger, do you even exist or is this an elaborate hoax? If I went to Woodberry Ktchen would it be just an abandoned haunted amusemnt park? Customers bringing second hand scolding to another customer? JImminy Cricket!

OK, here's an update. When I contacted WK today and asked about the refund, I was told that the check was cut and mailed on February 4. I checked with our office secretary (who'd just returned from vacation), and indeed, a check had arrived.

However, because it was just addressed to "baltimoresun.com" with no contact name, she didn't know who it was for. I don't get a lot of checks mailed to me here, but you all are welcome to start a new trend if you find my D@L posts exceptionally entertaining.

Gratefully retiring a long, frustrating and not especially pleasant chapter of my marketing career... Anne B.

My dear Voo, You're doing it again! Making me laugh after an otherwise lackluster day! Since choices in restaurants and the food they serve tend to be rather subjective, there's no reason you should agree (and I'm waiting to hear!) with my favorites of the moment. Why so upset that WK is among them??? In the interest of your bet, do tell your wife that if she were me, she would enjoy Salt, Pazza Luna, The Wine Market, Pazo's, and Petit Louis. Advice for Woodberry? Hold a table or two for walk-ins. Re "diners," I guess I am still reeling from that "hoity toity" comment. Cheers! (PS - what did you bet?)

Voodoo Pork-
Just an FYI - Woodberry WAS NOT responding "passively" through me. My posting here was strictly through my own accord.

The conversation was ongoing as I joined the group and went along the lines of: "there was a post on Dining@Large about a gift certificate and things were being taken care of."

Evidently, the universe does not read this blog.

If we consider the dates given above and consider that this conversation I had been privy to was two weeks ago, I'd say they handled it within a reasonable timeframe.

Is Salt the place that has fries cooked in duck fat??

Tobit, I bet custody of the kids. Although I'm going to argue to the judge that "Woodberry kitchen is too popular" isn't a genuine criticsim. Maybe you could represent me in court? I need some good press.

My wife instigated the bet (and not for our kids, that's a joke), she thinks she knows you from Goodman, Bessemann, and Mandelbaum. Although she said technically I win, since you couldn't recommend any restaurant as better than WK on any aspect and your criticism was a backhanded compliment, she said I lose because I'm starting fights on teh internet again and nobody cares so don't forget about Bradley's soccer practice and ... yeah I lose.

Is Salt the place that has fries cooked in duck fat??

Yes.

I see by the tenor of Voodoo Pork's postings exactly why restauranteurs and chefs have such disdain for the blogosphere.

Mario Batali wrote some concise words on this very topic - much of which I originally disagreed with.

This is a very interesting subject (the disdain, I mean) that deserves an original post of its own.

Disdain. Hmm.... My wife hates when I email her because she says that I am too abrupt. Sorry blogosphere (and Amanda). A huge problem with this kind of communicatin is that it doesn't convey tone or tenor accurately. In person, my body language, eye contact and verbal cadence and tone would give away teh fact that I'm just playing around and have no animus at all. My pet peeve is the stealth restauranteur blogger and reviewer. Am I paranoid, maybe, but some "customer" reviews are so blatantly phony as to pollute the whole enterprise. There are always games being played on the "blogosphere" by people with financial motives. Always. Some are just better than others. I thought "Tobit" was a a clever one. If I'm right he will NEVER break cover. My curiosity was prompted by Hal Laurent's comment -- he seemed to have suspicions and he seems like a pretty knowledgeable fellow. And thus I retire having said too much already in the blathersphere. 8) :) !) :(|)

Please don't retire. Not to mention the fact that you have the best user name, rivaled only by Owl Meat.

Please, Voodoo, do not retire. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts and we can always use new blood here. Remember, none of the comments here are personal, except when we are discussing crab cakes, pizza, burgers, fois gras, and places to eat same.

I was a little inspired by Owl Meat's interesting if manic self-naming. He sounds like a nut, but in a good way. :) MIne is from a Kids in the Hall reference to overly salty ham. No devilry involved. :(|) = monkeyshines

My curiosity was prompted by Hal Laurent's comment ... he seems like a pretty knowledgeable fellow.

My plan for world domination is working! :-)

I loved that episode of Kids in the Hall! It opens up w/ Bruce McCullough downing a pitcher full of water, then looks to his wife and says...."I said I wanted ham woman, not voodoo pork!"

VooDoo, you owe me a martini at the restaurant of your choice! :-)

I'm not a PR flack, a financial investor in Woodberry Kitchen or any other restaurant or a "blatantly phony" blogger. In point of fact, this is my first experience in this particular area of cyber-communication (and at this point, I'm reconsidering the wisdom of having written anything!) It's okay for someone to refer to WK as Gastro Slut but not okay for me to stick up for it?! Let's all mellow out. How nice that Baltimore has so many restaurants from which to choose. It wasn't always that way. Cheers to all.

I believe Owl Meat was referring to himself as the gastro-slut. He was talking about wanting his WK gift certificate anyway. Here's his comment if you don't feel like scrolling back up:

"I'm not going to say anything about Woodberry, everyone has a price and now you know what price will silence this gastro-slut."

Hey, Hal - you never told me what you thought of Woodberry Kitchen, the ostensible reason we are writing all this back and forth.

Despite all the speculation, I'm just a plain old girl from Ruxton who goes out to dinner way too often and has the waistline to prove it. No subterfuge. Here's to your continuing World Domination!! I'm all for it! :-)

Hey, Hal - you never told me what you thought of Woodberry Kitchen

Never been there.

Spin spin spin. See, never breaks cover. You are certainly not a blatant anything and Amanda contends that you are the "Tobit" who played in the racquetball tournament sponsored by GB&M last spring. Or maybe YOU are OMG. Oh my head spins. "The greatest lie the devil ever told was convincing the world he doesn't exist." We finally meet ... Keyser Soze.
{|8(|) Surprised King Monkey Shines

All very amusing. But I think "Tobit" is pulling your collective legs. The idea about the statistcs method is overly clever. The Book of Tobit is considered apocryphal by all except Catholic and Orthodox Christians. And apocryphal is a fancy way of saying that it is considered an inspired fiction.

HOO MAMA!! This is quite a party. I have no opinion about Tobit--but please keep the fun going.

I do have an opinion about Woodberry Kitchen--though I admit to only one visit. The space is very cool; the food was...just okay. A 30 something couple next to us was just finishing their mains, so I asked how the food was. They said that it was okay, and that they appreciate the effort for organic, local, etc., but that they had spent time in Berkeley so there was no comparison. I amen-ed the wonderfulness of the food in the Bay Area. "It's no Chez Panisse," said the wife, ever so softly. Double amen to the hallowed CP. And that's what I was hoping for here in Bmore. Yes, we don't have the growing season that they have, but still....

At the end of the meal, my companion and I agreed that the food was kind of normal/good but not really special and that we'd try it again but maybe go for the small plates.

And something that got the evening off on a rough note: I was excited to see that they offer a Sazerac on their featured cocktails list, so I ordered one. It arrived in a huge glass, with ice. Wrong. It also reeked of Pernod, which was a surprise too. But I took a sip hoping for the best. It was vile stuff. My guess is that it was about 4 oz. of rye and an equal amount of Pernod dumped over the ice. A Sazerac is a sublime thing (out of New Orleans!) and in most recipes only calls for the Pernod or Herbsaint (if you can get it) to be swished around in the glass and then out. The waiter said the bartender was new and that he would have him re-mix it. No thanks. I ordered a Manhattan thinking that would be safe. Nope. It was another 8oz. pour that seemed to be only bourbon with a cherry in it. I'm fond of bourbon, but I wasn't interested in getting hammered before dinner, so I sipped a little and then let it sit. The bottle of wine we had was lovely, and we both loved our desserts. I hope they'll try to train their bartenders better, and I'm hoping that the food will start to live up to the concept and the hype.

Wow, I've had the exact opposite experience than chez G w/the bartenders at WK.

I love a good Manhattan in the winter, but I prefer it with rye vs. bourbon. WK has at least 2 kinds of rye whiskey (many bars have none), and every Manhattan I've had there has been sublime.

See, I'm not a hater :-)

Praise God! Peace at last!

Anne, by any chance are you married to Mr. Alonzoville - Jim Burger? My friend Abby Lattes says such nice things about him (and his wife!) If so, you and I were at the Hartloves' wedding together. Small world, maybe???!

Tobit, it is not nice to fool with Mother Elizabeth!

Thank you Regina. Don't take the bait AnneB, you have a nice breakfast rye Manhattan and chill. I was shocked to find that the only other sign of the existence of Tobit posting anywhere ever is on Chowhound where he defends and praises the valet parking policy of ... I wonder what restaurant? Hmmm, .... He/She goes to so many because s(he) ir just a self-effacing zaftig Ruxton girl or a business dude with a massive expense account or maybe a magical elf.

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/455806

The most transparent part of that post is that he praises Woodberry for having valet parking because it's one of his "top criteria" for one of his "top dining experiences". Wow, there ARE other good restaurants in Baltimore but without valet like WK, they just don't cut it. So valet goes from being a criticism of WK to an absolute godsend. The he ham-handedly slags on OMG's replacement restaurant Salt for not having valet. What a coincidence. WK, hire a new PR guy, because he's been served.

For me, Woodberry Kitchen will always be remembered as the first place I sent food back to the kitchen. And that's coming from a native Minnesotan. Anyone who listens to Garrison Keilor knows that we Minnesotans are an unflinchingly polite and stoic bunch, who can stomach Lutefisk (cod soaked in soda lye, for the uninitiated) with a smile on their faces, and a "thank you" at the ready for their host or hostess. I have eaten at Woodberry twice, now, and both times were a disappointment. The first time was dinner with friends, when I ordered the salmon special. The waiter informed me there was only one left, and I was the lucky recipient. Unfortunately, it was an end cut, and despite my request that it be served medium rare, it came cooked to within an inch of its life. It was a lousy cut, and probably never should have been served. I've had canned salmon with more flavor. I resolved to choke it down, but my dining partners convinced me to send it back, which I did in exchange for the Chesapeake seafood stew -- also a bit over-cooked, resulting in a rather rubbery assortment of aquatic fare. Still, I went back with a large group of friends (about 13 of us) for a birthday celebration last weekend. Once again, I went for fish -- this time a rockfish special. Quite a few of us ordered that, or the halibut. Our waiter returned 10 minutes later to tell us that, sorry, the rockfish was gone, as was the halibut. It's not an exaggeration to say that more than half of us had to reorder. What remained were mostly red meat selections, which were decent, but disappointing when what one really wants is a nice fish entree. It strikes me that from my two experiences -- and conversations with others who had similar complaints -- that this is a restaurant that seems to run out of things a lot. I can appreciate that a good chef wants fresh ingredients, and puts together a menu based on what's available and fresh. And maybe that sometimes means you run short of popular items. But it shouldn't be a habit to disappoint your customers by failing to deliver.
I hope they get it together soon, because they do execute well on some of their appetizers (oysters on the half-shell among the best I've ever had), and certain other items. Still, I don't think I'll return for some time.