Alizee, Talara and Hell Point Seafood in the paper today
I'm a little grumpy because I got an e-mail from a reader complaining about my "review" of Alizee in today's paper.
He disagreed with my "rhapsody" about the new restaurant. Apparently he wanted an inexpensive neighborhood place in the Colonnade space (I can see his point), and what he got was a boutique bistro. He ended with this pleasant sentence:
Will it last a year? A disappointment, as was your review.
I'm afraid I got on my high horse when I wrote him back (it was the end of a long day), saying that my Table Talk column isn't a review, I haven't been to Alizee yet, and he's welcome to tell me how disappointed he is in my review when I've actually eaten a meal there and written a review. ...
Anyway, if you want to read the offending Table Talk item, here it is, along with news about the soon-to-be-opening Talara in Harbor East and Hell Point Seafood in Annapolis.
I also thought you might be amused by what I had to do to the Mardi Gras Top 10, so here it is with selected comments.
(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)
Comments
I thought you made the place sound pretty nice, for what my opinion is worth, EL. I sure wouldn't be throwing up my hands and saying "there goes the neighborhood" if you reported a restaurant near me, and said those things. And finally, quite right - you didn't review it at all, just reported on what you knew of it.
BTW. Egyption Pizza in the Valley Village shopping center appears to be gone - at least from a fast moving car driving by. The sign is down and it looked dark in there.
Thanks. The sad thing is I could probably really could have a feature called Closing of the Day. EL
Posted by: Joyce W. | March 5, 2009 5:10 AM
Nothing wrong with gently correcting the misconceptions of a reader.
Erm...not that I'd know anything about that technique.
Posted by: Lissa | March 5, 2009 6:25 AM
Joyce- I drove by and thought the same thing. Upon further inspection, I believe it is the storefront directly to the left of Egyptian that is closed. I can't even remember what was there. But this was a few weeks ago, so you may be right by this time.
Posted by: Christine the Lioness | March 5, 2009 9:20 AM
Clearly, GrumpyReader is not a sandbox regular or he'd know by your mention of a 3/1 opening that you couldn't possibly have gotten there and gotten a review printer in 3 days. What would that be? An Emergency Restaurant Review??
Posted by: Eve | March 5, 2009 9:28 AM
I adore Josh Hill (Joe Chen's partner at Alizee) but doesn't it seem that he has a bad habit of opening restaurants in "jinxed" locations?
I wish them luck and can't wait to try them out. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and they'll make a go of it. At least I know the food will be good!
Posted by: kimmer1850 | March 5, 2009 10:20 AM