Now this is a multi-purpose chef
It must be getting toward the end of a long day, because when I opened this e-mail, I started laughing:
Dear Ms. Large:
When I started to read your colum [Top 10 Excellent Service], I remarked to my wife that I'm sure Tio Pepe would not be on the list. What a surprise!
We had been going there once or twice a year for special occasions because the food was wonderful. However, every time as we left, we remarked how surly the wait staff was.
The last time we went there, and it will be the last time, we sat for 25 minutes before someone came to our table. In fact, as he sometimes does, the chef wonders about the restaurant and asked us how we were doing. We told him that we had been waiting 25 minutes for someone to help us. Incredibly, he took our order!
Never again.
Comments
Wonder if this topic should be merged with tipping the host for a good table?
Posted by: chowsearch | June 12, 2009 4:49 PM
Someone should do a study of how long people actually wait for things versus how long it seems. When food is involved I think our brains become time crazy.
Posted by: Owl Meat Gravy | June 12, 2009 4:52 PM
Of course, if you have a reservation for a specific time and you know when you arrived, it's pretty easy to track how long before you are waited on. OMG, I agree that time gets distorted when you are hungry. At a casual eatery where I'm being ignored, I set a target time on my watch and we'll leave if no one comes by then -- unless we really, really want to eat there.
Posted by: jjk | June 12, 2009 6:47 PM
Funny this thread came up. Last night my wife and I went out to eat and the restaurant was very busy, OK that's alright, and we waited and then were seated and waited, and waited, and waited. When a hostess came by I asked for glasses to pour our wine (BYOB) she came back with glasses but still no wait staff. After a few more minutes ( yes time get's distorted, especially when the wife is hungry) I flagged down a passing person and asked him to find our server. Soon a nice young lass came by and in a not so happy mood announced that she was very busy! Ok I said we are also very hungry. Anyway we finally got served and the food and service was then OK. I could have been more angry but just allowed that the place was busy.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 12, 2009 8:08 PM
Next time just ask for a table near a server.
Posted by: billy butterbean | June 14, 2009 3:14 PM
Saturday about noon my wife and I were seated at the Red Brick Station in a dining room about half full. As soon as we realized that we were not going to be waited on I started timing the wait. After ten minutes we went back to the hostess stand to see about the problem. Our waitress showed up immediately. We were offered free dessert to make up for the delay.
The most disturbing thing about this visit was the beer. I have always enjoyed the Daily Crisis IPA. While not as highly hopped as Hop Devil, 60 Minute, or other extreme IPA's it was consistently hoppy enough. On Saturday it was very un-hoppy. Much more like a mass produced lager than a microbrewed IPA. I thought the first one I was served was just the wrong beer but the second was the same. I asked if the recipe had been changed and was told nothing was different in the brewing process. The only thing I can think of is with the economic downturn Red Brick has cut back on the hops which are expensive. This is a very disappointing development.
Posted by: Elite Elephant Lover | June 14, 2009 4:02 PM