rant: fine dining

[Michael]

Not surprised to hear about the front of the house issues with Alinea group. Next had pretty mediocre service for a tasting menu joint. That was acceptable when they first opened because the prices were so low, but once they massively jacked up the prices it was a lot harder to ignore.

Agree with your ethnic food comment.

[33anda3rd]

They have mediocre service because they have a revolving door. Almost every new menu comes with an entirely new front of house team.

Completely unrelated, the drunkest I've ever been at a nice restaurant and probably the drunkest I've been in 10 years was the first menu there, Paris 1906. They don't do it anymore, but for that first menu they'd bring over the bottle for the wine pairing for that course, pour each of the tasting pours, then, and this is both awful and awesome at the same time, leave the bottle on the table. So it was like "well, my glass is empty, let's just top it off here....."

[Michael]

Yeah, that's funny. I noticed people were getting drunk when I went to 1908.

Personally wine pairings are something I never opt for. I'm not a wine person and pairings really jack up the cost of the bill. Despite my best attempts once I get past white vs red, how a wine subtly compliments a dish is mostly lost on me. I'm totally fine getting water, bourbon or beer at a fancy pants restaurant instead. If I'm drinking booze I just take a sip of water to help clear my palate my before I take a bite of food.

I did get a non-alcoholic pairing at Next for their Thai menu because I heard so many good things about it. It was pretty cool.

[33anda3rd]

If you go to Oriole get the reserve pairing it’s the best pairing I’ve had and I’d suggest the splurge.

[tlombard]

Went to Carmine's for the first time before the Cards game last night and while it is a bit pricey for me to frequent, I will be back even if it is just for the toasted ravioli before a game. Easily the best toasted ravioli that I've ever had. They are large and the filling was really good and about the same size as a ping pong ball which is very unusual. They are a great deal at $11 for the app. I was hesitant to go with those as an app just because I'm pretty tired of toasted ravioli these days since so few are actually made in house and most are sourced from the same vendor or two but I'm glad I listened.

For the rest of the meal I had the Filet Gorgonzola and while it was really good and I highly recommend it if you are there, I just can't see myself paying $38 for it very often. We just sat at the bar so we didn't get to experience the actual service in the dining room which I know adds value to the meal so I will have to go back and give something else on the menu a shot. There are a few places that I can get a filet that is a lot cheaper and just as good as the filet I had at Carmine's but I would bet that there is a much more noticeable difference in the quality of the other cuts compared to what I'm used to getting other places. I should have thought about that and gone with something else but since my friend was picking up the tab as a start to the festivities surrounding my 40th on Saturday, I just went with his recommendation.

One tip that makes the $50 meal (before tax, tip and drinks) a bit more palatable for my friend to do regularly when he goes to games is that if you eat there before the game, you get free parking. That does actually make it a pretty decent deal for him considering that's about the same as he would pay for parking and a decent meal at any other place around the stadium. The free parking two blocks away is worth $15-20 and it is really convenient for him since he is coming from Illinois with extremely easy access to the highway.

[lukethedrifter]

I ate appetizers at Billy G’s in Kirkwood. Very ungood. Dense, heavy crabcakes. Seared Tuna that was lukewarm and made me worry about diarrhea. Soupy spinach artichoke dip.

[Freed Roger]

I ate appetizers at Billy G’s in Kirkwood. Very ungood. Dense, heavy crabcakes. Seared Tuna that was lukewarm and made me worry about diarrhea. Soupy spinach artichoke dip.

Pretzel bites, they were good.

[tlombard]

Pretzel bites are almost always good. I don't think I've ever had any that were bad. Last weekend I ordered a burger from J. Smug's Gastropit on The Hill and threw on the Pretzel Stick with Cheese. The burger was good but the Pretzel Stick with Cheese was great, especially the cheese spread. I could eat that stuff by itself and sadly I had to because when they say 'pretzel stick' they mean just that. There was only one but enough of the cheese spread for half a dozen pretzel sticks or more and it was good enough that I ended up eating it with a spoon like the fat pig that I am. At first I wondered if they had messed up but then I looked at the menu again and noticed that it is probably only supposed to be one pretzel stick.

[lukethedrifter]

Was the artichoke dip warm, at least?

luke (warm, that is)

[33anda3rd]

We just sat at the bar so we didn't get to experience the actual service in the dining room which I know adds value to the meal so I will have to go back and give something else on the menu a shot.

The bar is the best seat in 95% of restaurants. You'll get better service because the bartender is right there in front of you and she has easy access to the beverage portion of your night. Easy to get her attention, easy to get an order in. Here's a great example,

It's 8pm on a Friday. Assuming a normal restaurant situation in which there's one bartender working a service well (she makes drinks just for the floor, for tickets coming in from the servers) and 1 or more bartenders (based on # of seats at the bar) working the bar.

You're at the bar
You: Bartender, I'd like this beer on the menu.
Bartender: You got it.
Bartender goes to the draft tower a few feet away, pours it, brings it to you.
You: Thanks
Bartender: You're welcome.
Bartender is busy, other people need her attention, but it's ok, she will ring the drink later and you got your beer.

You're at a table
You: I'd like this beer on the menu.
Server: You got it.
Server goes to POS terminal to ring drinks. Another server is there. He just got a drink order and a food order and is ringing it it. It takes a couple minutes.
Service well bartender gets your drinks ticket. It's the 3rd ticket in line at the service well. She needs 8 minutes to make the 4 cocktails, 2 glasses of wine, 3 beers in front of you, plus the [expletive] server in section C told some guest whose [expletive] kid asked for a Shirley Temple "yeah no problem" even though you con't carry grenadine and now the service well bartender has to strain some juice out of the cocktail cherries to make something close and [expletive] some of it spilled on the well and now there's sticky cherry stuff all over the rail and that needs wiped up or everything is a sticky mess.

Even if you back out the sticky cherry mess your beer takes at least 3X longer on the floor than it does at the bar, unless it's like 5:30 on a Tuesday and there are very few people in the place. Even then it's going to take twice as long. And the food will take no longer at the bar.

This BTW is also why guests who stand in the service well are the absolute worst. We get it, they want a drink. So does everyone else in the room and that very small area of our restaurant is where we move 95% of them through. These people are like the folks who sit at the bar and immediately wave at the bartender without regard for the 5 other people who sat before they did, who the bartender has a mental list of who came in what order and is hustling to serve them in that order, except take the wave and ramp it up by a multiple of, oh I dunno, like 1000000000000, and that's what some dick standing in the server pass on a busy night so he can get his drink right away is like. If that dick complains to me--it's only happened once--I listen and then forget the conversation because seriously, screw that guy.