A periodic peek at the Post food critic’s e-mail, voice mail and in-box.
What’s a fair amount of time to occupy a table? asks Hazel Saffell in an e-mail.
(Edwin Fotheringham)
Earlier this year, the Loudoun County reader and her husband dined at a “very busy” Palio Ristorante Italiano in Leesburg, where she says they were seated promptly for their 6:30 reservation. “We had a cocktail, lovely meal and coffee,” after which “the waiter came to the table and asked us to leave, as he needed the table for another reservation. It was 8:45 p.m. To say we were astonished is an understatement. We made no fuss and left. We did not see anyone waiting to take the table.”
Saffell asks, “Is this normal? Is this acceptable?? Is this what we should expect in the future? We would not have sat more than another 15 minutes, but that is not the issue.”
A mini-survey of local restaurateurs shows that they budget between 1 3/4 and 21 /2 hours for tables for two. The day of the week and the occasion account for the range of times; for weekends and celebrations, more time generally is allotted.
Most restaurateurs are loath to ask seated customers to free up their tables. “It’s not my style,” says Antonio Pino, the co-owner of Palio. He says the server in question is no longer employed there.
In my opinion, the Saffells — who sat at Palio for 2 1/4 hours — were hardly being pushed out the door. As a former restaurateur told me, “the table is a rental, not a purchase.”
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Shortly after they were seated at Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray, Alana Hurley and two friends, one Muslim, “realized the menu was very limited, and most of the dishes involved pork in some way,” writes the Alexandria reader. “We apologized and left before ordering anything, but the host was extremely rude about us leaving.” Hurley was curious about what she should have done. “Is there a way to handle this gracefully? I’d like to at least let the manager know that he lost two regular customers because of the host.”
Neel Lassetter, the restaurant’s general manager, says he wishes the problem had been raised while Hurley and friends were still at Evening Star Cafe. “I can’t do anything without information first,” he told me in a telephone interview. As for the restaurant’s new American menu, which changes frequently, Lassetter said, the kitchen, under chef Will Artley, can accommodate a host of special circumstances, from gluten intolerance to nut allergies. Hurley said there was no menu posted in the window or outside the door. Lassetter acknowledged that an exterior box “got beat up in the snowstorm. I need to get a new one.”
Lessons (hopefully) learned: 1) It’s best for everybody when a complaint is handled in real time, and 2) posting menus outside is a great way to lure customers — or prevent disappointment.
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A Bethesda reader new to the area wants the scoop on Newton’s Table, which replaces Rock Creek at 4917 Elm St. “Any word on the chef and his chops (no pun intended)?”
Chef and owner Dennis Friedman, 32, is a 2003 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.. After an externship at the esteemed Daniel in New York — where he volunteered to start work on Thanksgiving and was promptly dispatched by top toque Daniel Boulud to cook the holiday meal for a wealthy family on Park Avenue — Friedman went on to work at Alan Wong in Hawaii, Kinkead’s downtown and Michel Richard Citronelle in Georgetown. Most recently, he was the chef and co-owner of Bezu in Potomac.
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