I'd always loved Sepia - loved everything about them...the cocktails, the space, the decor, the food, and the staff....just all of it. Not sure how it all went so wrong, but this was last night's visit:
- my friend arrives before I do, checks in for the res, no problem, she's the first to arrive
- i meet her in the bar, 1 drink poured, a few minutes of chatting, then we can't seem to get either bartender's attention to cash out. They're not super busy, just enjoying their private convo
- back to front desk, and now they can't find our reservation. It was literally there 5-10 minutes ago...but now gone. They panic, find a way to resolve, and we have a table (whew)
- all fine til the waiter asks if we're ready to order...do we need any help navigating the menu? No, we just need a few minutes (it's a short menu). "Do you need any help with vocabulary". I'm not kidding, he actually said that. The snark in me wanted to ask if he could use 'obsequious' or some other lesser known word in a sentence, but I hold back. He is determined to profess his knowledge, and goes on to explain what cobia is (yes, we're aware it's a fish), what rabbit tastes like (I literally made a rabbit dish at home over the weekend), and what charcuterie is
- he explains the tasting vs ala carte menu (dude, really, the menus are well printed), then says "literally everything we have in the kitchen is on those menu". I cant process this.....was he worried that we looked like people that wanted extreme substitutions? Have they ever been asked to create entire dishes from alternate ingredients? (Tonight's cooking show challenge: we ask a restaurant for a dish from ingredients NOT anywhere on their menu!). Should I be concerned that this wouldn't seem like a terribly full pantry or fridge if this is "literally everything they have in the kitchen"?
- he asks if we have a show or other commitment this evening. No, we do not. He tells us most of the room will depart at the same time to see My Fair Lady. Nope, we're good, not rushing anywhere (he is correct, sometime mid way thru the restaurant is half empty, and never fully refills)
- waiter asks if we've "read the novel" (meaning the wine list), geez where did they get this guy? i decide to ask for help on the wine (it's an interesting list, so why not, right? Somms take pride in their lists, most love to discuss the obscure but fun stuff. I think we'll get the wine director or somm, nope, we get vocabulary guy. He starts asking us old world v new world, but before I can say a dang thing, he starts describing the difference (we have an 800 bottle collection of wine at home, yes I know old world from new)...no matter, we pick a wine and off we go
- we linger over the app, vocabulary guy starts to stress...we're clearly not moving fast enough for him. Odd because this is when the restaurant has open tables
- my pet peeve...and it's a huge one...if I still have a glass of wine from dinner, do not under any circumstances shove a menu at me and ask me to pick a dessert. I know what's about to happen, 4 seconds later you're going to bring said dessert and I'll feel I now have to chug my last glass of wine because something is melting in front of me. Grrrrr....rather than explain we'd like to finish our wine in peace, we skip dessert
- food was good, no issues there, but it's so tough for food to make up for a pontificating twit of a server
Not sure what happened to the lovely Sepia I used to know, but this was not it. read more