Space-O-Rama

February 26, 2008

Westchester Magazine
edit@westchestermagazine.com

Dear Editor:

After reading your review in the Restaurant Issue for Boe@324 I decided to ask some friends to join me for dinner there last Saturday February 23rd. On Wednesday I called to make reservations for 7:30pm for 5 people and was informed that they couldn’t fit us in till 8pm that evening. By the tone of his voice I had a definite feeling he was doing me a favor, but I accepted the 8pm time.

Our party arrived 10 minutes early because we didn’t know about parking and we were curious about seeing the inside of the restaurant. Upon entering, the trio of hostesses greeted us, although we were early, and said we could either go to the bar area which is on the main level or we could be seated. We chose to go to the table. We didn’t realize our seating would entail going down a horrific spiral staircase that has a rise for a person of great stature as well as someone wearing shoes that are rubber based, so as not to slip.

We handed our coats to be checked and proceed down to the basement. Upon entering the room we were shown to our table that reminded me of what a coffin looked like, except the table was too long and the room was congested because of tables being in the middle of the room and the walk/serving area was very narrow. Our waiter approached and I don’t think he gave us his name, but I could have forgotten, since he was scarcely seen. He was good though at telling various bus boys to attend to our table, except they didn’t, unless we asked three or four times.

After he asked about cocktails and took our order, he came back to ask if we were ready to order. Of course we weren’t, but he did go through the specials for the evening and finally brought us some olives and butter along with bread. Our drinks didn’t arrive for awhile. We looked over the menu and selected different dishes, so we could taste this chef’s food. After selecting salads and entrees, we sat back to enjoy ourselves.

I would say maybe 10 or 15 minutes after placing our order, our waiter approached our table to say that one of the salads was not available because the FIGS aren’t in season, so could we chose something else. I am sure there are FIGS that are available somewhere and if this restaurant wants to be taken serious it behooves them to find them.

At that time we still hadn’t gotten our drinks, and I had asked about one of the wines and our waiter didn’t seem to be informed about it. It seemed an intolerable long time before my request for olive oil for the bread could be brought. It took 3 times to finally get it and that was after our waiter had told 2 different bus boys to bring it out. Finally the third time was a charm.

Our salads come and they were good. Fresh and with a nice flavor, so we were forgiving of all the mishaps. But, again our waiter came over to inform the table that the VEAL special was no longer available. From your review about how good the veal was, we all seemed to want to try it out. Two of us had ordered it. Our disappointment was very real but more than that why didn’t our waiter know about them not having the salad and now the veal? It seems there is a problem with communication. He did buy a glass of wine for one of the gentleman in our group. We changed our orders and waited…and waited…and waited. During our wait, we requested more bread, not realizing that there was a BREAD BUS BOY. Our waiter who managed to come by after we finally caught his eye, and promptly told one of the other bus boys to get us more. That didn’t work either, and when we were finally able to halt one of them and ask for bread, he very efficiently brought us water. Another one of the bus boys, just grunted and then we saw the BREAD bus boy, who, when we were able to stop him from running, brought out the burnt bread.

Another ten or fifteen minutes passed, when we saw the approaching bus boy with two plates of our food, soon to be followed by one other plate. Then we were told it would just be a minute before the other plates came. At least 10 minutes passed till my plate came and another 10 minutes or more before the final plate arrived. By this time we were all hungry and realized that we had been there for close to two hours and finally started eating our meal.

The food was far from exceptional. The chicken, which we had been told was boneless had a bone, and seemed to be like particles of chicken made into a patty and was totally flavorless, the ravioli was undercooked and starchy, not al dente, the black pasta with fish could have been served with less pasta and more fish (for the price), the cannelloni with short ribs, for my taste, could have less short ribs stuffed into it, and the pork chop was the only dish that was close to your review of good food.

At this point, 2 gentlemen who didn’t give their positions or names, came to our table offering apologies for the delay in service and asked if everything else was okay. We felt he would like and appreciate our feedback, but there again we were mistaken. When we started to list our concerns he immediately started to defend what had taken place and seemed to be very arrogant and rude. He offered a fruit plate on the house, which was not on the menu and told us to come in on a Wednesday, when they weren’t as busy so we could really experience the full monty. Soon another gentleman came to our table and he offered us free desserts. We ordered our coffee and very promptly this time a beautiful fruit plate appeared. We then got coffee and our desserts, and our two nameless gentlemen again stopped by to let us know that we should come in again on a Wednesday night when they are less busy. One of the problems seems to be the kitchen is upstairs and we were eating downstairs, they didn’t know they had a bread bus boy, and the are still ironing out the kinks.

At this point, all we wanted was our check and they were tripping over themselves to accommodate us, so they took our valet parking ticket and coatroom check stubs, and dropped the bill off. At that time our waiter appeared out of somewhere, and looked at our table with the dessert plate and fruit tray and asked if we had been served our entrée yet.

The space downstairs has tables that make serving very awkward and every time someone went past our table there was a breeze. Since it took so long to get back our check, the hostess brought down our coats. There wasn’t enough room for one person now we had 3 items and another person.

There is no way I will go back and I can assure you my friends will follow my lead. Also anyone that will listen to us will hear our story and hopefully this restaurant will be reevaluated by your critics. A restaurant isn’t only about the food. They haven’t established themselves as a class place to dine and imbibe at where the pricing of bottles or glasses of wine offers nothing in between just a high end extreme. The selection of beers was limited but here again they didn’t have what the waiter had said our choices were.

The only enjoyable part of our evening was that all of us have great senses of humor.

Therefore, I for one was not surprised when they closed and hopefully they will not reopen.

Well, that was my coleague who wrote the review, but it looks like you weren't alone in your dislike of Boe@325 -- it closed.