Hello, and welcome to the first review by the Girls' Dinner Club. Due to technical difficulties, I (La Gourmand) is posting for this entry's writer, Not Zagat. So, enjoy.
Picture it. Four young professional women meet in the trendy U Street corridor with a mission. We seek to eat our way through the alphabet. We will review one restaurant per letter and end with a restaurant whose name is a number. We are savvy regarding the D.C. Metropolitan area dining scene. But this will force us to divert from the old familiar haunts. Armed with our Zagat guides (heretofore referred to as the maroon bibles), we are ready for the challenge.
Now, back to Al Crostino. We arrived to the restaurant in shifts; Doc and I arrived first. We drank some wine, engaged in a healthy debate with the waitress about why she refused to serve us bread before all of the members of our party gathered, and exchanged some pleasant conversation. Once all had arrived, we successfully ordered appetizers, Doc excused herself to the ladies. She returned to the table flustered and alarmed. She revealed that during her visit to the ladies’ room she discovered a mouse!
At this point, I made a bee line to the ladies’ room to observe the offending rodent myself (hey, anything for the blog). Unfortunately, the [hopefully] little guy had likely evacuated before I arrived on the scene as the door was ajar. Returning to the table, I found my table mates had relayed Doc’s encounter with the waitress. To my shock, I discovered that the waitress (a) was aware of the presence of the mouse (2) was totally unapologetic about the mouse, explaining only that the building next door was undergoing renovations (c) was familiar enough with the mouse to have named him “Charlie."
Let us examine the diseased caused by rodents:
Rabies
Hauntavirus
Um…ever hear of something called the Plague?
Now, I’m not naïve. It’s a city. There are roaches and rodents everywhere, even in (dare I say it), really nice restaurants. I will save the story of the massive cockroach that ran across my table at Taberna del Alabardero (2009 Zagat Rating 24) in January 2007 for another day. What concerned me more than the presence of Charlie was the complete lack of concern or response by our waitress. Though she did offer to caulk the hole in the bathroom wall, she did not offer us a free dessert. Even the good folks at Taberna del Alabardero were kind enough of comp a bottle of nice Spanish wine.
This same level of inattentiveness was seen later in the evening when a vagrant entered the restaurant and attempted to panhandle from the table adjacent to us. Though the man was somewhat aggressive in his attempts, the restaurant staff did very little to assist in removing him. After he left, he pounded on the window for a bit. But really, what’s a little misdemeanor during dinner? Another glass of wine sir?
It’s not that I anticipate being treated like royalty at your average neighborhood bistro. But, when you are charging $23 for pasta (admittedly very nice pasta, but pasta none the less), I anticipate that you will compensate me for the rodent in the bathroom. Alas, the only reassurance we received was that the mouse must have been attracted to the cheese plates we ordered. Unacceptable.
Until the letter “B” readers.
Now, back to Al Crostino. We arrived to the restaurant in shifts; Doc and I arrived first. We drank some wine, engaged in a healthy debate with the waitress about why she refused to serve us bread before all of the members of our party gathered, and exchanged some pleasant conversation. Once all had arrived, we successfully ordered appetizers, Doc excused herself to the ladies. She returned to the table flustered and alarmed. She revealed that during her visit to the ladies’ room she discovered a mouse!
At this point, I made a bee line to the ladies’ room to observe the offending rodent myself (hey, anything for the blog). Unfortunately, the [hopefully] little guy had likely evacuated before I arrived on the scene as the door was ajar. Returning to the table, I found my table mates had relayed Doc’s encounter with the waitress. To my shock, I discovered that the waitress (a) was aware of the presence of the mouse (2) was totally unapologetic about the mouse, explaining only that the building next door was undergoing renovations (c) was familiar enough with the mouse to have named him “Charlie."
Let us examine the diseased caused by rodents:
Rabies
Hauntavirus
Um…ever hear of something called the Plague?
Now, I’m not naïve. It’s a city. There are roaches and rodents everywhere, even in (dare I say it), really nice restaurants. I will save the story of the massive cockroach that ran across my table at Taberna del Alabardero (2009 Zagat Rating 24) in January 2007 for another day. What concerned me more than the presence of Charlie was the complete lack of concern or response by our waitress. Though she did offer to caulk the hole in the bathroom wall, she did not offer us a free dessert. Even the good folks at Taberna del Alabardero were kind enough of comp a bottle of nice Spanish wine.
This same level of inattentiveness was seen later in the evening when a vagrant entered the restaurant and attempted to panhandle from the table adjacent to us. Though the man was somewhat aggressive in his attempts, the restaurant staff did very little to assist in removing him. After he left, he pounded on the window for a bit. But really, what’s a little misdemeanor during dinner? Another glass of wine sir?
It’s not that I anticipate being treated like royalty at your average neighborhood bistro. But, when you are charging $23 for pasta (admittedly very nice pasta, but pasta none the less), I anticipate that you will compensate me for the rodent in the bathroom. Alas, the only reassurance we received was that the mouse must have been attracted to the cheese plates we ordered. Unacceptable.
Until the letter “B” readers.
