Dinner in a fancy restaurant, with real "Chef Owners".
It's been a while, and friend won the lottery - literally - 5/6 numbers on the LottoMax, paying - wait for it - $4,000. She deserved it, was a little short on rent, so this will help her out.
We go to the fancy restaurant - haven't been for a year. It's built on a 45 degree slope on the other end of Baker, the patio abuts a park popular with the homeless.
It's dinner and a show! They're out there, the "Usual Suspects", mother of Norm, she's gotten a new mobility scooter, various others, some of the out-of-towners, exchanging insults then fisticuffs, many intervening, no one is hurt, the police are called, just another night with the usual suspects. Every other night. What a job! The patio, it abuts this "park" and you think, in the summer, it's gonna be a hard sell, their prices, product, vs the homelessness just a railing away...
Dinner in the fancy restaurant, 2 servers, 2 tables, a 10 minute wait for a glass of wine. Appetizer; mussels, mussels good, broth, some sort of leek-in-water, leek good, water-wet, well...
It goes from there.
Calamari, good, the sauce it's served in - well, shite. Brussel sprouts, amazing, as is the sauce. Steak, with salad and fries. Steak, OK (Sorry to say I make better- at dine-out prices no steak should be indifferent), fries, tasty, but that's because there's more salt than fry, the salad, well, the leaves were fresh, the dressing should have been flushed.
It's really hit-or-miss at this place. What they do well, they do well. But - what they did well was only the Brussel Sprouts. The rest, it was all various shades of "throw it back at the kitchen" and/or "Flush it down the toilet". Nobody is quality checking the idea, let alone the product.
Where I work there's a TV - always on, always playing, and it's "Hell's Kitchen" with Gordon Ramsey. You can watch this shit 24/7, if you're of the inclination, although - really; why would you. I find him a bit offensive, although I've worked with considerably worse.
Anyways, I'm picturing in my head Gordon Ramsay tasting this shit, it wouldn't fly. Well, it would, only onto the chef's apron that deigned to present it. And hard.
Service, pleasant but entirely incompetent. A take away ordered after the meal, forgotten, then billed separately. I've been overwhelmed with a dozen to-go orders and 5 or 6 tables walking in at once, these two were overwhelmed with a table each. Apparently it's for sale, and I for a fleeting moment consider it, but no, the industry is dead, let it die. I can cook so much better at home, for so much less, and serve it as well, and I have to accept that it's just not worth it to dine out anymore. The industry is dead.