I decided to celebrate my b-day at their steakhouse last night...8 for dinner...approximately 20 total by the end of the night for drinks and cigars. I had been there a year before and everything was great, memorable...including dinner service and the food. But last night something was different. The minute I walked in we sensed it...I took one look at their well know wall of wines that serves as the restaurants backbone now bare and crippled...but the funny thing was watching guests try to order from the still "Fully Stocked" wine list trying to guess which bottles were on the wall and which were just a figment of the Macabi that once was. The service...was painfully absent. You know when you are in a good atmosphere with friends, drinks...looking forward to great "steak"...maybe you even have a good relaxing buzz with good conversation...you usually can wait for a very long time for service to come around. Well, it's a BIG PROBLEM, when you and your guests are all in that state asking..."who's our waiter...do appetizers really take 45 min...it's shrimp and plantains for God's sake!...my own Mother can probably wip up something similar in 20 minutes and that may even include a quick trip to Publix." Our waitress...who I think had been recruited from Applebee's the week before was trying her best...but to decant an $80 bottle of Amarone without showing the guest the bottle is a bit too much to take..."Oooops! I'm sorry but...it is the wine you picked I swear"...she said. Probably the same tactic she used when getting chocolate syrup instead of caramel syrup for one of her Applebee's guest's sundae. I'm sure it worked for her there...it doesn't fly at a $150 a person "Prime" steakhouse. When she got called out on it, she went into revenge mode...we battled her attitude from then on...personally I was exhausted. I hate to admit it, but she may have actually won that war. By the way, are "Prime" steaks supposed to be frozen? Maybe for the steak of the month club. :-(
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