Stacey S.
Yelp
The star is for the food, because it was good. Small portions, big prices. Consistent with expectations. The missing stars are for the service, which was so bad we were laughing by the end of the night. I invite you to humor in my experience, and perhaps consider dining somewhere else if you find yourself looking for a nice dinner in Gloucester.
We were seated ten minutes before 6:00 PM. Our server came by within a few minutes with menus and a tiny bowl of warm olives and two little rolls with salted honey butter on the side. So far, so good. But, as we came to realize later, that was -- more or less - the end of the good.
While waiting for our server to return to take our orders, we were delivered someone else's bottle of chilled white wine. OK, that happens. We wait some more, and we finish our tiny snacks. We're still waiting when a water-kid comes by and busses our table. Not only does he take the tiny snacks, but he also takes all of our silverware and tiny plates for the tiny snacks. It was rather bizarre. We found ourselves looking at a bare table with just our water glasses; a portrait of what one typically sees at the end of a meal, not while one is waiting to order food.
As an added bonus to this pre-meal bussing, water-kid returns and puts down new forks and knives with a satisfying clunk clunk on our bare table (bare, like.. no tablecloth / tiny plate / semi-impervious surface between our food weapons and the ick that is any table surface in a restaurant). A little part of my soul died because water-kid had so much potential, but it seemed pretty apparent that no one had taken the time to really coach him through a tiny-portion-big-prices dining experience.
By 6:25 we flagged water-kid down and begged him to find someone that would take our order. We had been under the illusion we'd have plenty of time to eat before our 7:30 show. By 6:30 the bartender came over and said he was pinch hitting for our server and could take our order. Besides wondering how many servers we might be interacting with, we were cautiously optimistic that things were back on track!
While waiting for our food, we were served another table's entrees. Sigh.
Around 6:45 or so our food was brought out by one of the water-kids. I ordered the butter soup (after reading good things about it) and note that water-kid's execution of the tableside component was good. But, no one had prepped my table setting with a soup spoon (or any spoon, for that matter). Thus, as water-kid walked off with his teapot full of butter, I was left to admire my lukewarm lobster soup and wonder if a spoon would be forthcoming or if I would have to go forage for one myself.
I waited. And waited a little more. But, eventually, I realized that no one was coming. There's a rule of thumb in the service industry that servers should check in with guests within "two bites, two sips, or two minutes" to make sure all is well. That didn't happen. The water-kid that had midwifed our meal out of the kitchen had disappeared again, the server was still AWOL (or just ignoring us, unclear on that one), and bartender was busy chatting up the two ladies sitting at the bar. Nobody bothered to come check on us at all.
So, that's how I found myself on a spoon safari in an iconic neighborhood establishment featuring refined classics and local seafood. Was magical.
By 7 pm it was clear that we did not have another ten years to wait for someone to ask if we wanted to order dessert. We flagged down our water-kid and asked for the check. I hope he gets a promotion, or at least a pay-raise. In all my years as a Millennial foodie, I have never felt so neglected at a restaurant as I did last night, but at least our water glasses were always full!