Mark B.
Yelp
The food? 5 stars, no question about it!
But I rated it 3 stars...why?
When we arrived for our special Valentine's dinner, we were told our seats were "outdoors": a deck walkway with a long counter along the outside "wall" consisting of a sheet of plywood from counter level down, a clear vinyl window above, and some overhead electric heaters. So far, okay...we've eaten at any number of radiantly heated, outdoor seating venues and were fine. If we had known, we would have brought some "lap blankets".
But it's was cold...34 deg F. We wrapped up in wool scarves & winter coats, with the heat from above barely noticeable, and settled in, ordered cocktails, appetizers, and entrees. Our conversation became a little sporadic by the time our cocktails arrived 45 minutes after ordering. The drinks were...okay, (iced!) but at least a little alcohol-induced vasodilation gave us a brief illusion of warmth until core body temperature slowly dropped.
Finally the appetizers (roasted red pepper & sprouts on baguette slices: excellent!) arrived at about an hour.
We noticed that with our napkins on our laps we felt a tiny bit less chilly. We got an apology from our waitress about how busy they were. I asked if there was any space inside to which we could escape from the chill, but sadly she checked with her supervisor and returned with a "no". I asked if the additional patio heater sitting close by could be turned on. We were they had forgotten to refill the propane tank.
Finally I just escorted my wife into the restaurant to await our main courses. We stood around like a couple of homeless people in a $$$ rated restaurant for about 20 min., enviously eyeing the warm camaraderie of our indoor table competitors. I tried not to look like a snarling wolf. I asked about another stretch of indoor counter space, but again, was told it was reserved for someone yet to arrive.
Our waitress announced the arrival of our roasted salmon and roasted sweet potato main courses, so back to our exile in the great "outdoors". They agreed to set us up at a slightly taller "round table" which got out heads a foot closer to the elusive overhead heaters, still about 7 feet above us. Like the wolves we felt ourselves to be, we tore into our meals (again, excellent), hoping for a metabolic boost to keep us warm before hypothermia set in again.
Finally, like a Royal Canadian Mounted Police rescuer, another staffer came out and cheerfully said he would place us at the bar stools in front of the bar. Suppressing tears of gratitude, we filed back inside and gratefully consumed the rest of our meal.
When the 3 figure tab came at the end, I noticed that someone had deducted a $20 "tock" from the bill. Thank you for that!! I still gave our waitress (who had been working there since 7 a.m.!) a decent 20% tip, figuring there were issues beyond her control that created most of our distress. But I did jot a few thoughts on the bill before returning it with the payment:
1. Double the number of overhead heaters so that really cold weather would not turn the deck space into a meat locker.
2. Also maybe a bit more insulation on the plywood "wall"?
3. Make sure the large patio heater sitting 5 feet from us, silent and cold, has a full propane tank. (We were told it was empty.)
4. Consider balancing the staff to customer ratio a little more conservatively in anticipation of high volume, low temperature days like this Valentine's Day.
Finally....this is a "First world problem"... We had great food, and more than few ironic laughs at our laughable, "Valentine's Freeze Out". Many, many people in our world, heck, in our country, would have happily changed places with us. So, several lessons to be learned all around!
