As a newbie, I have quite enjoyed monitoring this thread. Interesting display of the open forum as sociological experiment, particularly for a Midwesterner. Anyway, to the point. I have never been to Babbo so my opinion comes purely from afar, reading board comments about declining service. Since the service problems appear to be felt most acutely in the front of the house, I wonder if the problem is simply that they are experiencing the downside of the gain in popularity of their celebrity chef owner. The television shows, the cookbooks, and the fact that the kitchen in Mario's home was featured in the NYTimes would cause the sort of stir (within and without NewYork) that might crush the part of the staff that deals with reservations, seating, and a general drive to turning over tables. The crush of people should never be an excuse for poor service, regardless of the customer, so it seems that the folks at Babbo should take heart when they receive letters from customers (and they should be monitoring boards such as this one) because they are indications that work needs to be done in order to maintain high quality experiences of the customers. Those willing to pay for the experience of a meal at Babbo have many options in New York the same price range. Hope Mario is reading and hope they get they pull it together, for the sake of the food.
