Hello Egullet. I have stayed out of this for a long time but I feel I have to defend myself. Joe H I am sorry you are always so unhappy with us (SBC Cafe) First of all we are not closing. Our menu prices have not changed much. Our dinner entrees range from $10-$15 with jerk pork loin at $14.95. The conch chowder is under $4 and we lowered the price of our mixed green salad. Our wine prices haven't changed either Sterling Cab '01' Vitners Collection (I know commercial but one of our customers likes it) $23 Jordan Cab '00' $60 up to Justin Isosles at $80 (we sell alot). I know $80 sounds high but this is a very good value. We have a retail section in the store and you can open the bottle and drink it in house for $5 extra. Joe is right some of our specials go up to $20. We sometimes run a whole curry crusted rack of lamb (12-14 ounce) for $20.95. I can't sell this for any less. The lamb is expensive, so is the sauce (reduced wine and demi glace), two sides, and bread. We also sell alot of fresh fish specials in the $15-18 range. Fresh Halibut (usually picked up that morning from Swedish Fish) 6-7 ounce fillet pan roasted w/ fennel crushed new potatoes, myers lemon-saffron sauce, tomato-olive relish, and fresh basil $17.95 or it might be Madras Grouper on Coconut Grits w/ pineapple chutney. We sold a fish special over $20 two times. Once it was John Dory and the other time was on New Years Eve and it involved lobster. We sell a NY Strip special for $22, 14 ounces. We sell a whole Moullard duck breast for $16.95. Veal cheeks and white polenta app for $6.95. Sorry to sound like a commercial. We had a very famous DC restaurant owner/chef eat here and his first words to me were your food cost must be over 40%. Joe I feel you are being very unfair. As far as I know you have been here one time with your wife. You had the trout special, chicken caesars, and two bowls of pepper soup. I'm not into knocking other restaurants but I am offended by some of the places you compare us to. We have not lived up to all the hype. Where is all this hype happening. I missed it. We are are not trying to be fine dining. Our hope was to be good food, good wine at a good value. An alternative to all the chain food. Believe it or not many of our customer like the atmosphere, the Europeans and New Yorkers.
