matteohamlton

let me tell you my experience at freemans. I wasn't even going there for dinner. My wife and I just left a dinner party in SOHO and decided to stop by freemans to see if the chef that set up the original menu was there. We arrived late and the host catwalked across the floor to greet us with a glass of wine raised in his hand, a trucker hat on and a courdory jacket with patches on the sleeves. I'll never forget that. "Wow i said. You guys are busy. How long is the wait?" The host replied, "longer than we are open." Holly shit, did he just say that? In reply I said, "well we're not here for dinner, we just came by the see a friend, she is the chef here. the host replied, "name dropping will not get you a table." Okay i said, "is Tavvo here? I know him from a restaurant where i used to work. I am a chef and he was one of the regular customers there". Ohhhh. He replied. "you're a chef, you know the chef here and you used to work with her! let me get you a seat at the bar he said". No, no. Just tell the chef that i was here. and if you can remember my name, tell Tavvo i stopped by............they never got message. I do wish them luck though. It looked like a fun place..........

Thanks sneakeater. I just wanted to let everyone know that i didn't blame Bruni for the closing of my restaurant. It's very important for my career. Who's going to hire me if they think I blamed him for the closing? They would be scared shitless if he came and reviewed. No one wants to put themselves in that position even if a review doesn't hold that much weight. Who wants to take the chance when the restaurant business already has a 60% failure rate. If anyone has any questions, i'll be glad to answer them. Thanks again. Matt Hamilton

Also. I agree with Nathan. A times review does not hold as much weight as it did even lets say 5 years ago.

Hello. Matt Hamilton here. Now why would i bite the hands that could possibly feed me in the near future. I am i nice guy that worked hard on a restaurant that failed for a number reasons but, i never once blamed Frank Bruni for a lack of a reivew. I could blame bloggers for not following up on a story or not doing any fact checking. I think that would be legit. It would have been nice to have had a review if not from Bruni, Meahan would have been great too. Listen. A review, or lack there of does not shut down a restaurant. Lack of working capitol, lack of PR and bad managment are but a few. Good or bad I had plenty of reviews to let me know that my hard work paid off in the end run. My wallet did not fair to well though. It was a pleasure serving you and i will keep everyone posted on where i will be in the future. If anyone cares. Matt Hamilton/Chef/Owner Uovo Restaurant java script:emoticon(':rolleyes:')