L'Espalier [Boston]

[LDLee]

My wife and I visited L’Espalier for dinner Saturday night. We chose the Chef’s Tasting Journey with matching wine.

The first five courses were excellent – the food was fantastic, the wine pairings decent but not great, the service attentive without being overbearing. Highlights included the Salmon Napoleon pre-appetizer, the seared foie gras with cocoa (wow!), and the meat sampler (roasted lamb chop, and veal kidney with a slice of truffle). The wine pairings were a little weak. The Sylvaner with the seafood course was good, but clashed with the pineapple in the lobster. The Greek Muscat with the foie gras was excellent, not too sweet, providing just the right amount of counterbalance to the foie gras. With the meat dish was served a Pinot Noir that was too musky to match well with the grilled foods.

During the fifth course, my wife and I were thinking definitely one of the five best meals we had ever had. Then, disaster. Service completely disappeared. After finishing the meat course, we waited for over 15 minutes with empty plates, empty water glasses, and half full wine glasses. Staff would attend the table to the right of us and to the left of us, but not touch our table. Finally, someone cleared off our table and the cheese course arrived. L’Espalier is supposed to have an amazing selection of cheeses. This time was not one of them. Of the six selected, five were bland and boring, the Vacheron was the sole exception. And, when we had finished our course, we waited another 15 minutes with empty plates, water glasses and wine glasses. The table next to us was served their entrée and waited forks in hand for 10 minutes before being served their wine. It had gotten so bad that my wife tried to get the waiters’ attention to no avail.

When the first desert course arrived, I gave the waiter my credit card and asked for our bill. She said there was one more course. Once again, we waited for 15 minutes with empty plates and water glasses. There weren’t any empty wine glasses because they did not serve any wine. At the end of the second desert course, the waiter brought me my credit card and receipt to sign and asked how our meal was. I told her the meal started out well but ended disappointingly. She walked away to serve someone else. The manager came by to retrieve the signed credit card receipt and asked how our meal was. I told him about our experience. He asked to make some amends, left with our bill, and returned reducing the bill by 20%. My wife I kept explaining it was not about the price or the money, it was about the experience. Maybe they got it at the end, because as we were leaving several staff came by to genuinely apologize.

The most difficult part of this experience was telling my wife’s sister’s brother-in-law about our meal. He had previously worked at L’Espalier and had called them to ask them to treat us well. He called after the meal and asked how it had been. He was crestfallen as I described our experience.

The experience reminds me of a baseball game, where you watch a future Hall of Fame pitcher pitch a brilliant two-hitter for 6 innings, then the wheels fall off and he gives up 7 runs, including a Grand Slam. You just don’t understand how one can go from great to bad so quickly.

Will we go back? I doubt it. We don’t live in Boston, and there are so many great restaurants to try (Maybe No. 9 Park). Will we tell others not to go? No, I believe and hope Saturday night was unique. Chef McClelland deserves better.