Tom Sietsema's Online Chat

[JennyUptown]

I'm glad he posted that bit about the credit card authorization. Recently I had that issue with a downtown restaurant and was furious. We'd had an issue with the server due to our decision to order drinks, multiple appetizers and dessert (the restaurant was less than 50% full) so I initially thought that she might have tried to pull a fast one.

I kept my cool when I called the restaurant and it's a good thing - I would have been really embarassed once the situation was resolved in this no-fault way.

[morela]

I hate when people ask for plugs in the chats.

THAT'S ANNOYING. Like, remind people to... (when it's in the Weekly Dish)...kinda of stuff.

[JennyUptown]

It's also becoming Buck's Bashers paradise.

[note: I am not defending the place, just an observation]

Edited July 14, 2004 by JennyUptown (log)

[Al_Dente]

I'm glad he posted that bit about the credit card authorization. Recently I had that issue with a downtown restaurant and was furious. We'd had an issue with the server due to our decision to order drinks, multiple appetizers and dessert (the restaurant was less than 50% full) so I initially thought that she might have tried to pull a fast one.

I kept my cool when I called the restaurant and it's a good thing - I would have been really embarassed once the situation was resolved in this no-fault way.

If you're talking about authorizing for an amount larger than your total check, take a look at your card holder agreement with the credit card issuer. It should state that this can occur. People are actually bouncing checks because they use a check card and they don't allow for the over-authed amount.

I work in the credit card biz. This is one of the biggest cardholder complaints. My advice is not to use check cards for purchases-- besides, they don't offer the same kind of fraud protection that regular ol credit cards do.

[JPW]

ROTFLMFAO

All right which one of you is responsible?

Will have to surreptitiously flip now water-logged and crumb spattered keyboard with guy in next office.

[eunny jang]

Which post are you giggling about?

Though, sometimes I feel a little unnerved by how we occasionally treat Tom's chat as our personal bad-kid playground I know it's good natured etc, but it seems that he's been very clear about the difference and separation between the two forums, and been quite emphatic that he prefers it that way. For all I know, he lurks here and thus takes it all as a joke when he sees one of us pop up, but it all seems a bit self-congratulating and in-jokey.

Edit: I have been informed that this post was a "touch cranky". This is because I am "more than a touch cranky" today, but it definitely was not meant to chasten or be obnoxious. Sorry if I pissed on the party here...giggle away!

Edited October 20, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[JPW]

Which post are you giggling about?

←

I was giggling through most of it, but the straw that broke the camel's back was the third from last one titled "PLEASE POST: I PUT SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT INTO THIS QUESTION. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE POST IT! "

Just one gem - "Despite having eaten and Johnny's Half Shell several times, I have yet to enjoy a single bite past the cold oysters."

OK just one more - "My final gripe is on Citronelle. I have never enjoyed a single meal there. The food is more pretty than it is tasty."

Tom, you're a saint to put up with chat. I hope you sit there with a bourbon on the rocks and have a good laugh.

[mojito]

Tom, you're a saint to put up with chat.

←

I was thinking the same thing.

[mdt]

OK just one more - "My final gripe is on Citronelle. I have never enjoyed a single meal there. The food is more pretty than it is tasty."

←

If you have never enjoyed a meal there, why do you keep going?! You really have to wonder how many times this person has been.

I actaually thought you might be referring to the friend's friend's cousin's cousin item...

[Chef Shogun]

OK just one more - "My final gripe is on Citronelle. I have never enjoyed a single meal there. The food is more pretty than it is tasty."

←

I've never enjoyed a meal there, either. Maybe we should go try it out sometime!

I hope you sit there with a bourbon on the rocks and have a good laugh.

If you could have made it to the dinner at Corduroy last night, you could have done both!

-- C.S.

Assistant Director In Charge Of Puns

[eunny jang]

with a bourbon on the rocks

←

Don - how come you never buy US bourbon?

[Nadya]

I second the opinion that Tom must have a pool of patience the size of Cleveland. I think everyone here realizes that egulletfolk have a level of knowledge, or in some cases, desire to have knowledge, about food and dining far above that with which Tom has to deal in his chats, so using the benchmark of what y'all know and understand isn't really fair to him. He's not writing for Saveur, for creme brulee's sake.

To my mind, he has been doing an admirable job of walking a fine line between 1) providing obvious answers to obvious simpleton questions that would have me yelling "read the goddamn dining guide already!!!" (i.e. "what's the best romantic dinner place?"), and 2) raising awareness of what dining is and should be by commenting on less-than-obvious elements of dining that he feels need to be noticed and appreciated by a truly sophisticated diner.

Edited October 20, 2004 by Nadya (log)

[JPW]

Tom, you're a saint to put up with chat. I hope you sit there with a bourbon on the rocks and have a good laugh.

←

Don - how come you never buy US bourbon?

←

No double entendre was intended. It's my favorite cocktail.

Next time I see you Eunny, I'll buy you a bourbon,

but I'm not Don.

Or am I?

It all gets so confusing sometimes.

Then I start seeing streamers.

Then I continue to return to restaurants just so I can complain how miserable they are over and over.

[eunny jang]

Tom's really taking a beating today. Don't take my ice! Gay sex makes me lose my appetite! You're not professional! You're not fair! When in doubt, always assume a woman's pregnant! I got passed over at Johnny's! Buck's sucks! People don't raise their children right!

And oh - my - God - you MISUSED A PRONOUN!!!!!

Boo

freaking

hoo. Sometimes I'm ashamed to live here. Do we all piss and moan so much?

[DCMark]

Excuse me but some people need to calm the f**k down. So a bug lands in your wine and you expect another bottle? Honey, I think a few bugs touched the grapes on the vine too. What is with people? Todays Tom chat is just out of control:

Washington, DC: Tom, I'm curious to get your perspective on the "proper" way for a restaurant to respond to the unexpected arrival of a fly/gnat/other flying insect in a customer's wine glass. My husband and I dined at Citronelle for the first time this evening -- and while we have nothing but rave reviews for the food, we were somewhat taken aback by the way they dealt with this issue. When my husband noticed the little winged visitor flailing around in his glass, we quietly let the sommelier know. She carried his glass over to the side of the restaurant, and we watched as she then strained the wine from his glass into another, effectively removing the bug ... she then returned the new glass (but with the same wine) to the table, with the laughing observation that the insect was "doing the backstroke" as she removed him. There was no accompanying offer for a replacement bottle, glass, or adjustment to the cost of the wine (which cost about $90). So, here's our question -- is this how a restaurant of Citronelle's caliber should handle such a situation? I have to admit that if the same thing had happened at home or on a rooftop bar, I would have happily fished the little guy out myself and kept drinking ... but in the back of my mind, I can't help thinking that the standard should be slightly higher at a place like Citronelle. Should I have expected more from the restaurant?

Tom Sietsema: The restaurant doesn't owe you another BOTTLE of wine, because the bug was discovered in a single glass. But the sommelier should have poured you a replacement glass from another bottle of the same wine -- and she definitely should have kept her little joke to herself.

_______________________

Edited October 27, 2004 by DCMark (log)

[FistFullaRoux]

Yeah. That's like if you would accidentally add too much salt on your food. "I oversalted the plate, I want another."

If the bug had been decanted from the bottle, or if a chunk of the ceiling falls out and lands in the glass, or if the sommelier had sneezed in it, it's a different matter. If the critter landed in it once it was poured, I think it's just bad luck. Pour another glass and deal with it.

[Mark Sommelier]

This year has been the worst I can remember for fruit flies in Washington. At virtually every restaurant I've eaten this summer they were a constant presence, some places worse than others. We do everything we can to control this problem including bleaching all the drains, installing bait traps and fogging.

[Al_Dente]

The person who sent that in to Tom is a total ass-hat. Do they somehow expect to be shielded from reality at Citronelle?

Where is the clickable smiley for "F U"?

Edited October 27, 2004 by Al_Dente (log)

[Matteo]

I had a customer over the summer want her meal comped because she was stung by a mosquito.

She was eating outside.

[Dave the Cook]

We do everything we can to control this problem including bleaching all the drains, installing bait traps and fogging.

←

I think I'd rather deal with a fruit fly in my wine than worry about pyrethin residue on the tableware (not that I'm not certain that you take all necessary precautions, Mark).

[mnebergall]

I think this case is an example of someone wanting something for nothing and using a fruit fly as the excuse for demanding it. If the person would have fished it out themselves in another restaurant, why not do it at Citronelle as well. It's total bullshit.

[razzar]

I wonder if this is some kind of reaction to the Dining Guide?

It seems like the people who were complaining today were looking for "service flaws" so they could complain about the ratings given out in the Guide.

As in the complaint about the fruit fly in the wine glass at Citronelle -- who watches the person cross the room to rectify the complaint?

If I (rarely) have something removed, I don't watch the disposition.

Edited October 27, 2004 by razzar (log)

[Carolyn Tillie]

You know, if folks like this saw the number of fruit flies swarming around and landing in open vats of wine before it is bottled, they would swear off wine permanently. When I'm doing tastings in our cave, we apologize up front about the number of flies becuase IT IS PART OF THE LIFE DURING PRODUCTION but we can't help it when they land in the glass while it is being poured. Heck, I can't tell you how many times I've had to pick the flies out of my teeth during tastings!

[hannnah]

I can't remember the last time I was at a restaurant, any restaurant, where I wasn't divebombed by at least one fly. It's gotten to the point where my husband just says "Oh look, there's your fly." Can't say that my designated fly has ever taken a dive into the food or drink, though - mostly because I'm paying attention.

Maybe these people were so awful that the fly was committing suicide-by-wine.

[Curlz]

Excuse me but some people need to calm the f**k down.  So a bug lands in your wine and you expect another bottle?  Honey, I think a few bugs touched the grapes on the vine too. 

WAIT...you mean the wine comes from GRAPES? That grew on a VINE? I certainly hope there was no DIRT involved. YEESH!

I thought Sietsema's chat today was one of the best I've read in a long time, and I read it every week.

Amen to calming the f**k down.