Tahoga

[ExpatRaver]

Last night a friend of mine and I went to the soft re-opening of Tahoga. Well, things could've gone a bit better. I'll be as lenient as a soft opening warrants, meaning, I won't rip on anything relating to stock, just food and service. We showed up a bit later than we meant to, so after apologizing profusely we were seated near the bar. All of the tables were preset with two forks, two knives, b&b plates, napkins, and stemware for champagne, water, and wine. We decided to forego the bubbly and go straight for a white. Our waiter brought out a 2002 Touraine (Loire Valley Sauv Blanc). He promptly filled my friend's wine glass, moved to a position from which he could reach mine, and filled my water glass. He didn't even seem to notice that the two pieces of stemware were dramatically different, and then he left. The wine wasn't particularly interesting besides being thoroughly overextracted. No bread had arrived. Our waiter came back to take our order, and at our request brought water. We ordered, and waited for a few minutes. Still no bread. For our first courses I had a gazpacho with avocado and rock shrimp, and my friend had a pizzetta with foie gras, figs, some kind of mushroom, balsamic reduction, and watercress. If this sounds like too many flavors, don't worry, you couldn't taste anything over the slathering of syrupy balsamic. The gazpacho balanced the pizzetta out by simply tasting like nothing, though the rock shrimp and avocado thrown in the center of the dish were nice. Our second courses were respectively filet mignon (billed as one-side char-broiled filet) over what I described as a "big ol' pile" of rattatouie and a pork loin that was supposedly braised with forty cloves of garlic. Our waiter could not explain what "one-side char-broiled" meant, and judging by the grill marks on both sides I'd say it was definitely both-sides char-broiled. It was really perfectly cooked with regard to temp, but it was oversalted and the only other discernable flavor was rosemary of which there was quite an overabundance. The pork loin looked (and according to my friend tasted) as though it had been boiled not braised. There is something singularly thought provoking about a piece of boiled pork. For a moment I forgot that I was in a new restaurant and imagined what it must've been like to be a peasant in medieval England, the simple country life, the spiritually cleansing physical labor, the god-awful food... C'mon, folks, boiled pork? To wash down our entrees we were given Italian Merlot. It had to be the most fruity, over-extracted, plum bomb ever quaffed. It wasn't horrible, just really uninteresting and cheap. I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that it was Franzia. And, still... no bread. At this point my friend and I simply opted to take off before dessert, but of course we had to go through all the social pleasantries that went with attending a soft opening. The owner was pleasant and brief, but his new manager wanted to tell us EVERYTHING about opening the place. Apparently she'd put a lot of the physical labor in herself, and she was quite proud of the results, but I just couldn't understand how she could wander around the dining room cooing over how lovely everything was when her service staff was undertrained and the kitchen was turning out second-rate food. So, perhaps they'll get everything sorted out before the real opening on Monday, but I somehow don't see it. Oh, and one last thing. If I were going to open to the public on Monday, I wouldn't plan on having all of my liquor, bottled water, and wine delivered on Monday as the manager told us they were. Maybe, just maybe, I'd make sure that was all in place before opening day.

[Mark Sommelier]

My little buddy ExPat is being exceedingly kind with his comments. I was his dining partner. His assessment is correct. I wish we had gone to the Guards instead and had oysters Rockefeller and Veal Oscar. If Cynthia is working , that is a big plus.

[bilrus]

This sounds worse than the soft opening at Rocco's.

[Mark Sommelier]

Tahoga closed yesterday.

[Tricia]

Tahoga closed yesterday.

Anyone have an idea as to why this happened so quickly?

[vengroff]

Tahoga closed yesterday.

Anyone have an idea as to why this happened so quickly?

It sounds to me like whatever the food and service problems may have been, the financial problems must have been worse. If you're not fiscally and emotionally prepared to bleed cash for a year, you should probably not be thinking of opening a restaurant.

Two weeks must be some kind of record. It's not even enough time for Tom Sietsema to have gotten a review in the pipeline before they closed.