One15 Restaurant, Montclair

[rhubarbd]

This seemed VERY strange to us - anyone else experience it here?

We'd been eager to try One 15 for the Spanish food. Called earlier today to see if reservations were required; a very pleasant person told me, no. We were meeting another couple there. En route, the other couple called & told us to pick another restaurant. The chef is off tonight, they were told; no Spanish food available. Huh?

Turns out the chef is off Tuesdays and apparently there is no one in the kitchen who knows how to cook from his Spanish menu ... no sous chef, no one ... so all that was available were burgers, cheesesteaks, wraps, and the like. Not what we were interested in eating.

Seems like a strange way to run a restaurant - to have the most compelling component of your menu unavailable on the chef's night off! Why not close, rather than confuse your audience? Or teach someone else in the kitchen how to cook?! PS - three out of four of us are in the food/restaurant business as consultants, food writers, current and former operators. Never come across anything as wacky as this in all our (collective) years in the industry ..!

[hitmanoo]

This seemed VERY strange to us - anyone else experience it here?

We'd been eager to try One 15 for the Spanish food.  Called earlier today to see if reservations were required; a very pleasant person told me, no.  We were meeting another couple there.  En route, the other couple called & told us to pick another restaurant.  The chef is off tonight, they were told; no Spanish food available.  Huh?

Turns out the chef is off Tuesdays and apparently there is no one in the kitchen who knows how to cook from his Spanish menu ... no sous chef, no one ... so all that was available were burgers, cheesesteaks, wraps, and the like.  Not what we were interested in eating.

Seems like a strange way to run a restaurant - to have the most compelling component of your menu unavailable on the chef's night off!  Why not close, rather than confuse your audience?  Or teach someone else in the kitchen how to cook?!  PS - three out of four of us are in the food/restaurant  business as consultants, food writers, current and former operators.  Never come across anything as wacky as this in all our (collective) years in the industry ..!

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A strange operation indeed.

I hadn't heard of a new Spanish restaurant in Montclair. Where is One15 located?

[Franky2Times]

This is a relatively new CAFE at the corner of Walnut and Grove in Montclair. The CAFE is a CAFE and it is what it is. It doesn't pretend to be anything else and is very good at what it's doing, Spanish cuisine with american lunch items. The fact that they don't serve Spanish specialties on a given night, especially after the customer called and was informed about it, should not be held against them. This is a tiny business. They don't need the bad publicity. Are our "consultant" friends looking for new customers? Nothing on that menu is expensive and nothing is pretentious. Go for lunch and enjoy.

[jwjojo]

I would say that still is a little wacky. It would make it hard to visit a restaurant that changes not just its menu, but its cuisine on any given night.

[ghostrider]

Doesn't seem to be on any given night, seems to be Tuesdays.

They should have informed the original poster when he/she called to inquire about reservations, but apart from that, why shouldn't they operate this way? If their local clientele supports it, more power to 'em.

[rhubarbd]

[" The fact that they don't serve Spanish specialties on a given night, especially after the customer called and was informed about it, should not be held against them."]

Sorry - i don't know how to do the quote thing quite right!!

Franky2Times, perhaps you misunderstood my post. We were NOT told over the phone that they weren't serving Spanish food that night; it was after our friends arrived there first that they discovered there was no Spanish food being served.

And please keep your snarky comments about "consultant friends looking for new customers" to yourself. Business is thru the roof, thank you very much, and we're not taking on new clients.

But back to the case in point! If as you say they are "very good at what [they're] doing, Spanish cuisine with american lunch items" - my friends and i have no problem with that. All i'm saying is - if there's one night of the week you're not serving your special cuisine (and frankly, the cuisine that's gotten them their most positive write-ups), let your customers know in advance - like when i called to make reservations.

You don't have to defend their menu for not being pretentious, etc. I am simply saying that as a potential customer, to drive to the restaurant, look for parking and find out that what we came for wasn't being served is kind of weird. It's not a smart business move, that's all.

And BTW - talking about not smart business moves - i received a PM from someone who went for lunch, ordered a burger from the chalkboard menu ... and when the bill came, discovered that they charged him $7.25, not the $5.95 that was hand-written on the chalkboard. When this person asked if they'd made a mistake, he was told that their food was flying out the door but they weren't making any money on it, so they had to raise their prices.

Again, my point is - that's OK, it's THEIR restaurant - they can do as they like ... but to not let customers know before they order something directly off the chalkboard?? It's just not smart.

[allie]

Well, my boyfriend Chris & I decided to walk down to Cafe One 15 today... we weren't really in the mood for Raymond's or Church St Cafe and sandwiches sounded good.

So, our server highly recommended the One 15 Chilly Cheeseburger- Chris tried this and it was awesome! Here is the description:

Ground beef seasoned with chili powder, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, topped with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, lettuce & tomatoes

Chris asked for this minus onions, and it sounded as if onion may have been included in the ground beef mix (although it wasnt listed as such), because the server stated she would have to put this together fresh- but said the burger was so good, they would be happy to accommodate our request. A bit confusing, but we understood this to mean onions were also included in the ground beef mix. They were right about the burger being good though; this burger was spicy and I would order this again in a heartbeat. If you're a minimalist with your burgers, this may not be for you though...Btw, its only $6.95

I opted for the grilled chicken sandwich on a baguette, with avocado & feta. The chicken itself was marinated and extremely juicy, and the baguette was fresh- very good sandwich. This was $6.75.

We ordered fries with one sandwich and mixed greens with the other (both included), and both were average.. a nice accompaniment but nothing special.

Since we ordered water, our bill was just under $16- perfect! We will return for sure to try their omelettes (they serve breakfast until 3:00 PM on weekends) and will most likely come back when the weather cools down for their spanish food.

[Rosie]

Is the restaurant air conditioned? We drove by there and doors were open.