From: [food writer]
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2006
To: eater complaints dept.
Subject: why i don't heaert bouley
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dinner there two weeks ago. the moment we sit down, the bottled water is poured -- no asking, no nothing. since it was a group with no clear host, the server clearly took that as a cue to keep going until, after the sixth or eighth time we asked for them to stop -- and the captain had to publicly reprimand the server with a "the gentleman wouldn't like anymore" -- the pours finally switched over to tap water. seriously bad training. i hope that extra $27 on the final bill was worth it to them, because that killed my repeat business. if David Bouley can't control a situation like that, I shudder to think what else could happen. for better or worse, Bruni happened to nail this one.
also a lot of badly hidden glares when we opted for some of the under-$100 selections on their badly overinflated wine list.
at least the Bakery makes some kick-ass bread.
· For a Classic, Another Shade of Elegance [NYT; Bruni]
