Ever go to a really fancy restaurant for a nice all-out splurge meal? Though we rarely do, we did last week, and got very good, even special, treatment. We were feeling our oats a bit, and the next day we actually decided to go back again to the same place just for fun. We were not as hungry this time; after all, eating a multi-course meal several days in a row is a bit much, even for hardcore foodies.

We explained this to the server, who was the same person who had waited on us the first night. Her reaction was quite surprising – she did a theatrical gasp when we only ordered one wine and no appetizers, and though she added a joke or two, we felt that she was quite noticably cooler in her manner through the rest of the meal than she had been the previous night. It really took the wind out of our sails, though the food was still very good. I should add that everyone else we dealt with in the restaurant did treat us just as well as before, including the manager.

Certainly anyone likes to make as much money as possible, and is more excited when they make a big sale. And some people truly do rate people by how much they spend. But we still dropped over 50 bucks the second night, and we don’t skimp on tipping, either, so it seemed to me that this extra dose of attitude was pretty uncalled-for. The restaurant was very busy, so nobody was going to go broke that night. I don’t always sympathize with big-city food critics, who may have too much power over restaurants’ success or failure at times, but on this night I could imagine what Ruth Reichl used to feel like when she would go to a restaurant in disguise, and get substandard service.

I’m pleased to report that this restaurant was not in Syracuse.  Has this happened to any of you?

After returning home, I emailed the restaurant, Twist in Hyde Park, NY.  The manager wrote back, quite concerned about what had happened, and promised to speak with the staff.  She intimated that she new which server it was by my description, and who knows, maybe that waitress was reamed out the next day.  The manager said to be sure to pay her (the manager) a visit next time we came by, which seemed to imply that we’d get some kind of recompense, but nothing was explicit.  But unfortunately our trips to Hyde Park are not common, so we’re basically left with a mixed memory of our meals there.