I Have a Restaurant Recommendation

[foggymountain]

Since I recommended Donatella's it is my obligation to unrecommend it. There are some problems there. I discovered that they do not pay the service staff, at least according to the waiters. They don't even give them the credit card tips, again according to the waiters. When someone asks for their money they get fired. These things have been reported to me by several of the former employees. I have not verified these statements. Such a way of doing business is illegal, unethical and exploitative.

Moreover the chef had recently changed the last time I was there, and the food was not as good as it had been. My dinner came out heavily salted and was inedible. Donatella does not usually prepare the food herself. She was in the restaurant at the time of the oversalting. I brought the problem to her. She agreed, and sent it back to the kitchen to be replaced. Then she went home. When the replacement came out, it was still very salty. I do not believe that a restaurant should salt the food. Many people are on a low salt diet. Saltshakers are on the table.

Donatella's is off my approved list. I will not go there again. Good restaurants often have a short life span.

 

[ssjones]

Good restaurants often have a short life span.

Sad news and correct. At least in a large metro area like NYC you have an ever changing palate of choices. Less so in this rural area of Maryland.

 

[radio807]

Donatella's is off my approved list.

What a shame to hear. I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere when we met there several months ago.

 

[mso489]

In Chinatowns, it's a given you follow the chef, not the restaurant owner. A chef can hang up his apron in the

middle of lunch if he gets a better offer. Foggy, did you ever follow the Ala Carter column on affordable

Manhattan restaurants in the old New York Newsday? Also, there was a book that derived from the column,

"Eats," in two different editions. This ran mid-80's to mid-90's or so. It was so successful, the New York

Times actually imitated it, when they were mortified to be caught imitating the interloping Newsday. This

has been confirmed in print by a former New York Times staffer.

 

[foggymountain]

It is hard to believe how many poor restaurants there are, and how really good ones are very scarce. My new town, Woodstock, does not have a single good restaurant that I have discovered in the town center area. Nothing even close Moran'd is the only OK restaurant I have discovered in Chelsea, and it is more of a bar with steaks and salads. Too bad Donatella's went bad so quickly. One of the most common sins is salting the food.

 

[ssjones]

Yes, I wasn't too impressed with the pubs around the town center, kind of tourist traps. There was a nice looking restaurant just out of town, near the lake, I can't recall the name. It had an appealing look but I never went inside. I'll be up in a few months, your job is to find somewhere decent to eat!

 

[foggymountain]

Al: The reason they are tourist traps is that most of them are owned by the Riese brothers, that legendary NY restaurant company. I believe it is called the National Restaurant Co. If you go into Penn Station you find dozens of restaurants and think you have a choice. You do not, they are all owned by the Riese brothers. But I guess you know that already. It is rare to find a good affordable restaurant in Manhattan. I have known a few in the past but most did not last. Maybe the Second Ave Deli, which is on 33rd st. I lived there for 50 years. No good restaurants in Woodstock either.

 

[ssjones]

I was talking about Woodstock. But, I sure do know the Riese Brothers. At one time we franchised six locations to them and now have one (across the street from MSG on 7th Avenue at the base of the Pennsylvania Hotel.
http://rieserestaurants.com/news/fast-food-king-no-more/
They are legendary and at one time operated close to 30 NYC locations. Marriott even tried to sue them, unsuccessfully.

1982: Marriott threatens to take the Riese family, a franchisee, to court when they discovered the Rieses were reserving space for Häagen Dazs and Godfather's Pizza in a property slotted for a Times Square Roy Rogers restaurant.[

My dealing with them when we bought the brand in 2002 were challenging, but I learned a lot about working in NYC, a place I had been exactly twice.

 

[instymp]

Foggy,you probably can cook at home better than many places in your town. That is a problem.

 

[foggymountain]

Al: Riese had about 200 restaurants when I was in the business in the 1970s. One brother died at about that time, the other must be gone now too, which probably explains the decline of the chain. They started by buying a Child's restaurant in the Times Square area in the 1940s.
Instymp:I have worked as a chef, and even as a butcher, though never really trained as such. Most of my work in the kitchen was as head garde manger (buffet chef) in the Concourse Plaza Hotel, in the 1960s. Some of the Yankees and football Giants used to stay at that hotel at the time. In the late 70s and 80s I was the ice carver who went out on calls to most of the Manhattan hotels. I have even done fancy buffets for places like the Plaza hotel. But yes, I can cook better than most restaurants. You should have seen the face of the manager at Donatella's when I offered to teach Donatella how to make a good tomato sauce. She sells hers in jars and they use it in the restaurant. It tastes like it came out of a can."the problem," as you mentioned, is that when you know how to run a restaurant properly, you see everything wrong with a place when you go out to eat. The Longchamps chain used to send me out to spy on franchises and write reports on what I saw. I usually found over 100 violations of company policy on such expeditions.

 

[instymp]

Foggy, That means I am correct? :lol:

Thats why we don't go out to eat, only when we have to meet friends, & I can't wait to get home.

Free drinks, T-shirt & sweats.

 

[foggymountain]

They closed about a week ago. Most likely they couldn't pay the Chelsea rent. It is a shame to see people open businesses who do not understand the underlying financial structure of that business. My guess is that their lease is for around $30,000 a month. A restaurant of their size and in their price range cannot survive that rent.