Memorial Day 2007

Memorial Day 2007. This year we decided to close for 2 days (Sunday, Monday) and since we're closed on Tuesday, take advantage of this rare opportunity for a quick escape out of New York.
We decided to go to Chicago.
"Chicago!?" "Why Chicago?"

I've gotten asked that a lot. Well, why not Chicago? For no particular reason other than that it's a major city in the U.S. I'd never been to and I've always been curious about Chicago. I met a older married couple year's ago while dining at Chef Paul Prudomme's restaurant in New Orleans who insisted that I must see Chicago one day. They talked on and on about how much they love Chicago. Their passion for their hometown stuck with me. It didn't take much coaxing to get George to agree to go there with me. He too had never been there.

We both loved it. We found Chicago to be very clean and very modern with great scenery and fantastic restaurants.

We did have a bad experience there. Being the restaurateurs that we are, we are always exploring other places to eat. We decided one night that we would check out De La Costa, one of latest Douglas Rodriguez' restaurant ventures.

Upon entering De La Costa, we were asked by the hostess if we had a reservation. We didn't. She then informed us that De La Costa was completely sold out that evening but that we could be accomodated at the bar should we want to eat.

"Sold out,?" I thought. "What does that mean? "Sold Out?" I thought. "Hmm. That's a new one."
In the interest of experiencing De La Costa we sat at the bar and ate. I kept my eye on the dining room floor all night to witness what a 'sold out' restaurant looked like.

The place never filled up. As a matter of fact, we sat there until closing time and never saw the dining room more than 50% full at any point. I overheard a heavy-set couple seated next to us at the bar express disappointment at having been told this by the hostess as well.

I called the manager over towards the end of the evening.
"Hi. Let me ask you something," I said. "I'm visiting from New York and I came here very interested in dining in this establishment. I'm also a restaurateur and own a latin establishment back in New York."

Pulling out a bundle of cash from my pocket, I showed him my money. "I would have spent a lot more had I been seated at a table rather than the bar but your hostess told me that the restaurant was "sold out."

"I kept my eye on this floor the entire time. It never filled up. I can't help but think that this may have had something to do with the way we were dressed or our skin color because other than that, I can't explain why we weren't seated in the dining room."

De La Costa, as far as I could see, did not have a dress code posted on its doors. I may not have been dressed to the nine's being that I was on vacation, but I certainly didn't look like a slouch either.

The manager responded, "You don't have to tell me you own a restaurant or show me your money. What the hostess did was wrong. What did she look like?"

I proceeded to tell him it was the young woman with long brown hair.
"I'm so sorry," this fellow says to me. He proceeded to offer us a free dessert and invited us back to De La Costa the next evening. "I assure you that you will be taken care of."

We didn't know what that meant. Did "well taken care of" mean that we would be sat in the dining room? Did it mean that we would be compted a meal or beverage? Neither George nor I were convinced of his sincerity enough to want to go back so we didn't take him up on his offer.

I walked away feeling that we had probably called him on what is probably an unwritten rule at this restaurant regarding handling people who might not appear to fit a 'desireable' look for their dining room. You can bet I'll never step foot in there again. Why bother? Chicago's got a slew of great restaurants. I wonder what Douglas Rodriguez would say.