Victorian Rose (Point Lookout) - September 2007
3.56 - 5, 4, 4, 4, 3.5, 3.5, 2.5, 2

A cool, breezy day led us into the early evening and a little bit later gathering time than usual at the Monteverds (could it be a “close” call?). As usual, Kriss and Ken outdid themselves with the Autumn decorating, from pumpkins to Byers’ Choice figurines to ... potpourri ... there were other diversions, fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, candy corn, nuts ... and a tour of the ongoing upstairs renovations, Ken being the master craftsman and Kriss the decorating manager.
         Then off we went, seemingly west, then southeast, then west again up the mountain to Point Lookout just this side of Windham. It was a gorgeous night for a drive, just before twilight with a great view of the mountains in the distance as well as the closer valley.
         Perhaps it was bad karma when we walked into the restaurant and were told our table was ready but they weren’t ready to seat us. After several minutes waiting in a half empty dining room, we were escorted to our table by the window overlooking the scenic valley. Missing flatware and glasses seemed to only be the beginning of this disturbing, yet somewhat amusing, evening (comedy of errors comes to mind).
         The evening began with drinks of course, a diet Pepsi for Kriss and pinot grigios for Deb T. and Judy. Then the red wine fiasco – ‘we only have one bottle of that’, ‘we’re totally out of that’, ‘o.k. I’ll bring you that right away’, ‘oh wait, we don’t have that either, but we have the first one’, which led us eventually to ‘I have to have him open the wine at the bar – no one wants to see me attempt to open it at the table’...Oh my!
         Once the drink debacle was settled, we were finally able to order. Again, not as easy as you would think. They were out of baked potatoes and the seafood platter had a substitution of crab legs for the lobster tail – can you tell me how that happens on a Saturday night in a restaurant that isn’t that busy to begin with??? Anyway, three opted for the strip steak (Ken, Kriss and Tim), two for the shrimp Caprese special (sautéed shrimp in a scampi-like sauce over couscous – Judy and Don), Deb T had her seared scallops, Chay ordered Cajun shrimp bowtie pasta and Deb K ordered scallops and shrimp in a scampi style sauce with sun dried tomatoes and artichokes over rigatoni.
         The extra flatware and water glasses finally appeared somewhere along the line and also pitchers of water each end of the table. A good idea, the pitchers, but someone has to remember to refill them for our water loving drinkers. In the meantime, Tim’s appetizer of prosciutto wrapped scallops arrived (declared good) and shortly thereafter (or maybe not so shortly), Caesar salads and a Mediterranean salad were served to the rest of us. We had to request bread (apologies were made by the waitress – it was “frozen” and it was taking longer therefore to warm up – great...)
         Dinner finally arrived and we all dug in, except for Kriss of course – more about that later. Tim’s steak was a “little tough”, Deb’s scallops were just “o.k. – I’ve had better”, and most other comments ranged from o.k. to good. I would guess Chay had the best meal of the table from what I heard around the table and what I sampled from his plate.
         We unanimously decided to skip dessert and after-dinner drinks when the waitress announced that there were only two dessert choices and one had to be “baked” – I think each of us envisioned still being there in the morning. I counted only two cups of coffee for Ken – wow, don’t think I ever saw that happen before.
         We decided instead to head down the mountain just a little bit to Falvey’s for dessert, etc. It was amazing – we sat down at a table, we ordered dessert and drinks, they had everything we ordered and everything came out shortly after ordering. Who’d have thunk??? We “enjoyed” the DJ’s music and some karaoke ...

The Up Side
We had a colorful discussion with the three bikers who sat at the table next to us, even though we mostly jointly commiserated about the horrible service both they and we were getting. ... And God bless the waitresses, they didn’t appear very experienced, but they did try and they did apologize for many of the things that went wrong over and over again over the course of the meal.
         Even though the evening was not a great success from a service and food point of view, the “leisurely” rate of dining certainly expanded our time for catching up. ..., Judy and Tim’s upcoming travel plans, and, of course, those 10 month employees had to complain about their return to work in September (feel kind of bad now for picking on the rest of us now, don’t you?!?!?).
         For further entertainment, we got a spectacular view looking down over the valley of the fireworks display at Blackthorne Resort.

The Down Side
         Where to start...? Frankly, my salad was good and my meal was pretty good. It just seemed like too much work, waiting and aggravation had to take place to get it to the table. Of course, Kriss had her usual steak issue – when will they get it right?  Well done means well done, not medium rare!
          So many images come to mind, but suffice it to say service, even with two waitresses assigned to look after our table, was deficient at best. 

          I know Kriss was somewhat mortified (although I don’t believe that was the word she used) as the evening unfolded, but really, we had fun and we did eventually get to eat (which the bikers almost didn’t, as they threatened to leave just as their appetizers were coming out of the kitchen).  I don’t know, the bigger one looked like he could be trouble if he got mad and he was definitely getting mad.  Poor things, they were just hungry, like us…  Of course, the line of the evening (if you ask me and I’m writing!) was when one of the waitresses said, as she was apologizing once again to the biker boys for all the delays – ‘I’m a lot more afraid of the woman cooking in the kitchen than I am of you guys!’.  Holy cow!
          ....