I know, I know. "Restaurant scene" in good ol' little Olney, Maryland? Not too long ago, that particular "scene" consisted of a Pizza Hut and , uh, a Pizza Hut. Sure, I am exaggerating a bit, but not too much. With the ongoing "facelift" on the town center area, new places for us Olney locals have been popping up. The most recent addition is the tapas restaurant, "Taste".
I purposely waited until I visited "Taste" twice in order to give the place a fair read. As I left "Taste" after my second visit last night with the lovely Julia, I could not help but be reminded of the title to one of Clilnt Eastwood's cool spaghetti westerns, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". A visit to "Taste", at least for now in its relative infancy, gives you just that.
Lets start with some "good". This is a really nice joint. Once entering, you completely forget that "Taste" is located in an old and dicrepit Olney shopping center, circa 1975. Great little bar, dim and sort of sexy lighting - always a plus for this bar fly. The dining area is separated from the bar by some etched glass type panels, giving the place a real "downtown" kind of feel. I like it.
More good. The food, tapas style, is not usually my cup of tea. As all who know me are painfully aware, I like my own dinner. I pick mine, you pick yours, I eat mine and you eat yours. You know, the way us Americans are supposed to eat. So it is a bit out of the box for me to have to "conference" with others at my table in order to pick items we all might like. But no matter - everything I have had to eat at "Taste" on two separate occasions has been delicious. The food is out quick, it looks great and tastes great. Absolutely no complaints. Even for the discriminating foodie type, which I am not, it is a winner. Hands down.
Now, lets turn to the bad. The wait staff is mediocre, and borders on incompetent. Dont get me wrong - as I said, the food comes out fast enough. The problem isn't with speed, its with knowledge of your menu, your bar, and attention to your customers. It took me three requests on both visits to get a glass of water. Last night, the complimentary breads and hummus did not come out until after our food arrived, and only then when we asked for it. When we were ready to go, the waitress walked by me about six times before coming over to see if she could bring a check. I finally had to wave, a la an elderly jewish fellow at a Brooklyn deli, in order to get my check. Unfortunate.
The real "bad" was my drink. I ordered a bourbon, light ice. It came delivered to my table, looking like a slushy, buried in ice and served in a brandy snifter. Get outta here. Seriously? Bourbon in a brandy glass? I think I went to a party once where the host poured me a little Jack in a Brandy glass. I broke his nose and burned the house down. Not really, but you get my drift. Anyway, in my nice daddy voice, I asked for my drink to be put in a short whiskey glass with two cubes of ice rather than the initial Big Gulp portion. The waitress looked at me a little cockeyed, but complied.
Now, the ugly. After all, this is a tequila oriented blog so I need to make a brief observation in that direction. The observation I made, quite simply, is that you get a better selection of tequila at the local Red Lobster. Cuervo (cheap garbage) and Patron (over priced garbage). Thats it. You want tequila in Olney, better bet is UBQ down the road a bit. Even better bet is to get an invite to my bar.
All and all, I think "Taste" is worth your time. I will most definitely return. One can only hope that the owner spends some time better training his staff and, of course, spends a few extra bucks to beef up the anejo shelf. If he does, maybe a different movie title will come to mind...
No comments:
Post a Comment