Further to Joel Robuchon

I never finished my story about my trip to The Lizards, nee Latte Yea Show Ruby Show, nee L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, and how I talked Chuck's mother-in-law into commissioning a portrait of her daughter, his wife. Maybe I'll get to that, but for now, check this out:



I mean, really.

Funny, I don't remember seeing anything in the video about them refusing to seat a party of five during the soft opening. I'm still steamed, but am getting past it.

If you remember seeing The Lizards' now-famous dining bar that they panned across so lovingly moments ago, we all ended up sitting at one of the corners. Amusing on one level; a satisfactory way to have lunch for five people--less so.

And although Joel himself suggests you can see the food being prepared at the bar, you really can't. Everything is hidden behind massive glass decanters filled with cucumber slices and beets and things. The only thing you can acutally see cooking is a lone chicken rotating on a rotisserie at the back of what they call the kitchen.

They throw it away at the end of the day, I'm told.

Additionally annoying: I told the waiter that it was Chuck's birthday and asked if they would be able to spare one of the cool berets that the kitchen staff wears. They answer, after much furor, was no.

You'd think, given that this was our second time at this particular restaurant within its first month of existance--surely identifying us as "regulars"--plus the uproar about not seating a group of five, that they would have coughed up a hat as a make-nice gesture.

No. No fucking hat for you.