We used to go out to dinner a lot. Well that is if you consider once or twice a week a lot, but over the past year though, that has changed.
One reason for the change was my aunt coming to live with us. She doesn’t eat much, and it’s hard for me to justify spending $25+ on a meal for her, which she barely touches. The second reason was building the barbecue in the back yard. It was something my wife always wanted, and it’s a work of art. How can we justify not utilizing it as often as possible? Thirdly, we like to drink wine, and any more, it ends up costing $8 or $9 just for a glass of mediocre wine, and a lot more if you buy a bottle. And if you bring your own bottle, the restaurant charges you $15 or more for corkage, on top of what you paid for the wine.
But now I can add one more reason not to go out so much, and it’s just that the quality of food, and the overall experience has deteriorated so much.
Saturday night we went to a new French restaurant in town (Second Street in Naples) called Fringales. It is a prix fix menu which consisted of one appetizer, one main course and desert, for a total cost of $25.
I should have known there was a problem when we walked in, and noticed their entire collection of wine located on both walls of the room (the place is too small for a wine cellar). When I asked the waiter for a wine list, they didn’t have one. What kind of “French” restaurant doesn’t have a wine list?
The waiter appeared knowledable, and asked what kind of wine we liked. The usual response for us in that case is Pinot Noir. He indicated he had one, and went to the “wall” to pick it out. He came back with a French wine, which was labled Pinot Noir. That should have been my second clue. Any French wine that says Pinot Noir can’t be good. It should have said Bourgnone, which is the area French Pinot Noir’s are grown. Who knows where these grapes came from? The waiter said it was a good wine, so I took his word for it, and agreed to the $38 cost.
Not only wasn’t it that good, but it was overly warm. It was in the 80′s that day, and since they don’t have air conditioning, the wine was at room temperature, that is, it was in excess of 80°F. I should have taken that opportunity to return the wine, but it wasn’t spoiled, so I chose to stick it out, hoping the food would be worth it.
The saga continues. The first thing we noticed was the bread was stale. When we told the waiter about it, and asked if he had fresher bread, he simply said that’s all they had. It was all like that. Not, oh I am sorry, let me see what I can do for you! Even if all they had was stale bread, at least he should have apologized.
For appetizers my wife and aunt ordered salads which were edible, and I order the smoked andouille sausage. I’m not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t what I got, and it was pretty awful. It was cold, and I think raw, but I’m not sure about that.
Alas dinner came. My wife and I had ordered the filet mignon. The first thing I noticed was there was absolutely no thought to the presentation. The plate came with the steak, covered in a green pepper sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans, all just placed around the plate. Ok, so maybe I’m being a little picky, but this was a French restaurant, and the French pride themselves on their food prepartation and presentation. Well, in France they do. At least the steak was prepared properly, and aside from the sauce being a little salty, wasn’t too bad.
The total price for the meal was $140 which included a $12 tip and $5 for two coffees which I am sure the menu said was included. The hosted said no it wasn’t, and felt it necessary to add that no restaurant in the world includs coffee with the meal. I’m not so sure of that, but I wasn’t about to argue.
So would I go back? If you have to ask that question, you need to read this post again from the beginning. Not only wouldn’t we go back, but I’ve just become more soured on restaurants in general.
We can go to Costco or almost any grocery store, and get great wild salmon, steaks, lobster, or almost anything else we want, open a great bottle of perfectly chilled wine from our cellar, and prepare a far better meal on our outdoor barbecue, for no more than a third of what that meal cost. Sure there might be some clean up required, but that’s why we have an automatic dishwasher.
So thumbs down to Fringales!
Just come over to our house for a great barbecue. But don’t forget the wine! 
