We’ve revisited ConC twice in recent weeks, and found the service very friendly and entirely efficient both times. The menu is different than before, but very good.

The maitre d’ acknowledged that the restaurant had had teething pains. He said the management realized within the first year that what the neighborhood wanted was comfort, notsomuch cachet.

They’ve got the formula right now. We had a fine time, and we’ll keep going back.

With high hopes we returned to C on C this evening. It’s clearly gone upmarket, but it’s worse than that. The tone the boss is setting is unwelcoming to say the least.

The wine we ordered was out of stock, so we ordered another. Then we waited. Our food arrived, and grew cold as we waited for the wine. No one offered an explanation. When we finally started eating our food and then told the owner that we might as well cancel the wine order, wordlessly he turned on his heel and walked away. Never an explanation, never an apology. Nothing.

Without even asking whether we would like coffee or dessert, the server dropped the bill on our table, with a zero balance written in, again without comment. This came off as a dismissive insult. We insisted on paying our bill, and felt sorry for her as she explained that the owner had told her to do this. We are not likely to return.

Barry would have (1) welcomed us to his new restaurant (2) quickly explained the problem (3) given us two free glasses of wine in time to enjoy with our meal and (4) laughed it off, with us. We would have been back the next week. How we will miss Cafe on Clinton.

Missed dishes will include the Fettucine Ipoh and the maple plank seared salmon.
Good luck, Barry!