"The Table" is Set?

Alert readers might note there has been a little blogging gap this week, as the BottomFeeder had issues with the first part of his nom de plume, which led to lack of partaking of the latter, sort of taking up time....But, I’m happy to report that

Last night we joined several good neighbors and friends for dinner at La Tabella, the most recent occupant trying to make an a la carte restaurant out of the retirement center dining room in Wildewood. As you might guess, the menu is sort of classic Italian, which is sorely needed in our area, so kudos to them opening in the face of the never ending (disgusting) breadsticks and salad bowls of OG. Quick read is that although they may not be really “open” yet, there is promise shown that would easily make me want to favor them over the OG. As with any new restaurant venture, there are a few opportunities for improvement, but that comes with time. The good news is that the food shows a lot of promise.

Before proceeding, I know that several of our party will be reading this, and as usual I point out that the BottomFeeder tries to look dispassionately at the restaurant, not to affect what was a great evening with friends, which after all, is what really matters.

So, when I learned that we would be visiting the “new” restaurant, the old “expectations” thing went through my head…

Their Givens:
One, The space was created as a retirement center dining room, NOT a restaurant.
Two, You (at least I) can’t find the damn place at night. Wildewood is the darkest place I’ve ever been.

So I can’t really hold that against the new occupants, they have accepted those terms. They have, however, addressed “given” number one to some extent in that a row of planters now creates sort of a “bar” area, which has three (!) sizeable flat screens on the walls. They are in full view of the bar area of course, but they are also in full view of the dining area. Maybe taller plants would help.

Anyway, I was a bit late after the usual “ooops! There it was!” (“given” number two) and a U-turn to get back to the parking lot. As a result, most of our party was already seated, so I missed the recitation of any off menu items, and I don’t know if there was a “Hi I’m…” start. They were in the midst of drink orders. Some chose wine from the wine list, and our server pointed out a wine she had tried and really liked. You know what I think of that. Others ordered cocktails and I of course levied the drink test.

Great conversation filled what was a pretty long time between ordering drinks and their delivery, but some fairly tasty bread helped (eventually with olive oil). When the drinks arrived, all was well except a Martini that was supposed to be on rocks arrived “up”. My DMWATOTR drink was well made to my order and of good size, and a nice value at $6. The menu presents a myriad of choices, with a rather large column devoted to “pasta” (17 options including baked and stuffed – alfredo, carbonara, lasagnette (?), all your favorites) and 2 steak and 2 seafood choices. The other side of the menu is devoted to “Specialities” (I think there must be a better term) which contains various preparations of chicken, veal, shrimp, along with seared scallops and crab cakes “Southern Maryland Style” – whatever that is. Most dishes come with a side salad. I am pleased to report that they have vegetarian options and even a note that says they will do Gluten Free upon request. Good for them..

Between the 8 of us a good variety of things got ordered. I of course tried my benchmark Veal Piccata, while others chose Veal Parmesan, Chicken Ravioli, with one stuffed rockfish and a request for just linguine with olive oil and light garlic.

I never know when to talk about the service--maybe now. All the servers are dressed in black, were very courteous, and eager to please. Water glasses were nicely attended to. If I had to nit on something, (which I always do), I would ask that servers refrain from recommending wine or dishes or commenting on my order. Don’t tell me I made a good order if you’re not prepared to tell me I’ve made a poor choice. And (maybe this is just once) I really don’t care to be referred to as “M’Dear”. And another pet peeve while I’m at it: when I use my (only) knife to butter the bread and eat the salad, I really don’t like it when they set it aside when clearing the salad. When I noticed this being done across the table, I purposely put my buttery knife in the salad bowl, and when she came to clear, she asked: “did you want to keep your knife?” and when I greeted that with silence, she said “I’ll get you another”. Kudos for that, it should be standard practice. Other than that, I couldn’t complain much, she did a pretty good job with a table of eight. The only other comment on “service” was that there were very long waits between drink order and delivery as well as food order and delivery.

Speaking of food, as I said that is what gives me hopes that they can make a go of this place despite the “givens”. It was generally very good. The green salads were crisp and fresh, with dressing on the side so you can have as much or as little as you like. Eventually the main courses arrived and for the most part were placed at the proper seat. There was a little gap between seven of the dishes and the simply prepared pasta, but it got there. Since I had Veal Piccata, I didn’t get a chance to taste the red sauce but everybody else liked it. My Piccata was quite good. The veal was tender, and although I would have cooked it a little more, as it wasn’t golden brown but still it was tasty. Everybody else was happy with the food. And for the most part there was LOTS of it. I had four pieces of veal each that would easily fit in the palm of your hand just about the right size, but they were perched on a huge mound of pasta. Kind of disproportional. It’s kind of tough to make a large serving of red pasta look really good on a white plate. Maybe a sprinkling of parsley would help, or if that’s all they’re going to plate, maybe a bowl would look more appropriate. Or perhaps a colored plate. When asked for some Parmesan cheese, we were brought a couple of little shaker top jars like you have in Pizza Joints, one with cheese and the other with crushed pepper.

Anyway, the food is the cornerstone of a restaurant, and I think they have a great start on that. You can fix “M’Dear”, replace silver, work with portions and presentations, but with good food to build on, I’m hopeful that it will be able to develop. Prices are affordable, and as I said portions currently are such that lunch the next day is pretty much assured. I think they’re trying hard, and I’ll go back in a few weeks to see if some of the growing pains are being eased. I will never “like” the space, but I will live with it. Meanwhile, go take a look. If going for dinner, you might want to punch the coordinates into your GPS to help with given two.

And, I’m happy to report that everybody we saw was acceptably

DFD