I was just wondering how he is doing with that. Haven’t heard anything on the news since the initial report. Poor guy.
Man, I’ve been craving me some hyacinth vapor! 
Double post
We were there once, and had a great time and a wonderful meal. As others have noted, they were happy to swap ingredients (and even courses from one menu to the other) – we had a person who didn’t eat shellfish, f’rinstance. It’s pricey, of course, but consider the entertainment! Before each course, someone explained what the course was and what the wine was and all about it. And after, we asked for a tour of the kitchen. So, we thought the entertainment value alone was worth the price.
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but entertainment is part of it. You do get much more information about what you are eating than at other restaurants, and they seem to love giving infomation & answering questions about the restaurant & the staff.
I don’t think I mentioned this part, but when we went on the kitchen tour, you could see into part of the wine cellar, where they keep the “large format” bottles. There was a HUGE bottle of Chateau Lafitte…can’t imagine what that goes for! My husband would have given his right arm to see the rest of the wine cellar…I think they offer something like 2000 kinds.
Ms. Cem and I are working up to hitting Trotter’s. We have it planned for our 10th anniversary (we just passed 5), or sooner if we hear it’s going to close or something. I have two sets of friends who’ve been there, and they were a little surprised (in a good way) at the casual feel of the interactions between the Staff and the diners. Tehy were expecting an aloof, stand-offish situation, and it was more of a friendly description of the meal, with passion. They loved it.
I’ve been to Trio (no longer around) on business, and it was fantastic. I haven’t been to the new Tramonto (Trio’s owners going to the 'burbs!), but it’s on my list.
Congrats on the promotion for Mr. Feena.
Hijack…I’ve heard that Table 52 is going to be a super place once they get the service locked down. That might be next for us.
-Cem
The service was very nice…warm and friendly. That was something else I didn’t like about Everest when I was there…the service was more snooty-patootie. Made me a little uncomfortable, like I wouldn’t know which fork to use. Trotter’s wasn’t like that at all.
I wanted to go there, but missed my chance. Didn’t hear they opened a new place.
Thank you!
I wish we had more time to try new places…it seems so rare that we have a chance to go to a nice place without the kids!
-Cem
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Plan ahead for this - reservations at FL are *insanely * difficult and done 60 days in advance. This page and this one have a couple hints. Notably, the online reservations are “released” precisely at midnight, Pacific time, so you need to be awake and online then.
Also plan on roughly $400 per person, and don’t plan on it being “light” food.
Another very worthy restaurant in the area to consider is Chez Panisse.
I missed this the first time around. To me that doesn’t sound pretentious, just sounds like dinner at the family table growing up. 
Joking aside, though, as long as diners know this going in, I think it’s a fine way to run a restaurant. It certainly depends on what kind of eater you are, but my general approach to a restaurant I’ve never been to is to hand the menu back and tell the server to serve me whatever dishes the chef is particularly fond of that day. Course, it helps if you’re not a picky eater.
If it’s a good restaurant, then I agree 100%. If the waiters look like they’re doing well, and this is their only gig (yeah, kind of a judgement call), then I let them pick. I tried this at 160Blue, and got a really, really good pork loin. I tried it at Commander’s Palace in Vegas, and got a very nice pork trio (huh…I wonder if the Pork Lobby has skin in this game?).
The only time this backfired was at Marche. I got a bowl of nasty noodles in a gritty sauce, with pieces of tasteless, dehydrated chicken. There were also scallions. It cost $23.00. Grr.
No shellfish…anaphylaxis is not a great way to enjoy the evening with Mrs. Cem.
-Cem
Ha ha…true, except, my mom didn’t charge me $150 for dinner!
I actually kind of liked it. I decided going in that I was going to eat everything, no matter what it was, and figured that I might eat some things that normally I wouldn’t pick for myself (which I did, and everthing was great!) I have heard that Trotter revises his recipes literally from day to day, depending on what the best fresh ingredients he can get that day are. I think that’s very cool, and part of the artistic approach to the food.
I try to be a little more specific and have the chef pick, if at all possible. Whether this actually gets communicated to the kitchen or the server just picks some dishes himself, I guess I don’t ever know for sure. I don’t particularly want to know what the server thinks is good. I want to know what the chef thinks is good that day.
I don’t think of it as backfiring. That just shows me that if that’s what they consider their best dish, then it’s not worth going back. Although I always try to give restaurants two shots with me, because anyone can have an off day.
I think most good restaurants do this, at least with their specials. I know that when I go shopping, I often don’t know for certain what I’m going to cook that day until I see what ingredients look particularly good.