La Frite

This Belgian restaurant left me with a bad taste in my mouth. And I wish I was referring to the food. We weren’t so lucky.

So… They don’t take reservations.

Ok, no worries. So we showed up and tried our luck at the usual time on a Friday evening. It wasn’t a First Friday, so how busy could it be? Well, quite busy actually.

There’s no hostess stand (or hostess), so you just have to mill around with waiters flying about like human Messerschmitts until someone feels like acknowledging that you aren’t a spectator.

Eventually we told the gentleman that we were a party of seven for dinner, to which he looked at us incredulously and said “it will be a loooooong wait” and then walked off. No name taken and no timeframe.

Several minutes passed and I began eyeing the tables like a vulture. Drink quickly people! Life’s short!

It wasn’t the fault of the other patrons that we had to wait. I can understand a restaurant being busy. The guests should feel comfortable to eat at whatever pace they would like. But the inexact host prompted me to scan the tables like a gold digger at the Republican national convention.

I inquired again for more specifics, as I could see that members of the party were not weathering the wait well. The response was a sarcastic “For a party of seven? Hmmph” as though we were imposing on him for requesting to dine in his restaurant.

I can respect that a restaurant would have a hard time accommodating a group of seven for dinner on a Friday night. I can respect that there might be a long wait for a nice restaurant in the gentrified Southtown neighborhood. But there are better ways to manage your customers.

Perhaps my cooler headed friends will prevail and we will attempt to dine at Le Frite another time. It will be a looooooong time from now.

Are you looking for a place to use the line "I'm sorry honey; why don't we go back to my place and we'll cook something?" You've found just the place!