Albany Restaurant Week Postmortem
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse. Or maybe it’s the Downtown Albany BID who is engaged in the beating. But Albany’s Restaurant Week is clearly the dead horse.
Besides Taste, tell me of any other restaurant that does even a passable job at pulling off a restaurant week menu that’s truly a better deal than their normal offering, but still gives potential future visitors a taste of what magnificent pleasures await them on future visits.
And if you say Jack’s or Capriccio I’m going to scream.
To illustrate my point, I’m going to share two different perspectives on restaurant week. One from a diner who was returning to a favorite restaurant to take advantage of their restaurant week menu. The other is from a restaurant that was refreshingly frank in its assessment of this regular promotion.
Josh K. is a Yelper who I’ve met. We don’t always see eye-to-eye but I know that his perspectives are his own, and that he actually exists. His restaurant week journey took him to Cafe Capriccio. Really you should read his full review, both of this meal and his earlier positive experience at the establishment. Here are a few of the more cogent paragraphs describing the food:
My three mussels were hardly chilled, chewy and tough, my pork (although sliced thin) was fatty sitting in bland, lukewarm gravy, and my miniscule cup of vanilla gelato consisted of 1 half of a “fresh” strawberry. Yes, not even a full berry.
The “fresh made” pasta with eggplant that my companions ordered was tasty enough (albeit a very small portion) contained only the slightest shreds of eggplant. The Strawberry Rhubarb pie of the day was the size of my pinky finger – literally.
Another companion, who ordered the Tuna with an olive tapenade, said the dish was overcooked, and unremarkable. At least he chose the correct dessert of the night- Tiramisu, which was the size of our other three desserts combined.
The food was cooked, served, and presented with such lazy, apathetic indifference that I can’t imagine that it was the same upscale Italian restaurant I had previously visited and enjoyed with much gusto.
If it’s possible, it sounds like Josh had a worse meal at Capriccio than I did for Restaurant Week a few years back. This year I decided to heckle from the sidelines. And thanks to the miracle of Facebook, I was even able to get a public response from whoever manages Jack’s Facebook page last week. My concern was that their restaurant week menu looked nothing like their regular menu. And I wanted to ask them about it. Here’s the full exchange, with boldface added for emphasis:
FUSSYlittleBLOG
Serious question: Do you think your restaurant week menu provides a good representation of your menu for the rest of the year?
Jack’s Oyster House
Hi. This coming year is a special one for Jack’s…As we begin to celebrate our 100th Anniversary we will be rolling out very special menus and events throughout 2013… (Jack’s is one of the oldest continuously operated restaurants in the country.) Our current dining and future menus are not reflected in the Restaurant Week promotional menu.
FUSSYlittleBLOG That was the sense that I got too from your Resto Week offering. If it’s not something you would serve the rest of the year, why do it for this week? It feels like it does short [shrift] for both your regular customers and those who might be trying your restaurant for the very first time.
Jack’s Oyster House
Actually, Jack’s Three-Course restaurant week menu has been very popular. The offerings are made with the freshest (and, where available, with locally-sourced) ingredients and represent a terrific value at the $20.12 price point. Guests ordering from the Restaurant Week menu are free to choose any one of three dishes (Chicken, Fish or Vegetarian).
Alternatively, guests who prefer to do so are able to order from Jack’s regular dining and daily features menu. Just because the dishes offered on the Restaurant Week menu are not on our daily menu does not mean that they in any way short change a guest’s dining experience or trivialize Downtown Albany’s Restaurant Week promotion.
We feel it is important to actively participate in events that support Downtown Albany and the region that is our home. We do welcome constructive feedback and appreciate the time you took to comment. Thank you.
Okay. I get it. They want to support the BID in their efforts to bring people downtown, and they sell a lot of these cheap dinners.
What I don’t get is the disconnect between the fact that they acknowledge the menu is different (and clearly inferior) however despite this it doesn’t lessen the experience of Jack’s. Unless the experience of Jack’s isn’t about the food. Which might be a harsh but fair statement. But I don’t think that’s what they meant to say.
It appears that Restaurant Week in this town isn’t about building up a restaurant’s business with prospects who may return throughout the year. Rather it seems to be simply about getting bodies downtown so that the BID can say they had a successful promotion. And if that is indeed the bar for success, well dammit, let’s beat that horse some more. Because people keep coming out.
But every person who comes out to an event like this that has a bad experience like Josh K., is one less person who will be making the trek out to Albany’s overpriced downtown restaurants during the rest of the year.
If the BID thinks that this is a success, I see no signs of Restaurant Week improving any time in the foreseeable future. Which is really a shame and such a lost opportunity.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 
Daniel, why don’t you try a wonderful & utterly consistant restaurant for a change? The name? Katrinella’s Bistro on Madison Ave. I dare you to find bigger portions…..great food, & such an excellent value!! They don’t give you a “slice” of cake for dessert….they give you a SLAB! (They have a 3 course menu each & every single day! Lunch & dinner.) Sorry to be so blunt, but I am sick to death of hearing about Taste & Cafe Capriccio’s. By the way……You yourself, just last week, were complaining about “lackluster” food being served during Restaurant Week. Thank you for listening.
I don’t dine out much anymore. The quality just isn’t there for the price. I realize prices for pretty much everything are on the rise, but there’s a balance that should be maintained between price, portion and quality. I find myself cooking more at home, and now that my kids are a bit older and their tastes are broadening, I am getting back to my pre-kid cooking habits (which feels great). The Restaurant Week deals (in any area) don’t lure me out. I’ve heard too many stories about bad food, pitiful portions and long waits that it’s just not worth my time or money. I’d rather cook up something special at home for a quarter or tenth the price.
@Michaeline…. I completely agree with you. A friend of mine took me to Katrinella’s, and that’s one of the only restaurants I’ve been back to twice since I moved here. Their Salmon Giuseppe is unparalleled. The atmosphere is tiny and classy, very intimate, and the chef and his wife are very accommodating and friendly. Not to mention their 3 course options for $22 @ dinner, and $12 @ lunch. After eating here, I wonder why I don’t see this place on the radar more often.
Long story short, this place has my full endorsement as well. Dan, if you haven’t been, I suggest making a trip.
And now you see why we (TJ’s Cafe) don’t participate in Colonie Restaurant week or any other off-price promotion. Why would a place offer food or service that doesn’t reflect their typical offerings? The whole idea is to get new faces through the door who would not otherwise be there as a full price customer. NEVER NEVER NEVER compromise quality of product or service. It seems to defeat the entire purpose of the promotion…as is reflected in Josh K’s yelp review.
For myself and my staff at Tj’s, always do our best to accomodate our guests and don’t compromise the quality of our food-EVER-…if it takes longer to cook…then it’s gonna be a few minutes more. If we offer an off menu special with a special ingredient like Kurobuta pork belly…then we charge accordingly.
It is always with a deep sense of sadness that I read bad reports about other places, as I understand how difficult it is to be an independant restaurant operator in this economy. But I believe we don’t compete with other establishments in our market…we compete against ourselves ie. last meal, or last service. SInce we are comming up on our 16th anniversary of doing business in our community, I find it gets harder (not easier) as time wears on. So my best wishes to those brave few who keep trying to please people in this market….and as always KUDOs to Mr Fussy for holding our feet to the fire!!!
I know Daniel is a fan of Katrinella’s! He promoted it in the Times Union FussyBallot two years ago!
I have to admit that I made the mistake in thinking that Restaurant Week was all about showing off what a local restaurant is all about. By offering 3 courses, the patron would experience a taste of what the restaurant has to offer at a reasonable price. They would enjoy it so much and have such a pleasant dinning experience that they would return later and order off the regular menu or get the specials.
In retrospect, perhaps I should have gone to Katrinella’s (I had a very good dinner last time I was there) but I am seriously scarred from Restaurant Week (this wasn’t the first time – La Serre a few years back was atrocious as well – but hopefully it will be the last).
It seems to me that offering an inferior product at inflated prices that does not reflect the restaurant, does more harm then help the local restaurants. If I hadn’t had the previous positive experience at Capriccio the first time around, there would be no way I would ever return and would warn others to stay away too.
I am fortunate that I know that Capriccio is a lot better than this. But it really makes me question why they would want to hurt their reputation. It’s almost like they assume people won’t know any better and that’s insulting.
Sure they get bodies in for a week, but if they don’t come back, then was it worth it?
I agree. My one and only experience with Restaurant Week last year was terrible (we went to Taste). We were so underwhelmed, we didn’t return to Taste until a Groupon recently enticed us back, and we realized our second dinner was significantly better (although, for the price, I still wasn’t blown away). I didn’t even bother with Restaurant Week this time around. Rather than bringing me back to a restaurant, it succeeded in completely turning me off to one that I had no prior experience with for comparison– probably not what they had in mind? It’s a shame that Restaurant Week feels like a waste of money instead of a fun night out.
I had no problems with Restaurant Week this year. I took my girlfriend, her father, and stepmother to Jack’s on Wednesday and Franklin’s Tower on Thursday, and in each case had a great experience. We did order somewhat off the Restaurant Week menu for appetizers and such in each instance (the oyster stew was amazing at Jack’s, for example) – but I don’t think the menu itself was a letdown in either case.
I think more than about the menu itself, Restaurant Week allows you to sample the ambience of a place and decide if it’s somewhere you’d like to visit again. I’ve been to most of the restaurants on the list a number of times since I’ve lived in Albany, but it’s great to take out-of-towners to them during Restaurant Week because you can get a sense of what appeals to them for a relatively reasonable price. In this case, I think Albany’s doing something right.
I agree I found a lot of the menu’s uninspired, but was glad to hear about Katrinella’s. I was considering trying it but didn’t end up going because of underwhelming experiences in the past, will definitely try it in the future!
Trust me Reba…..You will be satisfied!