Terragusto - getting an attitude

My wife went to make a reservation at Terragusto for a few weeks out, and we were shocked to learn that they would take a $40/person NONREFUNDABLE deposit. I've heard of places taking a credit card to guarantee a table, but never a nonrefundable deposit. Has anyone else heard of something similar? The food there is delicious, but I really don't appreciate the attitude. I guess they can get away with it because they are so busy, but I hope their arrogance catches up to them at some point.

Well, considering you are probably among the hundred or so people who rushed to the phone to call them after seeing tonight's episode of Check Please, it's not entirely surprising. I may not agree with the practice but I would imagine that the number of no shows would be significant.

Honey1's phones started ringing off the hook as soon as the episode ended. The Check Please effect is no myth.

This was pre-check please.

I have experienced this before, but only at high end restaurants (Trotter's and MK - and MK only with a reservation for 6 or more)

The Check Please appearance was published for WTTW members in September. I suspect that Terragusto's management knew the air date even earlier and were acquainted with the Check Please effect.

ekreider wrote:The Check Please appearance was published for WTTW members in September. I suspect that Terragusto's management knew the air date even earlier and were acquainted with the Check Please effect.

I expect this was the case, too. Terragusto is a very small restaurant, and I would think a couple of no shows might be the difference between an unprofitable and profitable night, particularly painful at a time when you're turning reservations away. But I also am turned off by a no-return deposit (particularly for a restaurant that's very good but is by no means the best-of-show) and I'm hopeful that this policy would disappear once the CPE surge recedes.

jbw wrote:But I also am turned off by a no-return deposit (particularly for a restaurant that's very good but is by no means the best-of-show) and I'm hopeful that this policy would disappear once the CPE surge recedes.

Or, better yet, disappear forthwith.

I have to turn this on its ear a bit... rather than asking what may or may not have inspired them to create such a policy, I think the better question is what could possibly justify it? If we were talking about a catered event where the restaurant is performing work or incurring some kind of expense up front that would be lost in the event of cancellation, I'd certainly understand. And I'd also understand if they were attempting to protect themselves from no-shows (nevermind that other restaurants, even those less likely to fill those tables, happily take this risk). But taking a credit card that will be charged in the event of a no-show... not an uncommon practice... would achieve that purpose just fine. It seems to me that the only possible line of thinking behind a nonrefundable deposit for a standard restaurant reservation is pure greed... knowing that some people will undoubtedly be forced to cancel, allowing the restaurant to take money from people for whom they have provided exactly zero service.

They're certainly within their rights to do so... it's their restaurant. But if anybody can think of a reason why this isn't simply taking advantage of their customers, I'd like to hear it because I certainly can't think of any.

Maybe they think they can make a business out of all the gazillionaires the Tribune Magazine wrote about last week, the ones moving into those McMansions all over the place--people who can piss away $40 a person without thinking twice. And maybe they can. It would be a shame, though.

Has anyone else confirmed that this is, in fact, true?

ekreider wrote:The Check Please appearance was published for WTTW members in September. I suspect that Terragusto's management knew the air date even earlier and were acquainted with the Check Please effect.

We were there on Wednesday. They certainly were aware of the Check Please effect and knew it was coming. However, $40 is steep. I guess we won't be going back for a few months after being a regular.

I just made a reservation for Sunday and was not asked for a deposit.

Please post a report. Haven't been there yet and curious how they're holding up since all the initial excitement that followed their appearance.

As noted, I have some doubt whether the claim made by a two-post poster was ever true or not, but I have to say that even though I live pretty close to Terragusto, I haven't been back in a long time. It fell off my casual drop-in-with-the-family list very early on when we went there shortly after it opened, when it was hot. At around 5:30 the place was empty, but they still wouldn't take us because of the reservations they had for later that evening. Yes, that's the point of reservations, and completely justifiable as a business practice, but realistically, a family with a 5-year-old sitting down at 5:30 will be gone by 7 pm, we're not going to be lingering over espresso for another hour. Turn me away from an empty restaurant nonetheless and next time, I'm just not going to make the same trek, hungry kids in tow, to risk the same treatment. So I'll be interested to hear by now if they're still making it with foodies from all over town, or if they wish they had back some of that neighborhood business they failed to encourage early on.

While I haven't yet eaten at Terragusto and can't comment on their food, I did have a pleasant experience with their service. Just before Christmas I stopped by to purchase a gift certificate. It was a weekend and they were not yet open. However, when I phoned to ask their hours (didn't see them posted) the person who answered the phone saw me just outside the door and came over to speak in person. After he answered my question about their hours, I mentioned that I was stopping to purchase a gift certificate. Despite being closed and busy with another task, the man invited me in and prepared the certificate (including a complimentary $20 gift certificate as a thank-you for the $100 certificate I purchased).

I haven't been back to Terragusto because I thought that the prices were pretty severe for what you received. I liked my food, but it wasn't great enough to justify the trek to Roscoe Village when I feel like I'm getting a tad gouged.

Amen to that, brother. $18 for a very small pasta,(good, but not great) and $9 for a bowl of soup that had all the flavor of weak dishwater. Don't see the attraction.

We arrived at 7:15, the restaurant was not very full, yet our table was not ready. Kind of odd. Anyway, we waited 5 or 10 minutes, and then were seated. We each appetizers and pasta. The soup (I thought) smelled better than it tasted, but was not bad. The smoked salmon mousse appetizer was HUGE! It came with 5 toasts, each heaped with a ton of rich salmon. I had 1.5 toasts and was nearly full when my pasta came. The other appetizer we got was the polenta, which was very tasty. Each of us felt that we had more than enough food, too much, even. We also had bread with a very fresh olive oil, in which 4 bright green olives were floating. The olives were excellent. I'm not usually a green olive fan, but these were really nice.

For pastas, I got the ravioli with walnuts and brown butter, two people got the tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, the last person got the gnocci. We liked all of them very much. I particularly liked that it wasn't a sweet brown butter sauce on my ravioli.

The food was very good, as was the service (though we did have to ask for water). DH and I thought it was a tad overpriced, the other couple didn't (citing the fresh, local, etc. aspect). I would go back.

I was just there for a friend's birthday with a party of 5. I didn't set the reservation so I can't speak to what that entailed, but regardless, the table was there and ready at the time of our arrival (9:15ish on a Friday).

The restaurant was at capacity, filled with a number of larger parties. Overall, the experience was pleasant but not without a few hiccups.

I'll start with commenting on the food first. Overall, everyone enjoyed their meals very much. Usually I'm not a fan of fresh pasta as I prefer mine very al dente but I can say that the pasta here had a pleasant bite to it. I started out with the polenta "appetizer." It was HUGE. It could have been a meal unto itself. It was topped with sauteed greens and onions and was quite tasty if you could get past how insanely salty it was. I think this was how my batch of polenta happen to be....I had one piece on my plate that was seasoned perfectly and was heavenly. My main was the potato ravioli with pork ragu. The pork was incredibly rich, almost surprisingly so. Great stuff. No complaints about my main. I followed that up with the panna cotta dessert topped with apples and walnuts...one of the best desserts I've had. The panna cotta was subtly sweet with rich caramel overtones. I hate using this word, but it was, in fact "sublime."

So, here's where the hiccups come...The menu is incredibly confusing. My group felt like we had just finished the SATs after trying (unsuccessfully) to figure out how the specials worked. Basically, you can get a 2 or 3 course prix fixe menu but only (?) for 2 people...or so they say. We tried having our waitress explain how this could be applied for our group of 5 but were left more confused after the fact. (It didn't help that it was incredibly loud in the restaurant and could only hear bits and pieces of what she had to say.) We finally settled on just forgetting the prix fixe and ordering what we wanted because, in the end, this was actually cheaper. But, we ended up getting forced into buying the prix fixe anyway because the waitress served us (and we drank, unknowingly...partly because she actually took away our regular water glasses, without asking, and replaced them with glasses of the sparkling) the accompanying Pellegrino stating that "it comes with your meal"...i.e. the prix fixe that we didn't want in the first place. Gaargh!

And it didn't help that in the end that there were issues on form of payment. We had preceded ordering asking the waitress if it'd be possible to split the checks (1 couple, 3 individuals..i.e. 4 checks). She said yes. However, at the end of the meal we were left to find out that for groups, they did not split the check more than 3 ways. (!?!?) After staring at her blankly for a while, she broke down and said "I'll see what I can do." She did, in fact, come back with 4 checks, but not without making it a point to say "I could only do this because the night had slowed down." Whatever...we had asked prior to the meal which I think is fair enough pre-warning to stay within the realms of proper etiquette and I think that to create some arbitrary rule about only splitting a check 3 ways regardless of the size of the party is redunkulous.

Okay....enough ranting. Summary: Awesome food, obtrusively loud, goofed-up pricing policies

shoes wrote:Basically, you can get a 2 or 3 course prix fixe menu but only (?) for 2 people...or so they say. We tried having our waitress explain how this could be applied for our group of 5 but were left more confused after the fact.

Hmmm, we went once with one other person and asked to have the price adjusted to reflect 3 instead of 2 people. Our waitress said that would be no problem, the price would just be 50% more and we would get one additional appetizer and one additional main course. It actually made the meal a major bargain since we wound up with enough food for about 7 people.

I forgot to post a write-up after we left, but I really liked Terragusto and would be happy to go back.

I've been to Terragusto twice - once on a ridiculously busy Friday and once on a lonely, rainy Tuesday. The date made all of the difference; Tuesday's meal, the conversation was great and the staff couldn't have been more accommodating. Friday, service was harried and the din was overwhelming. I suggest Terragusto for earlier in the evening or week.

It has been universally noted that the polenta is way, way too salty, but I'm told that in the context of a fixed menu it is to be used "as a condiment" to their very lightly salted meats. Why they then have it on both the appetizer and entree menus at different times of the year, I'm not sure. My favorite items there are the chicken and pork loin entrees and the farfalle bolognese - you can tell the ragu has been reducing all day.

The only time I ate here they were out of almost every protien on the menu. That coupled with a very condescending server who treated us as if we had never dined out before by over explaining everything and taking a generally arrogant tone tone made for a less than good experience. The food, while well prepared seemed somewhat uninspired. I don't need to go back. There are plenty of other places with better food and better service.

Terra Gusto is one of those restaurants that is so close to being one of my favorites, but the so-called hiccups drive me crazy.

The menu is fairly simple and I'm surprised that it caused confusion. There are three sections to the menu: antipasti, pastas, and meat/fish. The meat and fish dishes are large enough portions for two people to split. There are also two fixed price options: a two course and a three course meal, both of which are for two people to share.

If you want a fixed price menu and have three people, for example, you'd probably want one of the fixed price options plus an extra pasta or meat/fish dish. It sounded like "shoes" had a waiter who was not very adept at communicating what should have been a pretty simple solution.

Another person commented on the attitude of the staff. This has always been a sore spot for me. Sometimes the waiters seem to assume patrons are totally unfamiliar with the idea of using fresh, seasonal ingredients, or the idea of serving food family style. (Last time I was there the waitress asked if we had been there before. When we said that we had, she skipped the spiel.)

The restaurant is BYOB, which is great, but they also do not have wine glasses. So you have to either bring your own stemware or drink out of tumblers. I would much rather pay a corkage fee and avoid having to bring my own stemware, but this isn't an option.

The first time I ate there, the waiter said that drinking wine out of tumblers is the traditional way to drink in Italy. Well, yes and no. Simple wines are drank out of tumblers in Italy. Many Italians (especially older ones) add some water to their jug of wine. These aren't practices to be emulated with decent wine served with the quality of food at Terra Gusto.

I've always found the food at Terra Gusto to be fantastic. The antipasti and pasta dishes are simply prepared and taste wonderful. The brunch is also great. The relatively minor service lapses will hopefully go away.

My husband and I have eaten here twice, and the food is good, but we won’t be back. A few months ago (after Check Please) I called on a Thursday to ask if there were any Saturday reservations available. I know that they are always very full, but sometimes reservations open up, especially for a party of two if you are flexible about times. Anyway, the guy who answered the phone mocked me and laughed for even thinking I could try to get into their restaurant on a Saturday without calling at least 2 weeks in advance. I was completely appalled by his behavior. Ridiculing someone for wanting to eat at your restaurant is just awful. I have not even considered going back since and I can assure that won’t change anytime soon.

That's terrible. But are you sure that you interpreted his intent correctly? How did he mock you?

His tone was extremely condescending, not friendly or silly. He laughed haughtily and said basically, “you cannot really expect to be getting in here for a Saturday night with less than two weeks notice. The restaurant is extremely popular." Trust me, it's all in the tone, and his tone was snotty and rude. I am certain I did not misinterpret his attitude toward me.

That unfortunately sounds about right. Even though I'm a defender of the place on account of some remarkable care going into the ragu, handmade pasta, and high quality meats, the service does have contempt for the average diner, as reflected in the title of the original post.

In "Searching for Bobby Fischer," there's a good discussion of contempt. It is a needful hate born of pride but ironically mixed with respect. It is no longer cool for a dining staff to have this (and perhaps never was); it's inappropriate at Terragusto and they need to cut the crap.

I'm reminded of my friend Joe, who was in the first season of Check, Please! when Le Deux Gros was reviewed. He's the one who infamously started his review with "I had a *TERRIBLE* time at Le Deux Gros. Hated it" No one has been that blunt or honest since in front of fellow nominators. They (edit: the restaurant) asked him at one point: "Have you experienced fine dining before?" Unacceptable, even if you have the food to back up your assertion / contempt that your restaurant shatters the paradigm of fine dining, whatever the cuisine.

I had a similar experience walking in on a week night at about 6:30. There were two of us, most of the tables were empty, and the man at the host stand (I assumed the owner) quickly dismissed us with a wave of his hand and said the tables were all reserved and we should have called. Pretty much before we'd even eeked out a hello. This was just a month or two after they opened. No, please come again, no sorry smile and shrug, just a flip refusal with no friendly over (or under) tones. I haven't tried again.

Kristen

Santander wrote:They asked him at one point: "Have you experienced fine dining before?"

Someone at the restaurant asked him this, or one of the other Check Please! panelists? Either way, it's inappropriate, but way more inappropriate for someone from the restaurant to ask.

"Have you experienced fine dining before?"

Oh what fun I would have showing them how little I knew about fine dining that evening. Either that, or I could play the "I know more about fine dining than you do" game, where I would point out in no uncertain terms ever minor error or miststep all evening long.

It makes me smile just thinking about it.