Last night I dined out for peace and gave a restaurant that prompted the longest bad review I'd ever written about anything a second chance. I was feeling charitable.
So kick off your shoes and read two reviews of Fayetteville's most expensive fine dining spot, Vetro 1925.
Do you ever have that awful feeling when you walk into a
restaurant that everyone who told you it was great was wrong and you’re going
to be horribly unsatisfied? No? Maybe it’s just me.
Last Friday my girlfriend’s parents invited us to join them
for dinner. After hearing about their great meal we were both anxious to try
the newest and priciest spot to get a fancy meal in town.
We were five minutes late for a 6:30 reservation. Upon entering
the crowded restaurant we were greeted by the hostess only to be cut off (not
once, but twice!). She answered the phone and another server before helping us
finding our table. So we walked ahead on our own and found the table downstairs
in a corner. I didn't even know that they had a downstairs. After greeting her
parents and engaging in small talk I was desperate for a cocktail. Dinners with
family do this to me: my family, her family, any family. I’d perused, glanced,
examined, and memorized the drink list by the time our server finally appeared.
We had been there for nearly 10 minutes.
He arrived with a drink for my girlfriend’s mother who had
just told us how great the last Manhattan she had here was. When I saw him hand her a rocks glass I was worried.
The server had misunderstood her and brought a specialty cocktail instead of
the classic drink. After a brief apology
he moved onto the dinner specials and tried to take our order. I had to cut him
off to order drinks and even after I told him we hadn't looked at the menu he
continued to push appetizers. It was like someone let the waiter-bro from
Chilli's out of Chilli's and put him in a tux shirt. Was he going to offer us
some Southwestern Egg Rolls? Did our fancy dinner just turn into a cruel hoax?
Was the downstairs part of the restaurant a poorly lit chain? I ordered a glass
of pinot while my girlfriend carefully ordered a traditional Manhattan.
Safe in knowing that I had a drink on the way I cracked open
the menu. The menu is an ostentatious romp through 4 full pages of traditional
Italian dishes complete with their Italian names. I glanced at a few selections and decided on
the Duck. Having an appetizer and my entrée selected I moved onto wine. The
wine list was a useless conglomeration of over-priced cheap bottles w / an
array of Italian varietals that our bro, err server wouldn't have been able to
adequately describe without first-having some great wine knowledge.
Quick Observational note-- I feel like they’ve bitten off
more than they can chew. There's no way that this place will be able to pull
off what they're attempting without face-planting at this point. There are too many proteins, too many wines, and
ill-prepared servers. The only way they
can make it is with a fantastic chef and spot-on consistency.
When the appetizers came out they were separated by 6-7
minutes. My girlfriend and her step-father ordered Arugula salads with shaved
fennel and toasted walnuts. When the two salads were served they were delivered
7 minutes ahead of my appetizer and her mother's soup. I don't know what the
holdup was but it gave me time to joke about how pathetically dressed her salad
was in comparison to the other. taking a moment to put them side by side you
could clearly see one was covered with fennel, walnuts, and Gorgonzola while
the other looked as though all of those featured items had been forgotten. They
weren't though. she had 2 pieces of shaved fennel and 3 walnuts. Her mother seemed pleased with her soup and
my appetizer was bland and over-priced at $12. 2 small pieces of grilled
eggplant stuff with goat cheese and served with tomato sauce.
I love to cook so when I go out I try and get something i
wouldn't prepare myself. No, I didn't get the $55 Elk rack. I got the $27 duck.
Properly cooked duck is amazing. I'd had high hopes before my arrival and if
I'd gotten a great entree I would have forgiven all of the inconsistencies I'd
seen. No such luck. The gnocchi was
mediocre at best and gross if eaten in the same bite with the candied walnuts
that garnished the dish. They were globed with caramelized sugar to the point
that it was nearly impossible to taste that the duck was rubbery and the skin
sagged instead of being crisped. The skin on my girlfriends Sea Bass seemed
properly firm until we discovered that it was just a very hard sear on 32 piece
of fish. Truly an injustice for such a fantastic piece of fish when
well-handled. Salmon, you don't mess up Salmon season it lightly and cook it
properly. Her father's Salmon should've been fine, right? No. Drenched it
sauce. You could've put anything on that plate and called it Salmon with the
amount of sauce it was served with.
I ordered a simi Sauvignon blanc which retails for between
10-13 but cost 32 nearly 3x the retail cost. Everything was expensive. this is
easily Fayetteville’s most expensive spot and if you want to look like you've
got money to burn and be seen in the newest spot bring your credit card or
prepare to take out a second mortgage. A very-well traveled family friend took
my grandfather here for an underwhelming lunch. Underwhelming that is until the
bill came out. For the friend who has eaten in Michelin-starred restaurants all
over the world and picks up checks often and without battling an eye was taken
aback. With tip our dinner was nearly
$70 a person. This was my first and will probably be my list into this
overwrought flash-in-the-pan spot.
October 4th, 2012.
This is my second trip to Vetro and my second review. I'll preface this one by saying I was drinking heavily before and after so the fine details are kind of fuzzy.
I already had a buzz working when i got there so I hurried up and ordered Bruschetta. I said "bru SHET a" she corrected me with "bru SKET a." Thanks for the lesson in Italian. I'm trying to get drunk. Bring my damn appetizer.
When it showed up it looked like Melba Toast. Ever had that stuff? They sell it in the cracker aisle at Wally World? It's a dry-ass toasted cracker. That's what the toasted bread was like for the Bruschetta. I mean, you could hear the crunch and watch the toast shatter as you ate it. Impossible to eat without making a huge mess. I made an awesome pyramid on the tablecloth from all of the crumbs.
I'm hungover. still. Here are some lovely Bullet points:
*They've ironed out some of the kinks. -Good for you guys.
*They're the most expensive place to eat in town. -ouch. $$$ means quality right? Nope. Pretentious crap. I'd love someone like Pete Wells from the NYTimes to review this place. It would get skewered.
*Downstairs blows. -if you get seated downstairs they hate you. You'll have one server who's running up and down the stairs for you and all the other tables around you. They could use a second server down there for sure.
*They overcooked a Medium Rare Filet --after the server explained how a Medium Rare steak should be cooked. medium well? Did they forget it?
The server kept pulling the wine list off of the table. Are there only a few of them so she just needed to keep handing to new tables? Or is it the fact that it's as thick as War and Peace and takes up an entire place setting? Either way it's almost pointless to go through. Better server still didn't know much about the Italians that comprise the latter portion of the list.
I gave it a scathing 1 star review and hated it? So why did I go back? I needed to know if the meal I had 8 months ago could be repeated. It couldn't. Thank god.
Is Vetro even still around?
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