Blair’s. Rated ★☆☆☆☆
I very rarely leave one-star reviews. We came in for dinner on Friday night. This place is just down the street from my friend’s house and they had been here before and enjoyed the food. The atmosphere is very dark. I wasn’t able to read the menu — tiny print — but I could see the plates were around $12-$18. We had about seven small dishes — polenta, salad, calamari, pasta, eggplant, beef. I asked for a glass of red wine — they only had one choice, Pique-Basse, which the waiter said was a bit like Pinot. So fine, several of us were having a glass so we ordered a bottle. The food was very good, though the portions were small. When the bill arrived there was a $60 charge for…something. My friend, who is a local small business owner used to dealing with customers, got up to ask the waiter, and ended up calling the owner, Blair. $60 was for the bottle of wine. I don’t know what people are paying in the area — but $60 seemed steep. The wine wasn’t even good — it wasn’t a Pinot, it tasted sweet and fruity. But whatever. The owner got into an argument with my friend, didn’t treat him with respect, didn’t explain that the wine was listed on the menu. His name is (now) on this restaurant, and my friend had dined there before — if he’d been apologetic and polite we would have paid the bill and never come back, but he wasn’t. So my friend tossed money at the staff and walked out, the rest of us didn’t know what had happened, the staff chased us out saying we hadn’t paid and they were going to call the police. Altogether unpleasant way to end the evening. One star because the owner was an absolute jerk to my friend on the phone, and because they didn’t tell us the wine would be $60 and it was too dark to read the menu. More light. Bigger print on the menu. Let the customer know the price of the wine. And fire the owner. If you’re the owner, do not write to me, I don’t want to hear it. Edit: I checked online and that bottle of wine retails for $20/bottle.