Three Restaurants, Three Months: The NorCal6

Ahhhhhhhh ... the maintenance of the 'ole blog when it comes to The NorCal6.

Sometimes it's effortless, other times not so much.

June and July were mostly non-events.  We hit The Melt in Folsom and Danette's Brick Oven Pub in July, the latter having been visited in a previous year. Both?  Were adequate when it came to food and atmosphere.  

No drama, no surprises and it was agreed we'd return again.

Now ... Rocker Oysterfeller's in downtown Placerville last month?  Different story all together.  Oh, the drama ...

 

The food was rather good.  I partook of Louisiana Hot oysters (even though I know it's rarely a good idea to order seafood far, far away from the sea) and some Blackened Gulf Shrimp Tacos.  Tasty stuff indeed, despite being a bit on the pricey side.  (And, truth be told, I was kind of pressured into ordering oysters ... but I really didn't mind getting hornswaggled in that department.)  Pete and Missy ordered the same thing, Smashburgers.  Pete said his was delicious.  Missy's was a letdown, she said - overcooked and not very tasty.  My failing recall forgets what Laurie ordered but I do remember Grant got the Molasses & Bourbon Pork volcano Shank which he enjoyed right down to the very last.

So, overall, the food worked.  The appetizers?  They did start off the evening with any sort of anticipation once served ...

A plate of Bear Battered Onion Rings was proffered while we were all talking and, by the time I got a chance to take a gander at them, there were 3 rings left ... and pretty anemic looking ones at that.  I didn't remember seeing anyone going for them so I surmised the order was a singular half dozen rings, all told.  

"What happened to the rings?!?" I asked.  With I would have nabbed a shot of them for evidence.  Grant ordered some Cheesy Jalapeño Pull-Apart Bread and, if I didn't know any better, it came from the middle of Death Valley.  It was that dry.  No dipping sauce or butter or other was offered with it, so butter was requested ... but by the time it got there it was too little too late.  (Skip this item if you go there.  Trust me.)

And, in the mix, was our waitress who was not only scatter-brained but appeared out of sorts with the entire concept of waitressing.

The first couple beer orders I attempted weren't available.  On the third try - a Henhouse Stoked! Hazy Pale Ale I ordered with emphasis on the "Stoked!" because of the exclamation point - she asked me "The dessert?"

"The dessert?!?" I responded.  "No ... the beer."  I had not idea what she was talking about.  And, apparently, neither did she.

"Oh, yeah ... okay.  Got it."  And off she stumbled to put in my order.

It took an inordinate amount of time for the drinks to come but the food came in relatively quick order.  But ... most of it was served to the wrong person.  As noted:  Our waitress wasn't the sharpest took in the shed.

Interestingly and at one point ordered an additional brew ... and I attempted to so same.  But each time I was spurned, ignored as if I was a ghost.  This was rather amusing to Grant but let me flabbergasted.  I could see our waitress' tip diminishing to a trickle as the moments ticked by.

And then when all was said and done the checks came ... complete with automatic 20% gratuities already attached.  

On the inside?  I was slow burning, on the way to fuming.  But ... on the inside.

I wasn't going to allow the substandard service of this gal get in the way of everyone's enjoyment of the get-together nor was I going to expose my inner asshat.  

But come on ... an automatic gratuity for a "large party" as detailed on the receipt?  Since when did 6 people encompass a large party?  I buried any comments I wanted to unleash and pleasantly paid the bill without incident.

Tasty food (though a touch pricey), terrible service.  

It's going to take convincing to get me back there, this I know.

.......... Ruprecht  ( STOP bad, ditzy waitressing )

For God's Sake ... We Need To Reorder Pepper RIGHT NOW ... !!!

I really like pepper.

And I really love fresh ground pepper.

Fresh cracked pepper on a turkey or a tuna sandwich, good stuff.  Pepper, along with other condiments, makes the omelet for me.  Fresh, fruity pepper on a perfectly cooked steak ... nothing better.

The smell of it, the pungent aroma of it when its newly ground from a mill, gets the 'ole taste buds salivating.  Goes without saying I use it in a majority of my recipes. And liberally.

Regular table pepper (when I can't get the freshly ground stuff) is a necessity at a meal.  Even in a fast food joint, I pepper where it's appropriate.  French fries, for example.  Curiously (or, maybe, not so much) I might use more pepper on my fries than I do salt.

Which is exactly the case while dining at The Melt in Folsom recently.  I nabbed a couple packets of pepper to spread on my order of fries and happily began partaking.

In front of me were a couple of unused packets of pepper and I looked them over while eating ... and noticed something rather curious ...

See the photo above?  Take a look at the top packet and, in particular, the following wording printed on it: "reorder #4043295."

Odd, I thought.  I mean ... think about it a moment:  When Melt needs more pepper, think they pick up the errant packlet out of a box of many and look for the order number on it in order to acquire more?  Or do you think they already have some sort of form available to resupply more?  Don't you think that's a bit odd?

You don't have a reorder number on the bottom of your favorite shoes so when they begin to wear out you can easily requisition another pair, right?  You don't find any sort of identification anywhere in you car stating "To get another, here's the send off number to make it easier for you! You're welcome!"  There's nothing on the side of the pen barrel you're using for fill out that report indicating "At some point you're going to run out of ink ... so you better get to gettin' and put a request in for this, your very favoritest pen."  How 'bout an imprint on a banana stem saying:  "Is this your last banana?  Avoid the annoyance of running out by accessing this code right now!"

Or ... maybe I'm just thinking about the imprint on the pepper packet a bit too much ...

 

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP thinking so much ...)