Reviewerish

We entered through a side entrance that was hidden from the rest of the building, like the mystery doors on busy city streets that lead to shoddy apartment or equally, if not worse, shoddy injury attorney’s offices. “Did you want to walk or take the elevator?” Joan asks. The faux marble flooring was noisy under our work shoes; wooden heels echoing throughout the short hallway. Taking the stairs, “its only one floor up? That’s good. If it were further we should have taken the elevator,” Soheila chirped turning the corner to see a new-looking door with decorative, angled glass framed by a soft wood. It looked like the door to a home, only cheaper; so as to say, the door itself would probably be knocked down with a single, quick shoulder or kicked through with a steel-toed boot to the base. Walking in, I realized this would not be a normal restaurant experience.

The door entered to a waiting room with knick-knacks hanging from clear, plastic hooks and signs about “wellness” and the “realignment of the spirit”, leading to a receptionist behind a table with expensive, polished rock jewelry. Just behind the receptionist, beyond the load baring wall and Chinese screen was our party, seated around a table, in a room with very little depth. Itself, the room was large enough for three small, circular tables that had been pushed together to accommodate our size, and to ensure that anyone else who wanted to eat would be forced to sit on the couch in the “waiting room”.

Turns out, the “café” was actually affiliated with a spa that surrounded it like a nest. It became clear that the kitchen was no larger than that of an inexpensive one-bedroom or studio apartment in Chicago; which would explain why we were required to phone in our order the day before to make sure our food was there, and wouldn’t take a substantial amount of time to prepare. Displayed above us was a variety, meaning five or six, pieces of art either created by the people who worked there or replicates of more well-known pieces. This information was pridefully advertised as you walk in the door as their “gallery”

After our meal, we were given a tour of the “spa”, which was buzzing like a dead air conditioning unit as the manicure and pedicure specialists sat about talking about their families and slothfully grunted and nodded their heads when we came past.

All in all, it was a very weird experience. The food was great, but the actual environment was less of a café or restaurant and more of a…private kitchen catering to clients of a spa.