Late night bar seating at a dying restaurant

[washing machine]

Is there any context more depressing for a meal than this? There's a sushi place down the street from me that's under new management. I decided to go for a quick late night happy hour before heading home and see the changes for myself.

All the warning signs were there. New name, newly renovated decor, rows and rows of heavily promoted bottles of some rapper's vodka, same staff, same menu. Not a soul was at the bar, and the manager was skyping with a friend in a booth a few seats over.

I ordered a few things and tried a cocktail that was essentially rum and cranberry juice, then chatted with the bartender while waiting for my food. She'd been there since before the owner/name change and she's not optimistic about the place's future.

I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sadness throughout the meal. I hope someone puts this place out of it's misery soon.

[BurtReynolds]

Is there any context more depressing for a meal than this? There's a sushi place down the street from me that's under new management. I decided to go for a quick late night happy hour before heading home and see the changes for myself.

All the warning signs were there. New name, newly renovated decor, rows and rows of heavily promoted bottles of some rapper's vodka, same staff, same menu. Not a soul was at the bar, and the manager was skyping with a friend in a booth a few seats over.

I ordered a few things and tried a cocktail that was essentially rum and cranberry juice, then chatted with the bartender while waiting for my food. She'd been there since before the owner/name change and she's not optimistic about the place's future.

I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sadness throughout the meal. I hope someone puts this place out of it's misery soon.

Usually there is a pretty good reason for the stench of failure.

[VinylGuy]

you should write a short story with that.

[harmless]

Yeah, I was pretty drawn in and would read more.

[spike]

i bet the food wasn't even cooked.

[Norah]

Fuck you, spike. That made me laugh.

[spike]

[Whitey McTeeth]

How late we talking, like 8:00?

[Malloy]

Is there any context more depressing for a meal than this? There's a sushi place down the street from me that's under new management. I decided to go for a quick late night happy hour before heading home and see the changes for myself.

All the warning signs were there. New name, newly renovated decor, rows and rows of heavily promoted bottles of some rapper's vodka, same staff, same menu. Not a soul was at the bar, and the manager was skyping with a friend in a booth a few seats over.

I ordered a few things and tried a cocktail that was essentially rum and cranberry juice, then chatted with the bartender while waiting for my food. She'd been there since before the owner/name change and she's not optimistic about the place's future.

I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sadness throughout the meal. I hope someone puts this place out of it's misery soon.

robert coover post

[WtOB?]

you should write a short story with that.

I feel like "Late Night Bar Seating at a Dying Restaurant" would make a good album title.

[fishbob]

I don't understand how quiet restaurants stay afloat, do they just get out a huge bank loan and hope for the best?

[ilpazzo]

I don't understand how quiet restaurants stay afloat, do they just get out a huge bank loan and hope for the best?

Probably that, or money laundering.

Some places I've noticed just have odd "busy" periods.

There's a great place down the street from my house that whenever I go in, or walk by never seems busy...Good food, good service... Just never busy and I never understood how they were able to stay open.

One day I go in at an "odd" time, at least for me, the place was PACKED. I asked the owner if it's always like that around that time and he said that it usually was.

[VinylGuy]

I have a really cool place near my house, with these big great windows. Its nice to sit there with a cup of coffee, read the newspaper when its raining.

[Jorge]

I don't understand how quiet restaurants stay afloat, do they just get out a huge bank loan and hope for the best?

drunk hobo organ trade

[washing machine]

Five months have gone by and this restaurant is still limping around, somehow. I've been in three more times since my original post, seeking refuge in the quiet of the terminal bar program when I'm feeling especially dispirited. Something about the lingering stench of failure comforts me. I've developed a sort of stockholm syndrome regarding this place.

Late at night at this dreadful sushi bar over the past five months, I've sat through three unrecognizable manhattans, seven passable pints of Sapporo, a bowl of spaghetti noodles sinking to the bottom of a bowl of weak broth, and an especially depressing election return in which the fate of the Astrodome was all but decided.

Now it's almost 2014 and I don't know where I'm going to go on bad nights after the doors of this place lock for good.

[Whitey McTeeth]

They would do more business, but this guy just stares at the customers, drinking only chocolate milk all night.

[washing machine]

Today's breakfast was truly depressing.

I decided to stop by Down House for some fish tacos and check in on some old friends. I learned about restaurant management here and the guys who own it were always Big Idea thinkers when it came to the industry. This place pretty much shaped my outlook on food and helped get me out of a huge rut in my adult life.

Anyway, this restaurant and their two sister bars are dying a very quick and public death. This time last year the owners operated seven brick and mortars and published a subscription based quarterly à la Lucky Peach. It's all crumbling now and the owners are trying to throw a few Hail Marys rebranding the still open projects on social media. Everything at Down House today felt like a bachelor pad immediately after a break-up; empty and quiet, half of the decor gone, charmless meals put together by folks who just don't give a shit.

I hope these guys bounce back. I really do. I still approach everything I do in my current job with the values that I learned at this place at the front of my mind. They had something there for a few moments and they developed/attracted a ton of talent in this city while they were booming.

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu

[washing machine]

Yeah, that's not the case here. This particular resto group's folly is the classic tale of Icarus. A lot of former employees got hurt along the way and I'd imagine they don't think the owners ever gave a shit, but ambition was clearly at the heart of it all. Ambition and misplaced priorities.

[tragabigzanda]

from the ashes of tonkotsu