Joey's

Tonight I ventured to Joey's, the new dining establishment that opened at 25th and N.W. 2nd Avenue.

The food was fine -- good -- I mean, nothing that invades my dreams like Michelle Bernstein's crispy pork belly (which may be beaten out by the crispy pork belly once served at Michael's Genuine, but as I am currently avoiding that restaurant until they pull their heads out of their ass, service-wise, I don't know whether it's still being served) but it was just fine.

The inside of the restaurant is nicely done (I like their mosaic picture-y thing!) although they may have had an air conditioning issue because it was stiflingly hot inside the restaurant, so my date and I ate outside on their lovely patio, awash with the scent of orange blossoms on the mini orange trees. It was a GREAT night to sit outside. In fact, you'd never suspect that on the other side of the hedge... is an abandoned warehouse district. (Seriously. Abandoned. There was no. one. on N.W. 2nd Avenue. It was eerie.)

There is complimentary valet parking, which is nice.

The whole experience was fine, except I'm going to point out what EVERYONE. ELSE. has said: The service... sucks.

Having been a secret shopper for restaurants (and a waiter... so... I know what it's like being on both sides of the check) I look for certain things. When I called to make a reservation for two people at 8:30 and was told there was nothing, available, but to come anyway and it shouldn't be a problem to seat us, they just didn't want to commit to re-arranging tables, that was the first thing that made me think, "Hmmm." We showed up and there was plenty of seating. Plenty. We were told to pick our table.

My real beef with the service was just that it was like... glaringly inexperienced. And made no bones about lettin' it allll hang out. Like when I ordered a bottle of wine, and the waiter snatched the wine list from my hands, scanned it and then said, "Oh, W7!" How silly of me to have ordered the bottle by its name, and not the, "I-can't-pronounce-this-bottle's-name-moron-number."

We sat at a two-top, which then became a 4-top when they needed a place to stash an extra table, which then became a 2-top in the space of a 4-top again, when the extra chairs were snatched away, the question, "Were you using those?" apparently being an afterthought.

The real thing that left a sour taste in my mouth, and resulted in my leaving an 18% tip, was the fact that dessert... a panna cotta... which should just be UNMOLDED and dumped onto the plate, took HALF AN HOUR to come out of the kitchen.

I'm harping on the bad, though (THE SERVICE) which is redundant, because from the reviews I've read, everyone complains about the service.

Otherwise, it's a great place to go if you've got nowhere else to be afterwards.

And the prices are TOTALLY reasonable.

And there's a pizza with truffle oil on it. Put truffle oil on anything (OR A TRUFFLE!) and I'm in love. Next time I go (there will probably be a next time) I want to get the pizza with figs and hot peppers!