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| Ema in Glenview |
"Let me be surrounded by luxury," Oscar Wilde said, "I can do without the necessities!"
And generally that serves. But every now and then the lack of a particular necessity catches you off guard.
Sunday night the kids took us out to dinner to thank us for throwing their baby shower. We went to Ema, a hip new Mediterranean spot in Glenview, and while usually I go casual almost everywhere, my daughter-in-law wore such a lovely plum-colored dress, I rose to the challenge and put on a gray sport coat, gray dress shirt and black jeans.
It was raining, hard, so my Burberry raincoat and fedora completed the ensemble.
We'd been to Ema twice before — a lovely room with big plants and interesting wicker light fixtures. There is a curved window as you walk in that I thought was a coat check, but was actually a station for take-out. As maitre d' showed us to our table, I asked her if there was somewhere I could put my hat and coat.
"We don't have a coat check," she said.
"Do you have a coat hook?" I countered.
"No," she said.
So I draped my coat over my chair, and set the hat down by the wall.
Which worked fine. Although Ema is a sprawling place, and it struck me they could designate a corner to hang coats. Tuck a hat rack next to one of those plants. Georgie V's, a far less ostentatious establishment, manages a line of coat hooks by the bathroom. They come in handy. I used one Monday.
Ema does have a family bathroom, beautifully outfitted with a granite sink and golden lighting, which I appreciated when I excused myself for insulin injection purposes. It seemed odd that they would go to the trouble and expense to create and decorate this lavish little extra room, but fall down on the job in the coat hook department. And Ema is a Lettuce Entertain You Restaurant, which are normally so detail-oriented, down to the Italian conversation they used to pipe into the bathrooms at the old Scoozi on Huron.
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| Ema honey layer cake |
That cake looks divine. Yes, they should have coat hooks.
ReplyDeleteNot a good idea to leave the coat in the car if it's rainy or cold.
DeleteSeems like people have to overlook a lot in order to dine at such places.
ReplyDeleteLettuce Entertain You? More like "allow us to frustrate you." A coat hook is a BASIC.
Was totally unable to afford the "eateries" when I was younger. (No desire, either.)
Now I can, but choose not to, unless the wife insists, and then I kvetch about them.
I've always been a meatloaf-and-mashed-potatoes, no-bullshit kind of guy.
A Sokolowski's kind of guy. You grew up in Cleveland, so you know what that means.
It's no accident that they thrived for 97 years. Until the Plague did them in. So sad...
So far we have paid the surcharge at mom and pop restaurants. But I draw the line at restaurant chains. That's price gauging, in my opinion. We had dinner at Antico Posto in Oak Brook two weekends ago (not an empty seat in the house). And I met a friend there for a late lunch two weeks before that (a weekday and it was three-quarters full). Both times we had our waiter remove the up charge, which they did with no problem. As for a restaurant without a place to hang my coat, well I surely wouldn't be going there when I needed to wear one.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the large indoor tree is intended to be a de facto coat rack....and can't help notice five phones out (six counting yours), which I guess is what happens when a table is set ablaze at a restaurant. Also noted, the dark haired woman giving you a death stare from beneath the coat tree.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to me how each generation handles the previous generations "musts."
ReplyDeleteShoe shines, dry cleaning, physical newspaper and magazines, clothes, hair care, hair cuts, music equipment, TVs, radios, cars.
It used to amaze me that it took so long to go from horse and buggy to an automobile in every garage; now it amazes me that we've managed to keep using wool for this long... not to mention democracy.
Your final salvo was the first thought I had while reading your column! That ridiculous surcharge goes directly into Rich Melman’s pocket…not to staff or to coat hooks! I have the service charge removed every time I eat at a LEY restaurant and give an extra few bucks to the server instead!
ReplyDeleteIt rubs me the wrong way…since I’d gladly pay a little extra to have the mom and pop restaurants in my area survive…but they never charge anything more than they list on the menu. Interesting juxtaposition, don’t you think? As the RICH keep finding ways to get richer!
But you don't mind the 3% Credit Card surcharge that's built in?
DeleteThat 3% is what's charged to the merchant that they're passing on to you. At Mom and pop's which is what I usually frequent I pay cash they all seem to appreciate it and most of them aren't charging the 3% to begin with I'm a small business owner and I appreciate cash payments so I pay that forward
DeleteAbout the only restaurant I can think of that has a coat room is the charming and conversation-friendly Alcove in Evanston. Do *any* Lettuce restaurants have coat rooms/racks? I guess I’ve gotten used to just stuffing my coat in a corner of the booth. Not gracious living, but serviceable. But of course I’ve got one of those poofy costs that don’t mind being stuffed, not the elegant spyware trenchcoat that Neil sports.
ReplyDeleteThe reason most places don't have coat rooms or coat racks is because of the conflicts that occasionally grow from theft
DeletePeople will take your coat and the restaurant tour or what have you is not want to be on the hook pardon the pun for items that have disappeared there's a lot of them puffy coats around most people just hang them on the back of their seat as booths aren't a real popular restaurant feature anymore and when they were the hook was at the end so your coat was right there which was perfect but boots take up too much space to say nothing of a coat room which you can't put a table in.
People have this notion that restaurants are just making money hand over fists well I had a cafe in Rogers Park and one up on the door county peninsula and it's tight to say nothing of the long hours you work beyond when the restaurant is even open. the price of everything is going up eggs, up less people eating out all the time if you want that amenity in your life pay what they're asking or they'll be gone soon enough
i fully understand that small restaurants/cafes have pretty thin margins, and food, labor and related cost increases put enormous pressure on those businesses.i rather doubt that Lettuce will. be squeezed out of business any time soon though, and melman is also one of the loudest whiners whenever salary increases are being discussed-don't think he or related conglomerates are going to need a go fund me page.
DeleteI'm a little off topic but I just read your fundraising email. I then unsubscribed from Sun Times fundraising emails. I subscribed to 4 day home delivery several months ago and have been getting annoyed with those emails. I was glad to have the option to eliminate them. Honestly, I don't read it all the time but I wanted to support local journalism abd my faithful delivery guy. There are 3 papers on my driveway Sunday morning, but if NYT doesn't get its head out of Trump's ash, it may not be there much longer.
ReplyDeleteI take serious offense to the suggestion that the New York Times has it's head up Trump's ass.
DeleteThey may have a finger up it, but i'm much more concerned with every member of the time's having worn holes at the knees of the pants for constantly bowing down to republicans.
Trump is a symptom and enabler, he is not the problem. The entirety of the right is the problem. We need to stop pretending its just trump. And if you need proof, look no father than the 9 democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, who seem to think republican's will come back to their senses.
The south has always said it will rise again. You should take a person at their words and actions. That's exactly the reason why i no longer respect republicans, their supporters, and news media.
I agree with Lat111 the New York times certainly has normalized Trump's actions and many of its columnists seem to be if not supporters of the man in favor of his policies
DeleteI disagree with you double B.
Trump is definitely the problem he was able to first bring the Republicans in line and I don't think he really is one he is a maga and now he's bringing the Democrats and in line with his ruthless pursuit of those who resist or disagree with him has got the Republicans and Democrats terrified of becoming the next subject of his vendettas
Somehow beyond just the people in Washington he's got politicians all over the country and voters that didn't vote for him expressing support for his policies especially when it comes to deporting people. it turns out the man is a master politician on the national level
He thinks he's going to be able to use the same tactics internationally and it might work so far it doesn't seem to be .
The NYT has been sane washing the fat fascist traitor for years now. They flat out refuse to admit he's appallingly stupid, has dementia & is a Russian intelligence asset, despite that there's ample proof of all of those things!
DeleteI've never been a "Lettuce..." fan, but I can see a perfectly justifiable reason for not having coat hooks: Melman doesn't want to risk the possible liability in case an opportunist thief were to snatch a few coats off the rack and scamper away. Also explains the lack of explanation.
ReplyDeletejohn
We happened to dine out Sunday, too, at Libanais. You may well have seen this, NS, if you've been back there, but I just thought I'd mention it. Hanging on a wall by the pastries, they've placed a copy of the column in which you praised that restaurant in January, 2024. I thought that was swell.
ReplyDeleteYour conclusion to the piece has not gotten any less poignant since then:
"Libanais is a Lebanese restaurant, and being there makes me so happy that I look around at this room full of similarly happy people from all backgrounds — Muslim women in headscarves, large families, and me with my hungry Jewish clan digging in — all united in enjoyment of top quality food served well, and I think: This, THIS is what people want. Not all that killing. This is what, left to our own devices, we’d all spend our time doing. We don’t realize how precious what we have here is. How rare in the world. Someday other people in other places will figure that out."
Your kid looks happy. Good pic and touching moment in time.
ReplyDeleteOn the question of whether restaurants still have coat check rooms, Lettuce Entertain You venues in particular, I seem to recall seeing them in their Wildfire restaurants. Hackney's on Harms in Glenview also has one, though it's more of a self-service area where you deposit your own coats, on captive metal hangers that ring like bells when they clang together.
ReplyDeleteScoozi (1986 - 2014) gave me a giggle for a completely different reason. Back in the late 1980s, our office was in the building formerly standing at 441 W. Huron, which gave us a great overview of the Scoozi valet parking lot across the street. We would watch the valets patiently search every customer car for loose change and other items of interest. The really enterprising ones would have the glove box open with one hand as they steered with the other on their way to the lot. We still loved the food, and you could bring your coat in, but leave the car at home.
I'm easily impressed by images like the one you included. Ema sure looks out of my league. As did so many of the restaurants featured on Check Please! I DO have lunch with ex work cronies in Glenview, though. Probably five or six times a years. Hackney's is an old favorite. Especially in summer when the patio is open. I prefer Hackney's-on-Harms myself. My wife enjoys the Valley Lodge Tavern. When we're feeling poor I know one of my senior friends will suggest Meier's Tavern as a cheaper alternative to Hackney's. Ambiance just as pleasant. You save $10 or $15. No, you don't get the unlimited French fries or mountain of onion rings. Not a loss. We shouldn't have that much grease anyway. I might feel intimidated by Ema's restaurants even though it seems lovely. I don't think we would fit in any longer.
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