DiGusto’s

I had the good fortune to be able to take my wife out for dinner on Mother’s Day.

I broke my own commandment of never going out to eat on Mother’s Day due to poor service by temporary waiters brought in for the holiday rush, price gouging, and long lines.

I was however, pleasantly surprised by the service at our dinner destination: DiGusto’s.

When we walked in we were immediately greeted by an attractive, efficient hostess. Let the record show that The Godfather hates to wait, but worse yet, he hates ugly, old and tired looking hostesses! This pleasant hostess told us it would be 10 minutes and we could have a seat in the bar.

At the bar, we were waited on quickly. I was in the mood for a beer and it was VERY COLD!! What a small detail so many restaurants forget these days. How hard is it to make the beer “extra-cold”? Small things matter so much.

My wife normally goes through a painfully frustrating 20 minute process of ordering wine. The very busy bartender was most gracious in accommodating the 90 questions and samplings of every white wine in the house. I must admit, my girlfriends are much quicker to decide what they like to drink.

The walk to our table came shortly thereafter, and we were seated and attended to quickly. We were treated to a very nice added bonus; a singer!! Not sure if this is a regular thing or perhaps just hired for the Mother’s Day event, but the singer was very talented and walked throughout the restaurant singing Sinatra and Dean Martin type songs on a portable microphone and piped in background music (Karaoke style). A nice touch for all the patrons.

Time to order: again…my wife with the 90 questions. That’s a total of 180 for those of you scoring at home.

I ordered the spicy linguine with marinara clam sauce which was excellent, but too spicy for me (ed note…what part of spicy does The Don not understand?). This was my fault not the restaurants! If you like spicy it would be fantastic, I ordered spicy but thought it would be lighter. My wife ordered the fish and pasta and said hers was excellent.

The Godfather is always on edge when a young waitress waits on his table. I don’t like inexperience, poor knowledge of the menu, and general ignorance when it comes to basic dinning rules and etiquette. But I do like ample bosoms and will let things slide if confronted with said rack. Fortunately no trade off were needed on this day. I was impressed with our waitress. While young, she was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Another one of the Godfather’s pet peeves is the speed and tempo of the dining experience. Again the Godfather does not like to wait, but certainly does not like to be rushed either. Many a times the Godfather has sent back an entrée to the kitchen because a hyper young waiter decided he wanted to “move the table along” and place the entrée on the table next to my half finished salad. Di Gustos waited on us immediately, then came back for the order, spaced delivery of each course appropriately.

They did not do a hard sell for dessert and thank god almighty did not take forever to bring the check when I was bloated and ready to get the hell out of there and go home and sit on the couch.

All in all a good dining experience, price was acceptable for Mother’s Day also.

Until next month…..show respect, spend time with your family, and pray.

-The Godfather

Papi’s – Very Cuban & Very Good

At the suggestion of a neighbor I recently had the opportunity to treat a friend to lunch at Papi’s Cuban Restaurant located at 745 Chastain Road in Kennesaw, GA.

Again, my three primary criterion for rating restaurants is; Service, Food Quality and Price to Value ratio.  Papi’s rates very good to excellent in all three areas.

Although I attended the restaurant for lunch at 1:30, the service was still excellent.  Waiters greeted us at the door and then again within 2 minutes at the table with menus and a readiness to take our drink order.  Both my guest and I ordered “Papi’s Cuban Sandwich (which I am crazy for).  The amount of food and size of the sandwich was very generous.  The flavor of the sandwich was outstanding.  We also ordered some plantain chips and black beans which were also plentiful and tasty.

Also, of an interesting note; Papi’s being located on Chastain Road is part of the growing Kennesaw State University’s growing section of college type bar restaurants, which has the added benefit of packing itself with nice looking women, easy women, which always adds to the excitement of the atmosphere.  Papi’s at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon had plenty of females to compliment the good food.

We ate outside (something I normally don’t do because The Don don’t like no flies, wind and car noises that interrupt cell phone calls from the boss when you take a long lunch etc) and the outside dining area was great!

The bill came to $24.00 with tip, for two Cubans , and plantain chips and rice and beans.  Just a little bit on the high side, but not too much to complain about due to the generous portions.  Inside area was very nice, new , clean and lots of space.  Bar area is spacious and lots of flat screen TVs.

Sullivan’s Steakhouse

Sullivan’s Steakhouse- Charlotte North Carolina

A favorite place of mine while doing business in the Charlotte, NC area is Sullivan’s Steakhouse. As a traveling Global Accounts Manager in sales a consistent part of my job is to locate restaurants and taverns that not only have good food and service, but that also have particular “atmosphere” for various types of clients I may entertain at any given moment.

The bible thumping Protestant for example may not be too found of a loud drinking establishment with lots of single ladies for example. The young single college grad may be looking forward, however to visiting a waterhole which has just that type of atmosphere. During the course of any given year I am typically out of town about 50 nights a year and travel through out North America and on a rare occasion to Europe.

At 45 years of age, and traveling and entertaining for better than 20 years, some may say my opinion and feeling about certain restaurants, bars and nightclubs I frequent during my travels may be of interest to some, so out of “respect” for my good friend Joe Mantineo I have agreed to begin writing a monthly column for the “Mayor’s Website” called; Dinner with the Don.

Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Charlotte, NC will be the first of such reviews.

Sullivan’s Steakhouse, although it is a chain restaurant, earns a strong eight gun shots to the back of the head out of ten rating. What makes the place most enjoyable to me is the bar atmosphere on Thursday night, which features great Martini specials and lures in a great mid 30s to early 40s crowd of good looking professional women that give the bar the feeling of being at the “in” place at the time. The wait for a table was less than 15 minutes with no reservation. The array of entrees was excellent, however obscenely over-priced. The waiter knew his menu and took orders by memory (which is always good unless they foo it up and they always foo it up- but he did not). The waiter’s “up sell technique” was too forward and almost annoying to the point where I almost had to say back the foo off the extras will you please. Overall for the most part Sullivan’s is what I look for in a masculine steakhouse; dark wood, great steak, good service and an “action packed crowd”

If you are on an expense account and can tolerate a little talkative and selling waiter, you should really enjoy a night at Sullivan’s. Until next month, this is Don Massaro signing off.

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