First, let’s get the bad out of the way. Mozz, Mozz, Mozz. Wow, what a disaster. I’m not even going to comment on the food, décor, or ambiance, as the whole evening was overshadowed by a nearly inconceivable act by Michael Cooper, one of the proprietors.
I had dinner on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at Mozz with my girlfriend and 2 friends. We had a of couple apps, some entrees, wine and beer and left satisfied with our dining experience. Mr. Cooper likes to chit-chat and hover a bit much for my taste, but it didn’t ruin the evening. In fact, he and one of my friends exchanged business cards after a friendly back and forth during one of his stops by our table.
The next day is when the insanity began. Mr. Cooper had the nerve to call my friend at her place of business and accuse somebody at our table of stealing a decorative spoon that is placed in the salt dish on every table. We had all made mention to each other during dinner that we thought it was odd that there was a salt dish with no means of distributing the salt to the food. At times, I can be weirded out by germ issues, so I thought the idea of people pinching salt out of a dish and sprinkling it on their food was disgusting. This stood out to me, and I know for a fact that at no point during the meal was there a spoon in that dish. Mr. Cooper, on the other hand, had the audacity to insist that there was one there before we arrived, and there was not one after we had left. My friend, whom he called, stopped by the restaurant the next day to talk to him in person and assure him that we did not take his precious spoon. We all assumed that he may have had an off night and his absurd accusations were a result of that. Rather than relenting, he continued his accusations to her face and did not back down from this ridiculous stance on the matter.
All four of us live and work downtown and go out of our way to support local businesses. As business owners ourselves, we understand the importance of supporting local, but more importantly, we understand customer service. It is nearly unbelievable that Mr. Cooper would insist that we stole a $25 spoon from his restaurant. I sincerely hope that it was worth it to him. When I’m on my way down Market going to the Mayan Café, 732, or any other quality restaurant with excellent customer service, I won’t even glance in the direction of Mozz.
With that out of the way, I wanted to make quick mention that if you haven’t been to Theatre Square Marketplace since the addition of Chef Dallas McGarity, go! I’ve dropped in twice in the past month, and he is absolutely on top of his game there. The duck confit ragout (creamy tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, weisenberger grits, crispy onions) is out of this world. The service is always top notch, and the new bar and outdoor area is absolutely fantastic. One of my favorite restaurants in Louisville has gotten even better.
With Chef Dallas going to Theatre Square, I was curious to see what the new chef at Z’s Fusion could do. This is, without a doubt, another must revisit or first visit. We enjoyed the crab cake apps (trio of small crab cakes served over a lemon confit aoli) and both had the 8oz filet with a Woodford sauce on top, served with mashed potatoes. The soup of the day was lobster bisque. When we asked about the details of the bisque, they were happy to bring out a small sampling and two spoons (that we weren't accused of stealing). It was excellent. Creamy and delicious with a nice little kick at the end. Chef Scott (88% sure on the name) is from the New England area and was trained in France. He really knows his way around sauces, seafood, soup and everything else we could get our hands on.
With the moves by Z’s and Theatre Square, it’s an extremely exciting time downtown. It’s unfortunate that I had such a poor experience at Mozz, as I was really looking forward to having yet another quality restaurant in the area. Fortunately, there are plenty of out of this world options that I will continue to frequent. Now that I’m on this forum, I’ll try to stop by and share with you all when I come across anything noteworthy. (I stopped by the Holy Grale for the first time last week. I think I’m going to save that one for it’s own post. For now, I’m just going to mention that it’s awesome.)
Also, I’d like to thank Robin for his contributions to the Louisville food scene and giving the community this forum for talking food. Another shout out to my boy Adrian for making me finally take the posting plunge.
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Perhaps the half life of a Salt Spoon is something less than a normal Teaspoon ? More research may be in order. A quick Google search of "Where do spoons go when they disappear" turned up nothing more interesting than (apparently) they are a cure for "hickies" 
