Bottom line is that we, 3 couples, had booked well in advance for a Sat. night dinner. As H.P. is new, I - - as, I suspect, many of you - - have not actually been inside, yet. In making the reservation, I spoke on the phone with a young woman that told me that they could accommodate a group of 6 in one of the following ways; (a.) a "large, round table", specifically designed for 6, or (b.) some two-tops, slid together, across from bench seating.
Given her enthusiasm for "a.", I opted for that and asked that she note same on our reservation. She said they would do their best.....
When we arrived last evening, my wife and i arrived last. The other 2 couples were already seated in one of a number of nicely sized booths. Nicely sized for *4*, that is...
I glanced at the empty booth behind and thought - whoa!, are they going to seat 4 of us in the front booth, and 2 in the rear one?! In retro, that would have been preferable to what happened - - they tried to sandwich all 6 of us in to the single booth.
This was *not* going to be good......
I immediately spoke of the young man seating us, mentioning my phone call (noted above). He went off to speak with the woman that I had spoken with, who I assume is at least an asst. mgr. , if not higher up the chain.
In any event, she came over to inform me that; (a.) she was, in fact, the person that I had spoken with and (b.) I was mistaken in my recollection of "a large, round table" being mentioned as there were obviously *no* round tables (or booths) in the place - - fair enough, my memory is less-than-perfect these days
and it's entirely plausible that she did not use the word "round" when describing the seating offerings to me - - and (c.) she went in to great detail to explain how they were expecting a "twelve-top" any moment and there was really no where else in H.P. that we could be moved to. End of discussion....What to do, then? It was "take it or leave it"....
And, we decided to leave it.
At that point, we hadn't even had an opportunity to order cocktails, so I got on my phone and - - 90 seconds later - - announced to my boothful of guests that Z's would have a table for us in 10 minutes.
15 minutes later we were all seated - - comfortably(!) - - at Z's (at a "large, round table"
) and proceeded to have a lovely evening! "All's well...", I guess.
Now, I firmly believe that, just an establishment has a responsiblity to present an appropriate environment for dining out, I - as a patron - *also* have a responsibility to make an effort to assure that I have checked out the venue, prior to booking. And, to that end, two things;
1. I *had* gone to H.P.'s website to look for photos that would enlighten me as to seating arrangements. The only photo showing the booth seatings was this:
Judge for yourself whether those booths look like they could accommodate 6?
2. I made two, afternoon trips to H.P. in order to see for myself the seating arrangements. I was aware that they did not open for lunch, but thought that I might catch them mid-afternoon, and get a quick look-see? Neither trip resulted in being able to rouse anyone inside the restaurant.
So that's it then. As I said above, "All's well...", I guess. But it really shouldn't have happened this way. I was *really* impressed with the interior design - with what they have accomplished, given the square footage that they have to work with. But they, the venue, have to acknowledge that "fine dining" requires an amount of "square inches" per patron for a proper fine dining experience.
Because they provide such an interesting and innovative menu, I actually suspect that my wife and I will return and give it another try, as will the other two couples....perhaps. And that's the problem for Henry's. When we talk to other friends who often dine out, will we recall this first attempt to dine there, so poorly handled. I honestly don't know, but for all of you that might be considering a visit there, if you're 6 or more, be adamant in advance about your seating....you'll need to.
