Tonight we tried to go to dinner at Ken Oringer’s Coppa. We arrived at 6:00 (they open at 5:30) and were told we’d need to wait until 7:00. Fine. So we put our name on the list and went to grab a drink. When we came back at 6:50, they said they couldn’t possibly have told us 7:00 and they could seat us at 8:30 or 9:00. Truly evil: if we’d been told there was a 2-3 hour wait, we would have gone someplace else.
Bad service is a hallmark of every Ken Oringer restaurant I’ve been to, so perhaps we shouldn’t even have tried. Still, this takes the cake. Even La Verdad before a Red Sox game is more on the ball.
Still, there is a happy ending. Since we were already in the South End and hungry, we wandered over to Rocca on Harrison. There, we ended up ensconced at the upstairs bar, having truly amazing, delicious, inspired food. The highly attentive, knowledgeable bartender didn’t hurt, either.
The cherry on the cake about Rocca is Tiffani Faison (Top Chef contestant and Rocca chef) was part of a “it get’s better” piece in yesterday’s Boston Globe. She’s even hosting a Trevor Foundation benefit tomorrow. Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette ain’t got nothing on her. And, unlike, Ken and Jamie, Tiffani was actually at her restaurant tonight (that they weren’t in the house is possibly the only true thing the Coppa hostess said to me).