Jeff Fournier of 51 Lincoln tells Boston.com’s Restuarant Hub blog that’s he’s making changes to the menu and the “restaurant’s vibe”
Mostly noticeably, we will offer fewer reservations each evening, enabling us to focus on the quality of each guest’s experience. We will treat guests as we would like to be treated: we’ll encourage guests to enjoy a dish as it is designed unless they have an allergy, we’ll honor reservation times and expect guest to do the same; if a guest is insulting to staff, they will no longer be welcome.
Interesting about his concern that guests not be insulting to staff. I went to 51 Lincoln twice, once in 2007 and once in 2008. Both times the food was exceptionally good; both times my waiter was so rude and snarky that he ruined the evening for me and my party. (And yes, it was two different waiters.) Needless to say, I never went back.
Red Flags.
When a Restaurateur says that his mission is to create “art” the way he sees it and not make food the way his clientele want it, it’s a problem.
I have the highest regard for Chef Jeff Fournier. I frequent both of his restaurants, 51 Lincoln and Waban Kitchen – when the budget allows -and am impressed with his well thought out vision and abilities. He’s a very interesting guy and if anyone can make a go of a Newton version of Chez Panisse, it would be Jeff Fournier. But there’s not a lot of room up there where the elite restaurants orbit. Local diners are fickle because they have many choices, including short trips to Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, JP, etc. and if you are only catering to the top 1% who are looking for the ultimate foodee experience, you better not burp.
Fournier’s manifesto basically says that 51 Lincoln is here to make Jeff Fournier happy, not the diner.
Doesn’t sound like a winning formula to me.
Bro, just tell the insulting guests in person if they aren’t allowed back to your restaurant. Don’t announce it to everyone. Clown.
I’ve enjoyed 51 Lincoln and Waban Kitchen many times in the past. But I strongly think he has misjudged his audience. Perhaps with fewer tables (and higher prices I’m assuming) the owner/chef will get his desired result. But I think this is ego getting in the way of practicality. Boston is a short 15 minute drive away. I’ve viewed WK and 51 Lincoln as neighborhood classy restaurants, but if they got any more expensive or stuck-up I’d go to other similar places. Cook is terrific for instance.
As for the guests being “insulting” to staff, I’ve eaten there many times and the staff and the clientele have always seemed in relative sync. They can’t seem to handle reservations and the busyness of the bar area very well and it is a tight space, so perhaps that is the issue. But I found the “no substitutions/changes except for allergies” to be rather insulting. If I ask questions or ask you to remove a item from a recipe (fennel for instance, or pork or shrimp due to religious issues) feel free to say no, or that it can’t be done. I won’t mind, I’ll pick something else. But to say in such broad terms “learn to love our food as cooked, as art” just sounds like pretentious claptrap.
I’d tell the owner to respect the diner, gradually shift to whatever standards you want, be reasonable, and to send our fewer manifestos.
And I’ll be finding other places to eat for a while. I’ll check it out again in a few months I guess.
“EAT MY ART! My dishes are too popular and they’re holding me back creatively!” What a pretentious, self-pitying snooze fest. I’ve eaten at 51 Lincoln’s tight dining room and had this guy talking to the table next to me for twenty minutes, going on and on about himself. The atmosphere at that place is very tense and after reading this I think I might know why: he’s on a constant soapbox. Their food is inconsistent and over-priced and this is not the first time they have tried to “reinvent” themselves. Your guests don’t need you telling them what they need and we are not “begging for some direction.” If he spent less time spitting out manifestos and changing “menu structures,” maybe he’d see that underneath it all, the food’s not that good anyway.
I’ve got no dog in this fight. Just serve me O’Hara’s Chicken Pot Pie or Dunn Gaherin’s blue cheese burger and I’ll be happy.
Bob, I agree with you. O’Hara’s and Dunn Gaherin’s are staffed with friendly and professional staffs, who are happy to provide an enjoyable atmosphere with excellent food that is priced right.
Never been there and less likely to go now.
Perfect article on this subject:
Alan Richman: The Rise of Egotarian Cuisine
in GQ, March 18
“Something has gone wrong in our restaurant kitchens lately. Suddenly, a new breed of chefs seem to have decided that they should be cooking not for your pleasure but for their own. In this competitive, male-dominated school of cooking, the dishes that customers are served may be highly inventive and intelligent, but as Alan Richman notes, too often they are more self-indulgent than inspired. The result? Restaurants where the only person who needs to be pleased is never you, just the chef.”
HERE
Looks like Fournier took a wrong turn in every way:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2014/04/29/newton-restaurant-lincoln-showcasing-chef-vision/929WjCVVJwQ2nnUF9xlq2K/story.html
A slice of pan seared cauliflower on a plate for $24? Many places would call that tonight’s chef creation and let you have it free.
1 1/2 stars!
Today’s Boston Globe, Review
Sadly, we knew this was coming. Surprisingly it’s only ten weeks later.
It’s a disaster for a restaurant, especially an expensive one. I hope that the very talented Jeff Fournier rethinks his concept and philosophy with a new menu and appreciation for the expression “The customer is always right”.
Until then, I’ll content myself, on a rare occasion, 51 Lincoln bar. It’s all that’s left.