ordo "Haute Cuisine and Beanery Fare"

This small strip-mall restaurant had been well recommended to me, and I was impressed with the fact that I had to call a week in advance for a 7:00 pm Saturday dinner reservation. As is my custom with long-in-advance reservations, I called again on the designated Saturday morning to reconfirm. The party to whom I spoke, probably the owner, maintained that I didn’t have a reservation, but he might be able to accommodate us at 6:00 pm . . . no apology, not even concern, just nonchalant aplomb. I suspect that since the restaurant has a thriving business, and since this was to be my first visit, he might have given our table to one of his regulars. In any event, I instructed him as to what he might do with his accommodation, and hung up.

It should be noted that this restaurant is 45 minutes away from my home, and had I not called we would have driven all that distance to find ourselves with no alternative but to wait a couple of hours. It is my opinion that anyone planning to dine here should regard his or her reservation as non-binding.

Since I am a paraplegic, my choice of good restaurants is limited by wheelchair accessibility, and not so wide as is that of an able-bodied person. Fortunately, I was able to book a last minute reservation at Maria’s, in Roxborough, one of the best Italian restaurants in the area.