Encouraged by a really superlative Icelandic dinner the other week at Ethan Stowell’s Staple & Fancy, I stopped into Stowell’s Capitol Hill outing, Rione XIII, named for Rome’s thirteenth district. I had been waiting for the rush to die down–the restaurant opened in late August, and it’s been sardined with a fancypants foodie set since. Spotting a largely open bar on my way past, I ducked in.
Dining solo is always a test of a restaurant’s innate hospitality. The guest doesn’t have sparkling conversation to distract or beautiful eyes to stare into, so there’s a lot more riding on a staff’s welcome. I took a seat at the bar, equidistant between two other single diners, and asked the barman for a “Negrino” instead of a Negroni.
Nothing says you’re unsure and could use a little help like mispronouncing things. But he didn’t take the cue (i.e., Was this my first time in?). The Negroni was just on the bland side (I like a heavy Campari pour), but arrived promptly.
I had forgotten it was Restaurant Week, so although I had meant to grab a beet salad ($12), I thought why not order a full, introductory dinner. (During Restaurant Week, you can get 3-course dinners for $28; the menus generally are designed to give you a “taste” of what a new-to-you restaurant is about.) My friend and colleague Ronald Holden tends to inveigh against Restaurant Week, saying the crush stresses wait staff and kitchens, and I have a bit more sympathy for that view, now.
The house antipasti ($10) is varied, a little heavy, and makes a good complement to your Negroni: you get two bites of grilled octopus, a heaping helping of prosciutto di Parma, a few Castelvetrano olives, tuna and chickpeas, and little boules of mozzarella. As the Roman street pizza also came with cured meat atop, though, the meal began to feel a little one-note (the crust was less crispy and more of a battle to slice through than I’ve come to expect from wood-fired pizzas). There are other entrée options on the RW menu: I had asked the barman if he’d recommend something other than the pizza, but he made a noncommittal noise.
The chocolate gelato had been allowed to refreeze, and was, rather than silky on the tongue, crunchy with ice crystals. Also, it came with the wrong kind of cookie. Just take my word on that.
During the meal, the diner to my right had left, and a couple pulled up stools next to me. When more room opened up, they moved, and someone else sat down, leaving an empty bar stool to my right and left. In the middle of my dessert course, the hostess came by and asked if I could move over, to allow a couple to sit. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I know it’s annoying.” It was, and what is a dinner guest to say, exactly? I am fine with moving until the appetizer arrives, but after that point, dinner is in progress. It’s rude to interrupt with requests. My meal was going to come to $60–how much would it cost to be able to sit in the same seat the whole time?
I’ve only ever spent a few hours in Rome, during Holy Week. It took forever to find a hotel, and it was near midnight when I made it across the threshold of a little trattoria near the train station. In fractured Italian, I asked if anything was still eating. The proprietor was clearly about to close up, but he gave me a second look, and said he’d check in the back. He emerged in a few moments with baked lasagna, and sat with me while I ate, talking about his son, who was studying in France near where I was living. This still ranks as one of the great meals of my life.
Maybe all Rione XIII needs is a few more Italians. Or, Italian lessons.
Meeeeeowwwww!
Needs improvement!
I’m still working on taglines.
I am replying to your comment, sir!
Fixed Price Menu? Crazytalk! You’ll need to go back just to try the fried risotto and cheese balls, and the fennel pasta while you’re at it. Oh, and get an order of the baked gnocchi. Oh, and bring the SunBreak web developer.
None of this surprises me, and I don’t blame Restaurant Week. I’ve seen the staff at Rione XIII move entire tables mid-meal to make room for diners waiting around long after their reservations. And this was back in September, so I’m disappointed they haven’t learned how to manage their traffic in the interim. I’ve also had the exact same nightmare ice crystal gelato/bad cookie combo at Anchovies & Olives, Stowell’s other Hill restaurant. I wonder why nobody has told him that shit is nasty.
I don’t recall giving The Sun Break permission to use my photograph for this blog post.
That is a screenshot from the Rione site, Lao. I thought if I was going to give them a hard time, I’d include how nice it looks. But I’ll take it down to avoid confusion.
No worries. But a screenshot and a digital photo are pretty much the same thing. You should still ask permission from the website or the photographer before you grab a photo off the web and republish it for an opinion piece. RioneXIII paid me for the photo, you didn’t. In addition, using *my* work on *your* article implies complicity on my part—and I’d rather not have any association with this particular blog post if I can help it.
Typically, if people ask first, I will allow free usage of my photographs for a simple credit line. The problem is, people rarely do.
You are correct in everything you say. Now that you mention it, I can understand how it could be awkward for you as well. My apologies for my rudeness! Hoist by my own petard.
I see that you’re the photog from the Website Info page of the restaurant’s site, but that’s kinda buried. Maybe also put the credit for your photos right below them on the restaurant’s site? Then it would be easy for anyone who comes across your pics to give accurate attribution.
Audrey: My name is “buried” on purpose. I don’t really have any desire to plaster my name all over my clients’ websites. The issue here isn’t attribution, it’s unauthorized use. While I know it’s very common, it’s not okay to simply pull a photo off of a website and use it in an article without permission from either the website or the photographer. A line of credit does not satisfy permission—in print or online.
The photograph was originally credited to RioneXIII and that’s fine. And perhaps if the article was a glowing review I might not have said anything. But that’s my decision to make as both the photographer and the person running the website. I suppose that’s a little jerky on my part, but until online publications start hiring photographers, that’s how I’m going to play it.
It’s just a blog post, and really, it’s not that big of a deal at all. And I’m a designer first, so I don’t make my living solely off photography—but I have plenty of friends who do. Online publications seem to have lost all respect for the work these people do.
Just ask first, that’s all I’m saying.
Lao, in defense of this particular online publication, we work very hard not to use photos without permission, and to make sure attribution is correct.
That said, it’s my researched understanding that screenshots of websites are technically permissible when it comes to relevant news & criticism, both of which are called out in exclusions to copyright. For instance, Wikipedia can use this partial screenshot of the BBC’s home page, which is copyrighted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News_Online. See their statement explaining their usage.
But it’s difficult, especially when the screenshot contains photos by a third party.
In this case, I agree that anyone would be hard-pressed to tell the image we used was a detail from Rione’s site and not a copy of your photo, so better to err on the side of the photographer.
This has turned into a bigger stink than it should be, I was merely responding to Audrey’s notion that if I really wanted attribution for my work I should have made my name more prominent on the RioneXIII website. But attribution is not my issue here. It’s usage. I think if people want to use other people’s work they might consider asking first. Perhaps they don’t *have* to, and if you want to call a photograph from a website showing no browser chrome or navigation a “screenshot”, then go ahead. I’m not about to debate the minutia of copyright law here—it’s not worth our time—nor is it really all that important to me.
Bottom line: Attribution is great. Permission is better. (Especially in the case of an opinion piece.) End of the day, not a big deal. But thanks for considering my opinions on the matter either way. It’s appreciated.
Why do you care that you had to scoot over to allow room for other diners? you do remember that you are in a place of business right? Should the restaurant loose out on business simply because you want to enjoy a gelato and cookie you hate? i live in the neighborhood and i think this place is busy for a reason. If you gave up your seat on the bus for someone in need would you post on your blog about that as well? get a life and quit bitching about your first world problems… Nobody cares.
The problem was with my meal being interrupted when I was about 5 minutes from finishing. Some people are bothered by interruptions; if you are not, that’s God’s blessing on you.
I don’t think it’s losing business to tell someone who shows up without a reservation that they may have to wait 5 minutes to get seats together because another patron is finishing his meal.
It’s not a hard and fast line, when it’s okay to ask someone to scoot over, but it is a request of a guest, so I would recommend being chary with it–especially at a new restaurant hoping to establish a clientele.
So, options might have been: Hostess privately inquires with guest, instead of bringing the couple along with, so guest has the chance to say, you know, I’ll be done in 5. Or, hostess says, “I would be so grateful, can I offer you [glass of wine, coffee] for your trouble?” Most likely it will be waved off, but if not, the ruffled guest will likely be mollified.