Tangerine, at 2777 Iris, seems to have garnered the crossover appeal that restaurant entrepreneurs covet. It has hit on a successful formula, attracting plenty of free-spending, food-loving older folks as well as just enough bro-hawked, tatted and pierced patrons to give it an edgy feel and serve as dining fodder for the former. Indeed, on this Sunday, it appeared to be the juggernaut of success. This apparent rarefied status, however, inevitably comes with at least one unintended cost. More on that, below.
I went with K-Seats, my mom (visiting from Boise), and the Doktor & Dubbs Show at 11:00 for Sunday brunch. Oops, we weren’t the only ones with that great idea. The hostess had the thankless task of trying to predict how long we would wait to be seated. She said half an hour, but an hour later we were still standing around outside waiting, hands in pockets, jackets zipped against the bitter January wind. Admittedly, seating five is awkward and much like forecasting the weather – a blend of science and magic. You need to combine psychology, experience, luck and maybe most importantly brow beating to have any accuracy. But there’s more: in my humble opinion, a properly run bistro anticipates excess demand, and compensates accordingly. Part of that anticipation is having a manager up front, empathizing, glad-handing, cheering up and distributing pastries to the hungry queue. After all, in the grand scheme of things, what’s worse, forking over the two dollar doughnut, or risking bad word of mouth? Easy choice, yet on this particular morning, no managers were seen or heard. Chipper staff, yes, but where was the general manager? Maybe flipping cakes due to an understaffed kitchen? Sure, that makes sense, and God knows you don’t want to punish starving diners with backlogged food orders, too. But seriously, unless Tangerine was in full crisis, ten-people-called-in-sick mode, the unexplained, unapologetic wait was a heck of a risk in this competitive (Lucile’s, Centro, etc.) town. Send out the GM, or an assistant manager or two. Acknowledge our frustration, occupy our whimpering stomachs with gratis sugar and dough…it works wonders.
My rant aside, once we made it inside, everything changed and the brunch itself received high marks. The décor is stark, modern and cheery, with orange (make that tangerine) lamps, booths, cups and more, illuminating the bustling rooms. Servers and bussers appeared in abundance, and were well trained at cross functionality and people pleasing. Our gracious, if soft spoken waitress took our order, and it came out promptly.
Dok had: Classic Benedict ($11); eggs poached gingerly, a generous spray of spinach, ham thick cut, light hollandaise, English muffin easy toasted; he ranked it 8 out of 10 on the Benedict scale. “Pretty good as an eggs benedict experience” says he, with just the right amounts of everything.
Mom ate: Smoked Salmon omelet ($11); asparagus, onions, capers, and dill mascarpone. Salmon plentiful and thin sliced, asparagus done right, crispy. Good proportions. “The ‘bite’ of the capers made it very interesting.”
Dubbs gulped: Gluten free pancakes (3 for $6, add $2 for gluten free) and chicken sausage ($3.75 = 2 links). She raved about the GF cakes, preferring their rice batter to normal pancakes. How often do you hear folks preferring the taste of gluten free food to regular? Light and right, she said. The sausage was sweet and juicy. Extra syrup will set you back a buck and a quarter. Huh? Pure maple syrup, I get it, but isn’t syrup (much like ketchup and salt) supposed to come from a gushing, amazon-sized river of freeness?
K-Seats delicately noshed: Arugula & Speck ($11); “ideal proportions…speck was delicious like prosciutto, but chewy and hard to cut…light but filling,” and the home fried potatoes were “average good, but need more spice.” She subbed lemon-dressed greens for arugula, and our great waitress handled the swap with a smile…but then, it’s hard not to smile at K-Seats.
I wolfed: the hardiest fare they offer, Steak & Eggs ($12): hangar steak done zombie-movie rare, a perky pair of over easy fried eggs, mashed ripe avocado, polenta, caramelized onion and peppers. I liked the steak, it had a crusty exterior and was marbled like a Tuscan quarry so the rareness didn’t equate to being overly chewy. The polenta was runny for my taste, as were the eggs, but when I ‘snowplowed’ the various ingredients together with the amazing whole-wheat sourdough toast and shoved it in my mouth; I doth grinned, for it was tasty and fit for a king.
Bottom Line: Tangerine is serving up some first-class (though somewhat pricey) chow. Famished folks were definitely lined up brisket-to-brisket, waiting to get in. But I would ask the management to come up with a plan to make the wait more predictable, or at least more tolerable. For hours, menus, etc.: http://tangerineboulder.com/
Comments