Tag: Letter of the Week

Letter(s) of the Week – Exchange

ELV note: We usually don’t print letters about restaurants we are not acquainted with, but we thought this complaint, followed by a solicitous response from the owner, merited your consideration:

Howdy ELV! (ELV loves it when his pardners use western slang.)

As a eager reader of your blog, I felt compelled to share the experience I just had at the new quick-eat pasta restaurant, MacShack* (parent company: Nora’s). It’s located on the NW corner of Warm Springs/Durango.

I ordered a entree-sized Spinach Salad ($7.29) with an “add-on protein” of Shrimp for $1.50, to go. When I got home and opened it, it was an OK-sized salad, with ONE large shrimp. I called them to ask if it was a mistake, but nope, it is their policy. Evidently, as an add-on, the policy is one shrimp. For chicken, 3 oz., for quarter-sized meatballs, 2 balls. If ordered in a dish (granted, there is one dish with shrimp included, which also includes chicken and sausage), you would get 2 shrimp. Now, this is a build-your-own pasta place. So, the majority or their menu is add on!

So, I just find this completely ridiculous. I was told by their manager that they pay $1.10 on each shrimp, which seems crazy to me too (or, high-quality shrimp better reserved for a fancier restaurant).

Anyway, I would bet this stuff is a little low-grade for you and your blog.** But I just feel compelled to try to spread this story, in the hopes that more people complain, and the place changes their policy. ‘Cause it was pretty decent food. My fiance loved his wheat pasta with meat sauce, everything looked fresh and cooked-to-order.

(So if this happens to make it to your “letter of the week,” then maybe they will hear the message, from a well-respected food critic, and change their policy.)

Beyond that, LOVE your blog, I use your taste buds as my guide to Vegas, and I would die to have your job. Got any internships?***

Thanks.
Befuddled Betsy

The owner’s prompt response:

Dear Betsy,

Thank you so much for your interest in us and I assure you the shrimp policy will be changed first thing in the morning!! I’m sure you know that this was only our second day being open, and we are trying really hard to offer a top quality quick serve pasta concept. Your input is greatly appreciated and the shrimp will be changed immediately.

Thank you again for giving us the opportunity to fix this and for contributing in the development of a new and exciting concept. MacShack.

Signed,

S. Marcello Mauro

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

* If Ronald McDonald’s predatory corporate practices hold true to form, the owner’s of MacShack can expect a cease and desist letter (for trademark infringement) from his corporate lawyers any day now. When that occurs, ELV can be reached at the Law Offices of John A. Curtas, 317 South Sixth Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101, 702.678.5070, john@curtaslaw.com.

** As a matter of fact…

*** ELV is always looking for interns, but The Food Gal® now insists that they be fabulously fat and on the far side of fifty. That’s probably because she disapproved of my last one.

Letter Of The Week

Dear Readers, We usually don’t post comments as LOTW, but when an esteemed, national food writer weighs in with a comment about being mentioned in one of our posts, we thought it best to highlight (and correct) the record.

Re: Seymour Britchky and your referral to me in: How To Be A Restaurant Critic

To Eating Las Vegas,

Someone asked me if I said this about Seymour and–no! Impossible that I could ever dismiss him. I also treasured my battered copy of his collected reviews, in the old (ie original) New York Magazine typeface, and wrote him a fan letter in college, and had the pleasure of meeting him on numerous occasions, and actually got to edit him (on a jazz piano bar) at my first job. He was certainly singular, and worth both remembering and reading.

Corby Kummer

Atlantic Magazine

Dear Corby,

Je m’excuse! So glad you share the same opinion of SB as I do…..And you got to work with him! I’m broccoli-green with envy.

It was unfair of me to lump all of you in the same basket, but I distinctly remember someone (I think it was RR) completely dissing the poor attendee who wanted to discuss Britchky’s prose/approach to the craft of restaurant writing. At the time, I remember thinking some kind of professional jealousy is at work here, but it’s probably a New York thing that we in the hinterlands can’t penetrate.

Regardless, he was left out of the conversation that day and I thought it was a disservice to The Great One, and to the audience.

But no words of dismissal or derision came from you, and we shall post a correction forthwith.

Sincerely,

ELV