After much deliberation, wound up at Charcoal Venice last night. It was outstanding. Service was very good, drinks were nice, but the star at this meat-centric venue is the food. Two of us shared:
Smoked lamb ribs - These were great. Never had lamb ribs before. Texture was tender, almost like short ribs. Meat fell off the bone.
Grilled Calamari - very good. Not my favorite of the dishes but well executed and tasty.
Collard Green Salad - Not something I would normally think to order, but highly recomended by the server and for sure one of the best salads I have ever had anywhere.
21 Day Aged 1/2 Liberty Duck - Star of the meal! Probably the best duck dish I have ever had. Huge half duck, crispy and well seasoned. Carved beautifully. Would be hard not to order it every time.
All in all, a very good experience. Nice room, not particularly hip or chick, but clean and sleek with a nice bar, intelligent service and neighborhood feel (albeit high-end neighborhood). Will be back!
I’ve talked with Tom Schnabel on occasion. I’ve found him to be very approachable and cordial. He’s lived in Venice forever and I’d say he is what was and is right about Venice. That investor guy? Wasn’t there so I can’t comment on that side.
From what I saw and inferred - which did not include the initiating moment of the altercation - Tom S. and his group appeared extremely surprised and upset to be so “attacked” but tried to make apologies, get on with their meal and not let it ruin the evening. The other guy would not let up and kept running around the place and pushing the staff to take action. He seemed way out of line to me.
Probably one of the Private Equity guys that typically fund the Venice lux restaurants.
Probably a major asshole, but then again if you had to work 18 hour days to support your trophy wife’s expensive shopping habits you would be stressed and uppity as well I imagine.
Personally, if someone offended me in a place I owned, I would also not care to have them eat there. I actually respect Charcoal much more for throwing someone out even knowing it could affect their reputation because it was a well-known food media personality. Plus, given the limited details we know, it seems it must have been something really quite offensive to upset someone so much. Shows a serious confidence in the quality of their product. They were pretty packed last night when I stopped by, so I’d say they are sitting pretty.
This is really far off the topic of food though…hah
With all due respect, I think you are spinning tales that fail the smell test. Among other presumptions, you are presuming the hot head knew Tom as a food critic/journalist of some sort. Google Tom and maybe rewind your spin. Not many people would recognize Tom or others in his type of work.
Well, even if he didn’t know him, frankly, I PERSONALLY, JUST ME, in MY OPINION, that’s an opinion that is MINE, as in, UNIQUE TO ME ONLY AS AN INDIVIDUAL, is that I, and again, that’s ME, PERSONALLY, as in the INDIVIDUAL REPRESENTING BY THE INDEXICAL “I” WHEN I post it, is that I would rather eat in a restaurant where they throw people out who insult them than simply tolerate them.
Again, this is MY OPINION, MY PREFERENCE, it’s SINGULAR TO THE INDIVIDUAL REFERRED TO BY “I” as written by ME.
Literally anyone else in the world is 100% FREE TO DISAGREE WITH ME. Every individual is allowed an OPINION (presumably). This is MY OPINION. I speak for NO ONE ELSE except for ME, MYSELF, and I.
To your point, bula - just before the kerfuffle became apparent I was pointing him out to my 5 friends. Nobody recognized him, and only one of the five had heard of him (fortunately the latter is my gal).
Aesthete, I recall you stating in a somewhat recent post that you pretty much challenged another poster to show proof that you were being an A-hole. I feel anyone who wanted to spend the time searching your previous posts would have a simple time finding such evidence. But why dig up dirt?
After reading that “challenge,” I said to myself, "we should start fresh with Aesthete and only point them out from this point on. Maybe it would be constructive - it would be more immediate and maybe he could see it with clearer eyes. Well, this is that time. This response to me is pretty asshole-ish. Take a breath, reread what you’ve written, consider it relative how others post here, and objectively ask yourself if your last response is something a 3rd grader might use as a response after being called out on something that is certainly BS.
I’m afraid you have to explain some things to me. From my perspective, your earlier post was saying I wasn’t allowed a personal opinion on the matter. That seems like an asshole move to me. My reply is only meant to strongly illustrate that my post is my own opinion, to which I am pretty sure I am entitled. Maybe you can answer some questions for me to help me figure out what the standards are.
How is telling someone to fix the spin in their personal opinion on what kind of place they prefer to eat at not an asshole thing to do?
How is pointing out that my opinion only applies to me, and says nothing at all about the situation an asshole thing to do?
aesthete,
there is a line between having opinions
and the
crafting and stirring a toxic cauldron of baseless allegations/speculations/accusations that have been seasoned with some character assassinations for good measure.
sadly, to me, it looks like you’ve gone over the line.
gotta agree with bula here.
I never made any accusations at all so far as I recall. Just gave my opinion that I’d rather eat in a place where the owner throws out people who offend him.
I offered a hypothetical that it would be even more meaningful IF the owner knew he was throwing out a well-known food writer.
What accusations or “character” assassinations are there in any of these things?
I ask, yet again, how is it possible to go “over the line” by merely stating my personal opinion?
I’m not hacking into the website and trying to deactivate any of your accounts.
I haven’t told anyone else their opinion is invalid.
I haven’t told anyone else to shutup.
I haven’t told anyone else they don’t get an opinion.
In contrast, several people have directly said to me that I don’t deserve to have an opinion, because it is “over the line”.
So how is it me who is trying to stop people from having opinions, rather than everyone else?
It seems I am not allowed my own opinion, just because it differs from everyone else’s. I haven’t said anyone isn’t free to have whatever opinion they want.
Whereas I’ve been told by several people that I am not allowed to hold my own opinion.
I can actually quote their posts:
These are literal phrases telling someone they aren’t allowed to have an opinion on the matter, and that it must be changed, or silenced.
I, in contrast, have never said anything even remotely like that to anyone to the best of my knowledge.
How does me having the opposite opinion of the group in any way affect the ability of the group to have their own differing opinion?