Verlaine Opening (West Hollywood)

anyone hit this yet ? (on Beverly)

Diego Hernandez new spot

space looks interesting: Mexican Cooking Legend Diego Hernandez Opens Verlaine in Los Angeles - Eater LA

menu looks kinda blah tho: Home

Use the “search feature” (magnifying glass icon near the top right corner of the screen) of this site, enter the search term ‘Verlaine’, and you’ll see that @Chowseeker1999 already took one for the team at Verlaine…

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Space is ok, nothing special, but nice.
Food is a near complete disaster - at least in their opening week or two.
I want my money back.
Don’t know why an internationally respected chef would be involved with such a poorly thought out, and even more poorly executed, project.

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ouch…ya read the chef dipped out after a week…sounds like a sham

verlaine, as it should be:

nb: impatient types will miss out on the whole beauty of the thing but the verlaine based fireworks really take off at about 7:45 or so.

They wouldn’t refund you?

LAW gives it 3* claiming it has improved (but still has some issues):

http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/verlaine-review-chef-diego-hernandezs-rocky-start-and-bright-future-in-la-8384677

After @Chowseeker1999 @ciaobob went, I wonder if anyone dared to follow.

I grabbed dinner w a buddy at Scopa in Venice last night and the bartender was saying that it’s much improved now and that Diego is actually back and running the show…

Told him how skeptical I was via FTC initial reviews LMAO, but made me consider checking it out.

Verlaine posted a lengthy instagram post apologizing for poor opening and service starting off.

they’re offering to anyone who had a bad experience to come back, and they will comp your meal.

@verlaineLA

Email : Monicakarrell@gmail.com if you want to come back again for comp

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That is excellent customer service.

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verlainela“Some of the most thrilling food I’ve eaten in L.A. this year.” - Besha Rodell, LA Weekly LETTER TO OUR GUESTS About that “rocky start” mentioned in our LA Weekly review today…

We are in the business of hospitality. It is our job to provide an escape, a relaxed, welcoming environment for all. Whether you arrive at Verlaine as a long time fan of Chef Diego with exceedingly high expectations of every dish placed before you, or if you arrive to bathe in the beauty of our patio surroundings with friends and family to enjoy a few light bites and a cocktail, our job remains the same.

During our opening weeks, we experienced an unfortunate series of technical issues with our beloved, seventy year old home that quite literally required construction and repairs to continue twenty four hours each day. Additionally, although much of chef’s menu is sourced locally, many items and several staff members have joined us from afar, all of which led to an unforeseen, challenging debut for Verlaine. Our dedicated staff worked day and night to correct these challenges, and we are extremely proud of the Verlaine experience that our guests enjoy today. However, we also understand that our job is to provide the “theatre” for our guests experience. When the curtain rises each night, our issues must simply vanish. We are painfully aware that any technical issues that the business might suffer are not the issues of our guests, nor should they be. Nor will we allow them to serve as excuses for any issues that arose during our opening days.

As referenced in this generous review in today’s LA Weekly, Verlaine has come a very long way since our opening. Our entire staff has committed to work day and night to ensure that each and every one of our guests enjoys their visit with us. Now led by Director of Spirits John Neumueller, we have enacted extensive changes in our beverage menus, which we trust that you will find exciting, delicious, and just in time for summer. Similarly, Chef has been working closely with his team to perfect menu items, tweaking some, replacing others. CAPTION CONTINUED BELOW… :camera:: @annefishbein

An entire section of curated wines from Mexico’s pristine Valle de Guadalupe will soon be included on our wine menus, courtesy of chef’s close working relationships with the area’s small, local wine makers. And we are thrilled to announce that John and chef will very soon debut our front bar, Wild Beast, a stunning architectural homage to the old celebrity drinking dens of Hollywood’s glorious past.

It is our greatest hope, however, to win back those guests that might not have fully enjoyed their experience with us during our opening days. Although we make every attempt to speak with each diner and ensure their happiness before leaving our restaurant, it is our hope that we may invite those that slipped by to again return as our guests. We want you to be happy. We want you to think of Verlaine as that very special gathering place that we have worked so very hard to create. If we missed you on a previous visit, we would sincerely like to hear from you today. Our General Manager Monica Karell would like to personally invite you to return, in order to offer us the opportunity to win your heart and your appetite. Monica may be reached at monicakarrell@gmail.com or you may call the restaurant directly at (424) 288-4621.
And finally, to LA Weekly restaurant critic Besha Rodell, we offer our sincerest thanks for the very kind words and for seeing the Verlaine vision beyond the taco and the guac - “If you are excited at the prospect of our city’s modern Mexican offerings getting more diverse and expansive and impressive, then you’re in luck. Because although Verlaine still has its flaws, at his best Hernández delivers some of the most thrilling food I’ve eaten in L.A. this year.” Please join us soon.

Christopher Brandon, Matthew Hechter &
Chef Deigo Hernandez

https://www.instagram.com/verlainela/

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Impressive response.

I will be interested especially to go and check out the wines from the Guadalupe valley when that is installed for sure.

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It’s a strong response, I’ll say that.
I’m still going to wait a bit, though.

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I wrote to them. Gave my opentable confirmation and cited my issues and what I wrote here at FTC
This is what came back - not promising

Error Icon
Address not found
Your message wasn’t delivered to monicakarrell@gmail.com because the address couldn’t be found. Check for typos or unnecessary spaces and try again.
LEARN MORE

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I’d LOL if that wasn’t so sad. I guess you can call the restaurant. Or maybe post a message on their IG.

Sheesh. Failing at apologizing is pretty sad.
Now I’m starting to just fell sorry for the whole lot of them.

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I will - if they don’t reply to me - as I also emailed my note to reservations@verlaine.la (let’s hope they actually read that, it is ONLY on their website, so it does seem unlikely that they will :cry:)

RIght! Kind of hard to believe.

Hey @ns1 - where did you pull that Letter from?

instagram.com/p/BWLj2Iilbog/?taken-by=verlainela

Not there now.
And then there’s this bounce back from monicakarrell@gmail.com

Fuck Wits.