was looking for the au bon pan near northeastern, only to find out that it had been replaced by tatte (which is apparently taking over the city).
checked the menu; the prosciutto panini looked good, i asked if they would sub fresh mozzarella for the brie and fontina. seemed like a reasonable request — they have a fresh mozz sandwich — but apparently not. and the manager couldn’t even be bother to come over and explain why.
so i left — and don’t plan to return.
How disappointing! I wonder if the panini are pre-assembled, I have seen that in places with high traffic. But not that hard to throw a special order one together.
I think Tatte suffers more from over-computerization than pre-assembly. Like Clover and other “modern” enterprises, everything is rigidly programmed into their system. Want to order lunch at 10:58 at Clover? No-can-do – their ordering e-pads switch to the lunch menu precisely at 11, so no lunch order is possible even 30 seconds before, let alone two whole minutes. Similarly, want to sub brie+fontina with mozzarella at Tatte? Apart from the fact that this would rock the Universe of people in the kitchen who do (at Tatte) assemble things from scratch, but by following precise automated steps for each dish, it would rock their e-cash-machines. What should you charge for this? Is Mozarella more expensive or less than b+f? And how do you put that into a system that only has pre-programmed buttons for what they offer, and none for what you want.
That’s why discussions of Tatte as a quaint local joint are so laughable. It may not belong to a chain owned by a family with a criminal past, but it is wholly, and enthusiastically, part of a business culture that has subordinated our humanity to the machine.
I have to admit that I prefer when restaurants don’t accept any customization of dishes - why do people always want to change up things ? (More and more restaurants also write now on their menu that no substitutions are allowed - and taking to many chefs it really annoys them as they have thought about dishes and which ingredients to use)
don’t know that i’d call the [quote=“fooddabbler, post:3, topic:18228”]
Universe of people in the kitchen who do (at Tatte) assemble things from scratch, but by following precise automated steps for each dish,
[/quote] chefs who “have thought about dishes and which ingredients to use.”
