The Search for Creme Brulee

First, an aside – I only had my first crème brulee about 7-8 years ago. I was visiting Chicago on business, and – in the mood for good Italian food – went online for reviews. Found a great review of a place near where I was staying; so I walked over.

It was actually in an indoor mall; and as I went up the escalator, I was nervous that it wouldn’t be any good. Instead, it was awesome. A free sample of “Baked Spaghetti” while ordering; then Chicken Parmigiana and Chocolate Crème Brulee for dessert. Instead of it being chocolate custard though; they essentially coated the dish with semi-sweet chocolate; to make a shell in which the crème brulee was placed. It was amazing.

I had a trip planned to Chicago again a year later, and as I was setting up a meeting, decided to hold it at that location. When I checked the online menu, though; the chocolate crème brulee was no longer available! I emailed the restaurant – told them how much I’d enjoyed my visit; and expressed my dismay at the dessert no longer being available, and in the span of three hours, the email had gone to four different people, before the head chef wrote me back – and told me to let him know when I was coming and it would be on the menu that evening.

I did; and it was spectacular. The maitre d' knew who I was; I was treated like royalty. After dessert, the manager came out to tell me the chef was so touched by what I’d said, that desserts were on the house that evening. It was an amazing display of customer service.

A year later, they were out of business; but I hope that was in no way related!

On to this year’s story:

 

Each year, I have a list of exceptionally designed houses for the Christmas season (ironically, everyone makes fun of me, until they want to go see these incredible houses) – but, I’ve broken these houses down into four quadrants of locations – and, over four separate nights, we visit each quadrant, plotting out the route through online software. In better times, we also head into Manhattan (although, we’re not crazy enough to do that with a three-year-old); and – the past few years, we’ve trekked out to Dyker Heights, in Brooklyn, to see the houses there.

This year, we spent the first two nights doing the houses in the northern sections of Long Island (and, as a showing to how long it had been since we visited those areas, we eliminated at least half of the houses, since the previous owners were no longer there).

Then, last Saturday, we headed to Brooklyn. We had a full day, visiting my mother's grave first, stopping at Roosevelt Field Mall (just because) and then heading out to Dyker Heights. I had looked online for some exceptional places to eat; and we decided to eat at La Sorrentina; then do the walking; then head to Gino's for dessert and coffee (most notably, because the top-listed item on the dessert menu was -- yes -- creme brulee).

After the walk (where we had met up with a friend), we hopped in the car to drive to Gino's. As we drove by, I remarked that it looked really crowded for 9:15pm at night. We called and we were told there would be a 45-minute wait. My wife -- not wanting to wait that long, said we should head elsewhere.

First, we looked up some places on Yelp. We decided on Audrey's Concerto, since it also listed creme brulee; but it was about 25 minutes away. Still, 25 is less than 45, so we headed over there. However, when we drove by the place we noticed 1) there was limited seating; and 2) it looked like it might be in a less-than-savory part of town. We decided to head back to Mona Lisa's (which had been recommended).

Walked in there, and looked at the varied pastries, etc. they had available. Then, I noticed that there was a sign saying the 'cafe' was closed. Upon asking, I was told they had no place to sit, because they were doing construction. My wife, resigned, said we could eat in the car. I asked for the bathroom and headed there -- and saw the cafe had about 20 people sitting there! I asked and was told "they" were allowed, since they were on a bus tour. I asked why we couldn't sit there; got no real answer.

Still, undeterred, we starting deciding what to eat -- and then, when my wife ordered coffee, we were told, "We don't have coffee anymore." Really? And, back on the road we went .

By now, however; there was no wait at Gino's, so we headed back there (of course, it was now 10:15pm)! Got seated, and looked at menus - and I ordered the creme brulee. The waiter just laughed and shook his head -- "No more left!" he cackled. "Look at this place, it's been this busy all day?" 

I'm not sure what that meant; I think if you're that profitable, you can afford to have more of your hottest item available, no? Nonetheless, I settled for some chocolate mousse; disappointed; and we finally got on the road; promptly got lost; and got home around 1am.

The following evening, we headed to the south-west corner of Suffolk County -- the "quadrant" with the most houses (and, evidently, a place where no one moves away from, because easily 80 percent of the houses remained on our list). It was cold and rainy, and my wife asked for a coffee. We passed by numerous Dunkin Donuts, but she had her heart set on a Caramel Brulee Latte from Starbucks (a holiday flavor).

It was late - around 9:45pm - so we intended to get the coffee and head home. We pulled in (the parking lot had spaces opposite the entry way, facing the street) and I walked in to get the coffees. When I came out, there was a giant 18-wheeler turning around in the parking lot. I got in the car, and waited for the trailer to pass me.

But he didn't. Instead, he stopped right behind us. I said to my wife, "I don't think we can get out!" Tried backing up; definitely couldn't (there were two cars on either side of me, so I couldn't even three-point-turn into an adjacent space.

She got out and told the guy (now in the back of the cab); and he looked over at my SUV and said, "Oh, he can get out" dismissively. She got back in and I said, "I'm pretty sure I can't." I backed up as much as I could, until I bumped into his truck.

By now, my son - already tired from the evening before - started to cry. My wife got back out and asked him - again - to move his truck up. He said, the driver had gone into Starbucks and he was unloading and we'd have to wait. I began honking my horn loudly; and there was no impact. She wasn't moving though; and she kept asking him; finally saying something like, "I don't give a s**t about you unloading." He began yelling back at her, "Don't be rude to me! I have a job to do!" His tone began to sound menacing to me, so I hopped out of the car, slamming my door behind me (sadly, my wife had lay her latte on the console; so slamming the door dislodged it, and it fell over ... )

Now irritated, I asked, "What is so hard to understand? You cannot willingly block in an entire row of cars that are trying to get out?" He just started yelling back at me, as well. I responded finally, "Let me call the police. I'm sure that when they hear that you are not allowing us to move, things will start happening." That seemed to work - and begrudgingly, the driver elected to move his truck.

It was, apparently, a bad week to be a "brulee."

Shockingly, I called the following day -- first the trucking company, Bartlett Dairy. After being passed around to 4-5 different people, I finally spoke to someone who listened to my story; apologized, but said she had to pass my info along to her manager. I never heard back.

I then called Starbucks (because, sadly, in today's world, when you're a brand as large as Starbucks, even your suppliers' actions reflect upon you). There, I didn't even get an apology; just a "oh well" basically from the customer service representative. I was a little shocked by that; but not tremendously shocked. I've learned, long ago, customer service isn't held in high regard; even by those companies that say they do in fact, value it.

Maybe I'm just ranting; but if so, it's understandable. It's now the day after Christmas, and I still haven't had creme brulee.