Slog - Comments on BREAKING: Bad Lighting Nearly Ruins Dining Experience! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin Everybody loves Osteria la Spiga. Me too. I loved la Spiga in its old digs on Broadway--heck, after two or three dozen visits I'd even come to appreciate their Epcot-Center-esque "dat's Italian!" decor. The food was so good--particularly the pasta--that it hardly mattered that every surface was spackled with cliches. So I was looking forward to eating at la Spiga after its big move to 12th Avenue--particularly in the wake of all the rave reviews, most of which heaped as much praise on la Spiga's new space as they did on la Spiga's food. And, yeah, the room is beautiful.... Copyright 2008 Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:18:02 -0800 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:14:54 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by COMTE Could they possibly be using some sort of full-spectrum UV lamps? In which case your meal was nearly ruined because it appeared under a reasonable facsimile of natural sunlight?

]]> COMTE http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675439 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675439 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:56:28 -0800 Comment by Amy Kate Horn It's also really fucking loud in there.

]]> Amy Kate Horn http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675447 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675447 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:04:10 -0800 Comment by konstantconsumer oh, the suffering writer! such terrors you live through!

just kidding. i hate that type of lighting, too.

]]> konstantconsumer http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675451 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675451 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:15:26 -0800 Comment by him Brains! I suddenly have a hankering for brains!

]]> him http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675469 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675469 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:29:40 -0800 Comment by kid icarus I had the same experience. I tried to move the table because I was so blinded. No matter what I did, I couldn't shield my eyes. Definitely interfered with the meal.

]]> kid icarus http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675479 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675479 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:31:50 -0800 Comment by scharrera Also watch out for strange, vaguely insulting commments from the wait staff. I mean, maybe I was having a bad hair day, but "rocking the modern cavegirl?" She's lucky me and my companion have good senses of humor and don't freak out like alot of customers would.

]]> scharrera http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675518 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675518 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:05:54 -0800 Comment by Dan Savage Please elaborate, Scharrera.

]]> Dan Savage http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675525 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675525 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:14:04 -0800 Comment by Bethany Jean Clement Every review except one has found the service wanting (including my writeup). It's now been MONTHS, and still the last time I went in, the waitstaff was glacially slow (pre–climate change) and extremely offhand and three different servers were involved. And now they're making fun of diners' hair? Hello?

Dan, the lighting at the booths in the bar is nice. I've never sat under one of those zombielamps.

]]> Bethany Jean Clement http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675550 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675550 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:40:52 -0800 Comment by It's a Seattle thing Why is it that service sucks in Seattle. If you travel 3-hours south to Portland you get good service. If you travel 3-hours north to Vancouver you get good service.

Seattle...not so much.

]]> It's a Seattle thing http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675569 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675569 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:01:21 -0800 Comment by Max Solomon at Ha Na, i just reach up into the lamp & unscrew the fucking 100 watt bulb.

try that with a halogen & you're in harborview.

these sterile new dining spaces seem to have forgotten the basics: keep the lighting warm, keep the surfaces soft, bring the ceiling down to human scale.

the new asteroid cafe in fremont is a nightmare. give me casa d'italia in ravenna any day. but don't start going there, hipsters. its too small & suburban for you.

]]> Max Solomon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675593 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675593 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:16:00 -0800 Comment by jackseattle My BF had that complaint about the lights over the bar - and will feel soooo vindicated too. The service is slow, so we only sit at the bar now. We experience a kind of Fundie/Evangelical-like duality - love the food, hate the service

]]> jackseattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675802 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675802 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:56:23 -0800 Comment by fixo @ 9. Quite a generalization. I think there's plenty of great service to be had a restaurants in Seattle. Although I would agree Neo-La Spiga is not one of those restaurants. I just don't think the execution is good enough for that space. The effect is a little bit like "Let's pretend we're in a really good restaurant!" In other words, spectacular (or even just prominent) design can be bane more than boon, to the extent that it elevates expectations for food, drink and service. I'd rather be in a homely space with great service, food and drink than in an expensive space with indifferent (or worse) execution.

]]> fixo http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675847 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c675847 Chow Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:27:05 -0800 Comment by Joe Regarding service vs design -- yeah, just take Tavolata, it of many glowing reviews (have we determined who from there is sleeping with whom at the stranger that the reviews are so post-coital?) I know some people like the decor, but to me it's long, narrow, loud, and all raw concrete -- you're essentially dining inside the Viaduct (except the Viaduct has better lighting). But the service is very good, even when the place is packed. And it hasn't been open all that long. So it's not like good help is that hard to find.

]]> Joe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c676288 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c676288 Chow Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:50:14 -0800 Comment by Anon I like going places with lousy service, that way I don't have to leave a tip. And sometimes I even get my meal free.

]]> Anon http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c676407 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/03/breaking_bad_lighting_nearly_ruins_dinin#c676407 Chow Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:14:54 -0800