In fact, many of the people she works with did.ĪLVERANGA: It went through everybody pretty quick in our restaurant. Things look a lot different where she is.ĮMILY ALVERANGA: Right now is our busy season, so we get so many reservations that walk-in wait times are over an hour.ĬHANG: But like many people this winter, she caught COVID. Even sitting on outdoor patio, which we spent tens of thousands of dollars on to build, it's just down because people are so fearful of catching the virus.ĬHANG: Emily Alveranga is a server and bartender in Boca Raton, Fla. MARSHALL: So on days where I would normally be packed or even have a steady groove, now I'm seeing - you know, my business has dropped about 95%. Things began to, not normalize, but you began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. MARSHALL: Spring came, and we all thought that we were getting back to normal. Since then, she says, it's been a total roller coaster. Soon after, COVID hit, and like thousands of other restaurants across the country, Marshall's was forced to shut down for six months. That's how well we were doing.ĬHANG: But it was short-lived. I could not have asked for a better opening. We were quickly becoming a community staple. I mean, we were at capacity every single shift. While the pepperoni pizza didn't approach pizzeria quality, the crust was baked cracker-crisp on the outside, fluffy and airy on the inside, and featured a thick blanket of browned cheese, though scarcely any tomato sauce.When Nya Marshall opened Ivy Kitchen and Cocktails in Detroit toward the end of 2019, business was good. Angelique also had praise for the house salad, in which roasted red peppers, olives and bite-sized bits of cooked cauliflower and broccoli added savor and substance to the typical bunch of mixed greens.įor those disinterested in culinary trends - even those that have become clichés - Déjà Vu has pizza. Spicy crab-rolls in fried wrappers with Cajun sauce were crispy, creamy and piquant, giving us a tantalizing glimpse of Déjà Vu's ability to offer familiar fare with a delicious twist. Pleasantly surprised to find a fresh, tender-crisp seaweed salad on the plate, Jason limited his compliments to that, as Angelique - not even usually a sweet-and-sour fan - scarfed down meaty spheres covered in a thick, sweet, chunky sauce. We were of two minds on the sweet-and-sour Asian meatballs. Here, the grains were gummy and bland with little evidence of herbs. Its bed of risotto bore only a passing semblance to the tender, creamy rice dish that we adore.
All but flavorless, it led us to think we would have preferred no dressing at all on the salmon, whose succulent texture begged to be enjoyed. We weren't convinced that we had gotten the right entrée when the salmon arrived, shrouded in a purple sauce which betrayed little evidence of either butter or ginger, its supposed main ingredients.
The prosciutto wrap, once grilled, turned black and overwhelmingly salty, overpowering the delicate shellfish and disagreeing with the spicy-sweet sauce. Intriguing though they may have been, the aforementioned salmon and shrimp were not successful experiments. And, indeed, some of these ventures beyond the tried-and-true succeed. On a menu that alternated between Asian-esque and modern Italian favorites, occasional items attempted to fuse the two traditions, as with the salmon in ginger-butter sauce or the prosciutto-wrapped shrimp with cilantro-lime aioli and spicy teriyaki. At first glance, the menu, likewise, was a predictable hit parade of classic and come-lately morsels: spinach-artichoke dip, bruschetta and seared ahi tuna all jostled for attention, their disparate origins and methods of preparation belying a specialty or knack for innovation in the kitchen.īut a second glance revealed some stabs at genuine novelty amid the checklist approach to culinary fashion. The plummy colors, the curvy modern furnishings, the vaguely Asian-inspired artwork on the exposed-brick walls they added up less to a distinctive theme than to a sort of decorative pastiche of the trendy urban eateries of the past five minutes. Perhaps this explains why, when we walked into Déjà Vu, we had the distinct feeling we had been there before.
It is, after all, the sincerest form of flattery. The leaders are the true originals and, because really original cooking is rare and usually very pricey, there is a big appetite for imitation. In dining as in every other social pursuit, there are leaders and there are followers. Prices: Appetizers, salads, sandwiches and pizza $7-12 entrees $16-22Ītmosphere: Is the martini craze over yet? Location: 2106 Penn Ave., Strip District.
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