Joe's

Has anyone been to Joe's since it reopened? (It has already reopened, right?) Any reviews?

There's a sign outside it saying it's set to reopen on January 17.

Jon and I hopefully plan to go the weekend we're in town for Clarkson, SLU(T).
www.joesithaca.com

It officially opened yesterday, and they had some private parties earlier in the weekend. We went early this evening. I'm nothing even close to a restaurant critic, but here's my take:

My family was very excited to be going again, and the place looks really nice inside. Nothing special, just simple and nice (no crazy flamingo decorations). We were a little disappointed by the food, though. The menu itself looks almost exactly like it did before it closed, other than different photographs. This led us to expect the recipes to be closer to what we remember.

First of all, if you go in the next couple of weeks, don't expect the full menu. They have a limited menu while they get things up to full speed. That's perfectly understandable, but still disappointing if you're not ready for it and you've got a craving for chicken marsala like my wife did (veil was available, but my wife doesn't like that). So she got the eggplant parmigiana, which she always said was the best she tasted anywhere. Well, according to her, it's very different from the old recipe. The coating (batter?) used to be lighter and the whole dish seemed fresher. She said tonight's was similar to any that you get any other place, so she was disappointed.

I got linguine with Arrabiata sauce (used to get tortellini, but they don't have that anymore), and also noticed big differences. There wasn't nearly as much garlic as the old recipe - you could tell even before tasting it just by looking at it. It was also sweeter and had a smoky taste to it. I finished the whole dish, so it was still good. It just wasn't the same, and it wasn't AS good as I remember. And my breath doesn't stink nearly as much 3 hours later as it would have years ago.

Oh yeah, the salad dressing is a little different, too. It tasted sweeter than we remember. And the breadsticks have been replaced by sliced bread with some butter/cheese spread.

Overall, it was still pretty good, and we probably would have thought it was better had we not been expecting what we remembered. And it sure is nice just seeing the Joe's sign lit up and people inside now when you drive by...


I'll be interested in hearing what other people think about the dishes they get.

Uh-oh. Joe's Chicken Marsala, at least circa 1991, is the best I've ever tasted, and I'd hate to think it's been reformulated, assuming it again becomes available.

They give you the full menu so you can read descriptions and prices since the limited menu of choices available now is just a sheet of paper with the names only. Chicken Marsala is listed on the full menu, and on their website menu. But I don't know if it's the same recipe as before.
I hope so.

The way I put it was "Lots of little things went wrong, and lots of big things went right." But at the pre-opening dinner I went to on Friday, I wasn't expecting everything to be perfect... nor would I during their first week open, when I'm sure they're getting swamped.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

If you thought the service was good and everything flowed smoothly, I'll be very impressed. I have no doubt they'll be tweaking the recipes in the coming weeks.

[q]And the breadsticks have been replaced by sliced bread with some butter/cheese spread.[/q]No BREADSTICKS! That's awful! Filling up on endless breadsticks was half of the point of the place (along the lines of cheap and filling).