Off the Menu at Balthazar

This morning we decided to drop in on Balthazar for breakfast, our first time eating there before 10am when they start serving brunch. Earlier than that on weekends they only serve a continental breakfast which we though would be okay, but on arriving we discovered that a couple of crucial items we really wanted were not on the menu.

Specifically, we were looking for a couple of breakfast staple items, bacon and fruit salad. After a quick discussion about the continental menu and the conspicuous lack of these items, we decided we would take our chances and ask the waiter whether the kitchen could possibly prepare them for use even though they were not officially part of the continental board of fare. We had in mind, of course, the fact that it was 9:30 and at 10:00 they would begin serving a full brunch menu including both of these items, so it didn't like that great a stretch, but one never knows what sort of reaction the question will produce.

My wife went first, her assigned request being for the bacon. The waiter handled that one fairly easily, with a perfunctory answer that brunch items were not available without exception. There was no hint of relent or apology in the tone (not that this was expected).

Then it was my turn, with the request for the fruit salad. This time the waiter seemed quite taken aback. His first response was an awkward pause, followed by an admonition that he would have to check with the kitchen (emphasized with a broad gesture in that general direction). As I was following up my request with an attempt at assurance that we know it wasn't time for brunch yet so no problem if they couldn't manage it, he again held up his hands and indicated that he was going to have to check them "them" (meaning the kitchen, I think).

Apparently he meant that he would have to check before he could continue with taking our order, because at that point he backed away slightly before turning and heading off to the kitchen. I was left feeling like we had done something inappropriate at that point. I wouldn't have been surprised at that point if we had simply been ushered out by the management.

Instead, a couple of minutes later new a women appeared at our table. Apparently she was also on the staff in some sort of escalation capacity, and she asked us if indeed we were the ones who wanted the fruit salad. I wasn't sure what to say at first, since I thought it possible that she would be the one responsible for implementing management policy of showing us the door for our excessive pattern of unreasonable requests. Instead, though, I admitted that we had indeed inquired about ordering off the menu. She then told us that they had exactly one fruit salad in the kitchen (and no more), and then asked if we would like to have it.

This still seemed like a trick of some sort, with the progress of questions and the strange behavior of the waiter. On the other hand, this new person was fairly upbeat and seemed on the surface to be enthusiastic about the prospect of us taking the fruit salad off their hands. Also, I figured there were still plenty of places around the area to eat breakfast if this suddenly all went wrong and so decided to accept the offer of the fruit salad.

After nodding in confirmation, the woman disappeared and a few moments later our waiter returned. We weren't sure about the status of the order, since the waiter had left somewhat abruptly. There followed a somewhat awkward exchange where he asked if someone had come to see us, to which we answered yes, that we had been generously offered a fruit salad. He then asked if we wanted it, which by that point really seemed strange given that we were going through so many layers of questioning to get it.

By this time it was nearly quarter before ten, and so it wasn't long before we started seeing lots of fruits salads being whisked around the dining room, heightening our feeling that this was indeed a strange way to handle our special request.

Once our food arrived (including one bowl of fruit salad), we began to speculate on the amount we would be charged for this highly irregular option. I was sure that the extra grief the kitchen had gone through to fulfill the off-schedule request would be deemed worthy of a price somewhere in excess of $10, but it turned out that we were charged only $5, which was the same as the price of the granola and yogurt bowl with fruit, which incidentally was available on the continental breakfast menu.