NEVER eat at Carmelo's in New Orleans!
Jan 2nd, 2008, 07:09 PM
#41
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 14,467
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Shari, no one means to jump on you, but your description leaves a lot out. I know you're angry and frustrated, but take a deep breath. We want to help you get your story out. it's hard to understand why he called numerous times--did he verify your reservations multiple times? Was there any problem with the credit card? Was there any personal disagreement over the years? Now, NONE of these things would EXCUSE his behavior, but it might explain it.
I'm sorry you had such a horrible time. I don't think many of us, even those of us who want more info about the incident, will plan on eating there any time soon!
bliss
I'm sorry you had such a horrible time. I don't think many of us, even those of us who want more info about the incident, will plan on eating there any time soon!
bliss
Jan 2nd, 2008, 07:12 PM
#42
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 6
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My husband and I celebrated New Year's Eve at Carmelo's.
We had an 8:30 p.m. reservation and was promptly seated at a festive table decorated with party hats, noise makers, Mardi Gras bead, which we joyfully threw to the crowd from a spacious 2nd floor balcony. We met people from all over the world. Not one complaint did we hear. The food was Italian. I am Italian and know it when I taste it. Was it the best in the world, no. But for the price and the atmosphere, it was perfect. I likened it to eating at Mardi Gras, or Jazz Fest. Yum and fun! Also, the Midnight celebration was incredible. The fire works display was fantastic and what a view from the balcony! The crowd that was on the balcony at midnight by then felt like family. Our waitress, September, was so accomodating even though she had to be so busy. She would serve us drinks on the balcony and acutally come find us to tell us our course was being served. At the end of the evening, Karen, Carmelo and Staff escorted us out the door with a warm New Year's Eve handshake and wanted to know if we were pleased with the service. Now, this was the real test. My husband, who would happily stay home for all holidays, said to me, "This was the best New Year's Eve he ever had." We will return to Carmelo's as long as they are on Decatur. Thanks Carmelo, Karen, September and Staff for a wonderful New Year's Eve!
We had an 8:30 p.m. reservation and was promptly seated at a festive table decorated with party hats, noise makers, Mardi Gras bead, which we joyfully threw to the crowd from a spacious 2nd floor balcony. We met people from all over the world. Not one complaint did we hear. The food was Italian. I am Italian and know it when I taste it. Was it the best in the world, no. But for the price and the atmosphere, it was perfect. I likened it to eating at Mardi Gras, or Jazz Fest. Yum and fun! Also, the Midnight celebration was incredible. The fire works display was fantastic and what a view from the balcony! The crowd that was on the balcony at midnight by then felt like family. Our waitress, September, was so accomodating even though she had to be so busy. She would serve us drinks on the balcony and acutally come find us to tell us our course was being served. At the end of the evening, Karen, Carmelo and Staff escorted us out the door with a warm New Year's Eve handshake and wanted to know if we were pleased with the service. Now, this was the real test. My husband, who would happily stay home for all holidays, said to me, "This was the best New Year's Eve he ever had." We will return to Carmelo's as long as they are on Decatur. Thanks Carmelo, Karen, September and Staff for a wonderful New Year's Eve!
Jan 2nd, 2008, 09:35 PM
#47
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 10,823
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
While I have no explanation for the wild story Shari is telling........let's see who I'm likely to believe - (1) a longtime poster who is commenting on a bad restaurant experience OR (2) a brand new poster, raving about the same restaurant on the same night.
If someone from Carmelo's really wants to make a comment - they need to do it honestly and explain what happened to Shari and her companions.
Sounds to me like Carmelo was having some sort of breakdown. Given the apologies coming from his wife, I have to assume she was aware of the behavior problem. Rather than trying to kick your party out the door, I would have been offering you a free glass of champagne!!!
If someone from Carmelo's really wants to make a comment - they need to do it honestly and explain what happened to Shari and her companions.
Sounds to me like Carmelo was having some sort of breakdown. Given the apologies coming from his wife, I have to assume she was aware of the behavior problem. Rather than trying to kick your party out the door, I would have been offering you a free glass of champagne!!!
Jan 3rd, 2008, 03:58 AM
#48
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,630
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I live in New Orleans and was nowhere near Carmelo's on New Year's Eve. I'm also a long-time Fodors poster (click my name) and I can tell you that I've had many good meals at Carmelo's. Carmelo is a nice man who's been a very gracious host when we've been there.
Of course, New Year's Eve is a totally different animal at most restaurants and whatever happened sounds like a real mess from every angle. Like others, however, I can't believe that there wasn't more to this that we don't know about.
Of course, New Year's Eve is a totally different animal at most restaurants and whatever happened sounds like a real mess from every angle. Like others, however, I can't believe that there wasn't more to this that we don't know about.
Jan 3rd, 2008, 05:00 AM
#49
I think someone really did email Carmelo. Ct's post is as transparent as a plate glass window, and unfortunate as now it casts suspicion on the other side of this tale of woe. I really would like to hear the Carmelo version of what transpired It is apparent there is another side.
Shari your first post was over the top with the numerous caps sounding as if you were screaming too. You say you are always polite and considerate, but that's not how it came across (punctuated by the bathroom comment.) I cannot tell you the number of times I've heard one side of a hospitality story and thought "how awful for that guest", then heard the other side and an entirely different picture emerges...from someone whom I know well enough to know I am being told the absolute truth. It makes me more than a bit wary when a post starts out as yours did. I'm absolutely not saying Carmelo was blameless, but I'm certain that something else transpired, and in all fairness, we should be given the entire story. No one goes off like that without a fuse having been lit...unless they are emotionally unstable. This is a person who has been in business for a long time. If it's the way he conducts his business routinely, he wouldn't last the number of years he has.
Shari your first post was over the top with the numerous caps sounding as if you were screaming too. You say you are always polite and considerate, but that's not how it came across (punctuated by the bathroom comment.) I cannot tell you the number of times I've heard one side of a hospitality story and thought "how awful for that guest", then heard the other side and an entirely different picture emerges...from someone whom I know well enough to know I am being told the absolute truth. It makes me more than a bit wary when a post starts out as yours did. I'm absolutely not saying Carmelo was blameless, but I'm certain that something else transpired, and in all fairness, we should be given the entire story. No one goes off like that without a fuse having been lit...unless they are emotionally unstable. This is a person who has been in business for a long time. If it's the way he conducts his business routinely, he wouldn't last the number of years he has.
Jan 3rd, 2008, 05:17 AM
#51
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 10,823
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dan - appreciate your input.
As for Shari's experience - I believe that something really strange must have been going on that night. As she stated - she's been going there for years and no doubt chose that place for NYE because of prior good experiences.
However, while I understand her distress, I wouldn't be so quick to condemn a place - especially with respect to a meal on a major holiday.
Have to say - in all my growing up years in NO, I don't think I ever ate there!!!! Will have to check it out next summer!
As for Shari's experience - I believe that something really strange must have been going on that night. As she stated - she's been going there for years and no doubt chose that place for NYE because of prior good experiences.
However, while I understand her distress, I wouldn't be so quick to condemn a place - especially with respect to a meal on a major holiday.
Have to say - in all my growing up years in NO, I don't think I ever ate there!!!! Will have to check it out next summer!
Jan 3rd, 2008, 05:36 AM
#52
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I looked at this place on New Orleans Chowhound. There's not a lot positive about it except that it's an "OK" sort of standby, but more reports that people were disappointed.
As I said above, no one should be allowed to review or judge a restaurant by what happens on New Year's Eve or Valentines Day (and also perhaps Mother's Day). It seems no restaurant does its best at those times, and often they do by far their worst. But that doesn't excuse the owner calling and screaming before they even went.
And I still find it hard to imagine that Shari has no clue what he was screaming about or why he had called them to begin with.
As I said above, no one should be allowed to review or judge a restaurant by what happens on New Year's Eve or Valentines Day (and also perhaps Mother's Day). It seems no restaurant does its best at those times, and often they do by far their worst. But that doesn't excuse the owner calling and screaming before they even went.
And I still find it hard to imagine that Shari has no clue what he was screaming about or why he had called them to begin with.
Jan 3rd, 2008, 07:37 AM
#53
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 370
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Happy New year to everyone. I am amazed at how many people respond to a negative post. Geez, now if more people could respond to my other posts with questions.
I certainly would not judge a restaurant based on New Year's Eve, but this certainly went above and beyond what a normal business owner would do. (Yes, I am always polite. To the poster who is now judging my "caps" in the first post--I apologize. I used them for emphasis. I had the night to stew over it, and I am upset. My all caps do not indicate my personality. Frankyl, I find it bizarre that you are reading into my post to that extent.)
I know the holidays can be stressful. I also know NOLA is suffering after Katrina. That is why I kept my calm. That does not excuse Carmelo's behavior, though. I have traveled the world. I am Italian and enjoy Italian food. Carmelo is a sorry excuse for my people.
I don't know how many times I have to type that Carmello called us screaming for NO reason. (I know it is hard to understand, but that is it. That is why it was absolute insanity to us.) Again, he called our phone about 45 minutes before we were to arrive and yelled about being busy, we better make sure we are there on time, we better leave, we better get there. To which, we said "No problem. We are going to be there. maybe you have the wrong number. We look forward to seeing you." To which he would hang up and then call us back with the same circular/nonsensical crap.
This carried over to our dinner, when he hovered around and yelled as we passed the bill around, etc. No, we were not drunk. We were not lingering or late at the table. No, we were not being disrespectful.
Again, please feel free to go there for yourself. I thought I was helping posters who use this board for travel advice. I did not know of any other way to get this out there because he is the owner, so I can't call the owner to complain.
I certainly would not judge a restaurant based on New Year's Eve, but this certainly went above and beyond what a normal business owner would do. (Yes, I am always polite. To the poster who is now judging my "caps" in the first post--I apologize. I used them for emphasis. I had the night to stew over it, and I am upset. My all caps do not indicate my personality. Frankyl, I find it bizarre that you are reading into my post to that extent.)
I know the holidays can be stressful. I also know NOLA is suffering after Katrina. That is why I kept my calm. That does not excuse Carmelo's behavior, though. I have traveled the world. I am Italian and enjoy Italian food. Carmelo is a sorry excuse for my people.
I don't know how many times I have to type that Carmello called us screaming for NO reason. (I know it is hard to understand, but that is it. That is why it was absolute insanity to us.) Again, he called our phone about 45 minutes before we were to arrive and yelled about being busy, we better make sure we are there on time, we better leave, we better get there. To which, we said "No problem. We are going to be there. maybe you have the wrong number. We look forward to seeing you." To which he would hang up and then call us back with the same circular/nonsensical crap.
This carried over to our dinner, when he hovered around and yelled as we passed the bill around, etc. No, we were not drunk. We were not lingering or late at the table. No, we were not being disrespectful.
Again, please feel free to go there for yourself. I thought I was helping posters who use this board for travel advice. I did not know of any other way to get this out there because he is the owner, so I can't call the owner to complain.
Jan 3rd, 2008, 07:51 AM
#54
Shari...caps may mean emphasis to you, but to others they indicate shouting. That's how it came across. And if you just wanted to emphasize something, did you really need to use caps with the word "friggin"? 
Jan 3rd, 2008, 08:09 AM
#55
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Actually I fully understand the capital letters for emphasis of certain words, and I'm "guilty" of doing that myself. In fact above, I repeated "MULTIPLE TIMES" referring to why anyone would go after being called more than once -- empasizing that going when you were called and screamed at multiple times should have been a real clue they didn't want you. And I capitalized ANY and ANYONE in another post trying to emphasize the same words I'd emphasize with my voice if I were speaking. I think the use of all caps on individual words works wonders in getting across the tone or the importance of certain ideas within a sentence. I'd agree that all caps for an entire sentence or paragraph is yelling, and should not be done however.
Shari, I do believe this happened, and as I've said repeated times, all I can say if an owner of a restaurant called me repeated times and screamed at me for NO reason (see, there I've done it again), that it would be a cold day in Hell before I'd go spend money is his restaurant. It seems clear that he was telling you over and over again that he'd rather have you NOT come and that they clearly weren't going to be able to handle your 15 people, yet you were insisting you would. No good owner or manager would call and scream that way unless they were trying to talk you out of coming, because they were already in over their heads, which apparently was clearly the case.
Shari, I do believe this happened, and as I've said repeated times, all I can say if an owner of a restaurant called me repeated times and screamed at me for NO reason (see, there I've done it again), that it would be a cold day in Hell before I'd go spend money is his restaurant. It seems clear that he was telling you over and over again that he'd rather have you NOT come and that they clearly weren't going to be able to handle your 15 people, yet you were insisting you would. No good owner or manager would call and scream that way unless they were trying to talk you out of coming, because they were already in over their heads, which apparently was clearly the case.
Jan 3rd, 2008, 09:08 AM
#56
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Apparently, Shari was not the only person with problems at Carmelo's that night. From the following post, it is clear that the restaurant overbooked the evening and collected deposits, perhaps in an effort to finance the substandard fare for the evening.
Things are tough here in New Orleans right now, but they will just get tougher if our local establishments treat customers like this.
15317. 'Carmelo's' Craphouse
by ukmole, 1/1/08 3:44 ET
As my wifes' birthday is also New Years Eve, I booked (and paid a $100 deposit) for the night at Carmelos 'Ristorante' on Toulouse and Decatur about six weeks ago. We wanted to sit down at 9.30pm. Due to traffic we didn't get there till 9.40. The door was locked and on knocking we were told that there was no more room and that we couldn't come in. The manager came out to say that there simply wasn't a table for us. I was so upset having to stand in the street with no other plan of where to go. I am posting this as a warning that booking and paying a deposit doesn't guarantee your table, or the management of Carmelos Craphouse just couldn't resist selling more tickets than they had space for.
http://www.nola.com/forums/marigny/i...f?initial=true
Things are tough here in New Orleans right now, but they will just get tougher if our local establishments treat customers like this.
15317. 'Carmelo's' Craphouse
by ukmole, 1/1/08 3:44 ET
As my wifes' birthday is also New Years Eve, I booked (and paid a $100 deposit) for the night at Carmelos 'Ristorante' on Toulouse and Decatur about six weeks ago. We wanted to sit down at 9.30pm. Due to traffic we didn't get there till 9.40. The door was locked and on knocking we were told that there was no more room and that we couldn't come in. The manager came out to say that there simply wasn't a table for us. I was so upset having to stand in the street with no other plan of where to go. I am posting this as a warning that booking and paying a deposit doesn't guarantee your table, or the management of Carmelos Craphouse just couldn't resist selling more tickets than they had space for.
http://www.nola.com/forums/marigny/i...f?initial=true
Jan 3rd, 2008, 10:55 AM
#58
It's like the airline or hotel business. There will be no shows...you try to gage it right and balance the over bookings and no shows. He didn't. Clearly he called to ensure all 15 of them were still coming (that's a lot of space if not) and to stress the importance of being on time (not have 9 or 10 of the group show up and be waiting on the others). Shari was aware of this, I believe: "Carmelo himself called us MULTIPLE times before our dinner and SCREAMED and hung up on us. Trust me, when I say he was making ZERO sense. We all were coming (a party of 15) and we all were on time.)". The last sentence indicates the nature of at least one of those phone calls that "made ZERO sense". I don't think he wanted them to cancel, but only to know if there were still going to be 15 and to let them know how critical the timing was going to be.
He evidently had the unpleasant task of turning others away when everyone, surprise surprise, kept their reservation. Like walking a guest--it is a dreaded task. As for the screaming. Who knows. Obviously there was unpleasantness, but do you really think it was totally unprovoked?? That would be highly unusual, wouldn't it--a total meltdown with absolutely no provocation? I still say there is more to this.
He evidently had the unpleasant task of turning others away when everyone, surprise surprise, kept their reservation. Like walking a guest--it is a dreaded task. As for the screaming. Who knows. Obviously there was unpleasantness, but do you really think it was totally unprovoked?? That would be highly unusual, wouldn't it--a total meltdown with absolutely no provocation? I still say there is more to this.
Jan 4th, 2008, 03:55 PM
#60
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
ccolor- I later saw your post on the Vieux Carre forum. The one I linked to was from the Marigny forum, and both got good responses. Great minds, indeed!
OO- The rate of no shows when you are taking a $100 deposit is likely close to zero. Your reasoning would make sense if it were any other night of the year or there was no deposit (or even a minimal one).
I am not questioning the right of the owner to charge a deposit in any amount he wants, only questioning why the management did not realize that with such a substantial deposit, it was unlikely indeed that this couple would go elsewhere on one of the few nights of the year thst it would be difficult to find other accommodations. As it turned out, the couple who posted on the nola.com forum did go elsewhere, although they ended up at a brew pub, and had a wonderful time.
Such a shame that at least 17 people were subjected to this bizarre behavior by an experienced restauranteur.
OO- The rate of no shows when you are taking a $100 deposit is likely close to zero. Your reasoning would make sense if it were any other night of the year or there was no deposit (or even a minimal one).
I am not questioning the right of the owner to charge a deposit in any amount he wants, only questioning why the management did not realize that with such a substantial deposit, it was unlikely indeed that this couple would go elsewhere on one of the few nights of the year thst it would be difficult to find other accommodations. As it turned out, the couple who posted on the nola.com forum did go elsewhere, although they ended up at a brew pub, and had a wonderful time.
Such a shame that at least 17 people were subjected to this bizarre behavior by an experienced restauranteur.
