Seen & Heard: Get Well, Alex!

••• Here’s wishing a speedy recovery to Alex Villani of Blue Moon Fish, a popular fixture at the Tribeca Greenmarket on Saturdays, who is recovering from a stroke. Consequently, it looks like Blue Moon won’t be able to attend any markets for the rest of the year. “We are planning to be back in the spring,” says his wife, Stephanie. “Alex is already talking about it!”

alex••• Wolfgang’s Steakhouse sent out a trio of tweets Monday night about the recent sexual-harassment incident. (It misspelled Means’s name, but someone else pointed the tweet out to her.) As of now, this is the extent of the communication between Wolfgang’s and the women. It all makes for an object lesson in how not to handle such a situation. What Wolfgang’s could’ve done is apologize immediately (rather than wait till this site, and subsequently Eater, Grub Street, the New York Post, and Gothamist, blew it way up); announce that it was going to train its entire staff about how to better handle such a conflict; and make a donation to, say, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (since the women turned down the offer of a free meal). With customer service, every mistake is also an opportunity.

wolfgangs-response-tweets••• Pearl River Mart opens at noon on Thursday, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

••• Orto e Mare, the “vegetable-forward” small-plates restaurant at Eataly, now takes reservations. I don’t think I have it in me to write a full review. The space feels cozier than the pizza restaurant, less in the scrum of the supermarket, and like so much at Eataly, the food is hit-or-miss. We went for brunch, and we liked the salad and the mushrooms, but why does a restaurant with a juice bar serve orange juice that’s not fresh-squeezed?

orto-e-mare-at-eataly-downtown-nyc••• The 1st Precinct Community Council’s November meeting is this Thursday, Nov. 17, at 6:30 p.m. at Tribeca’s Kitchen. Maybe someone can ask about the cars driving on the sidewalk at Washington and Watts?

 

1 Comment

  1. Speedy recovery Alex! Blue Moon will be missed but we look forward to your return!

Comment: