Caine Blog

Tonight I had dinner at Fiore, which was both tasty and frustrating.

Tasty: the bucatini amatriciana was rich and flavorful, with the hearty guanciale - kinda like pancetta - serving to thicken up the sauce, making it more suited to the heavy and hollow bucatini. The tiramisu was unbelievably good all things considered; for a dish that’s basically reached crème brûlée cliché status, this version was damn fine: rich, not too mushy, perfectly balanced.  And 5 bucks, too…real cheap!  (And I always apologize for crème brûlée because I like it so much…sue me.)

Frustrating: A new level in obnoxious parenting, undoubtedly common amongst the august corridors of Park Slope but unseen in these parts, has emerged mere blocks from my home.  As I was sitting at Fiore, reading and sipping a beverage, fighting hopelessly against the oppressive heat, I watched in horror as two criminal parents pulled out a portable DVD player and simply set it on the table, without headphones. They brought their whelp to a fairly nice restaurant - not Per Se or anything, but you know, a place with lots of wines - and just assumed that the other diners would be happy to listen to what sounded like an extremely violent situation, one in which most of the violence is committed with lasers.

The parents sat there chatting gaily, perfectly content to ignore their child while saving the few bucks it costs to hire a babysitter, and let this movie degrade the dinner experience for everyone.  But then it got worse!

The kid’s dinner came - unadorned spaghetti and tomato sauce, natch - but the movie never ended. The early indiscretions, as annoying as they were…well, I could have let the whole thing slide on sheer stupidity.  Because, see, I’m not against the idea of letting children watch movies at dinner, necessarily.  I don’t want to raise an wild animal so of course I’d never let my child do such a thing, but if others want to, I won’t stop them.  I’ll raise an eye, but mostly my reaction will be ‘to each his own’.  It’s like this: Some people still drive Hummers, and everyone makes fun of these people, but until one of them runs me over I won’t be too angry with the driver, just bemused at his terrible choice.  The lack of headphones was the metaphorical hit and run, but I figured that when the child’s food came, the video would end and the distraction would no longer be needed.  A faux pas, but perhaps a mercifully brief one.  Absolutely not.

The food came, and the video just kept playing.  The boy wasn’t even watching the DVD player anymore; rather it served as the loud, unwelcome background noise to an otherwise tranquil garden.  What parents would do such a thing and think it acceptable?  I am still so baffled.