Disappointed Retractions: Kate Spade 'Randi' Rain Boots & HousexGuest

When the boy and I buy a sweater, try a new restaurant or ogle a gadget covetously, sometimes I'll turn to him and say teasingly, "We're such consumers." What can I say? We like to buy things and spend money. And as I said in this blog post, when I try or buy something that I like, I'll sing its praises on this blog in the hopes that you, dear readers, will also find it exciting stuff. So it is with a glum heart that I have to post a retraction about two things that I was heretofore crazy about.

First retraction: my Kate Spade 'Randi' rain boots. After less than a year, the left boot began to crack around the ankle. What a huge disappointment, especially considering that these boots cost as much as a pair of Hunters. I contacted their customer service, who to their credit were just as dismayed as I was and told me to send them back to the manufacturer. (The boots were covered under a one-year warranty.) While I'm not happy about the quality of the boots, at least Kate Spade has pretty decent customer service and seems to stand behind their product.

My second retraction concerns HousexGuest, about whom I had nothing but nice things to say after attending their media and VIP supper club event. Evidently they were on their best behaviour that evening because the service that the boy and I received at brunch today was a complete 180.

After being seated at a relatively secluded table, we were ignored by wait staff for 10-15 minutes. Our water glasses stayed unfilled while we looked up expectantly at the servers who passed by. I counted three servers whose eyes panned across the room without seeing us or approaching us. I saw the owner sit down in a booth to chat with friends. Still nobody came to take our order or at least ask us if we wanted drinks.

"I feel neglected," the boy said. He wasn't impressed and neither was I. My patience wore thin as I fumed silently. I was hangry enough to stab someone with a fork.

"What time is it?" I asked him. He checked his phone and showed me: 12:26. I told him we were waiting 5 more minutes, and if nobody had checked on us by then we were walking out the door.

At 12:31 exactly (just as I asked the boy the time again and began reaching for my coat), our server appeared at our table. "Thank you for waiting," she said glibly without apologizing and put down a cup of coffee. After she took our order (in which I had to explicitly ask for water), another 5 minutes passed before she reappeared with a second coffee and a water pitcher.

The much-hyped chicken and waffles were reasonably good; however, they did nothing to erase the bad taste that the sub-par service left in our mouths. HousexGuest is supposed to be a hip place for pretty young things. I just had no idea that, in this case, hip was shorthand for "hipper than thou" and "too hip to offer decent service." Maybe it's a sign of restaurant growing pains (it is relatively new, after all), or maybe social media puffery on Twitter and in the blogosphere has gone to the owners' heads. In the future, I think I'll stick to my standby brunch spot, where the staff are personable, the food is good, and our water glasses are filled right when we sit down.