Hey everyone!
Sorry for just now posting, there have been some technical (like in the way that forgetting your password is 'technical') issues. For now, I'm going to write about the impression that Joe's Italian gave me and I'll discuss the actual eating in another post to come soon!
When you drive to Joe's Italian, you turn onto Weatherly Club Drive in Alabaster, and it is immediately on the left. The subdivision that is opposite Joe's side of the street is a little offsetting, but may serve to give Joe's a bit more of a "hometown" kind of feel.
The restaurant itself is in a pretty stereotypical strip mall. While the best little restaurants tend to be hidden in small shopping centers like this, Joe's kind of looks like a chain restaurant from the outside. There is a big, gaudy sign above the entrance that says "Joe's Italian" in the color scheme of the Italian flag.
When you go inside, the parade of Italianissimo keeps coming, with dim lighting and decor reminiscent of Olive Garden covering every piece of vacant wall they could find. Several maps of Italy and advertisements for Italian beers galore. The old man and woman wondering around are the, for lack of a better term, mascots of the restaurant. Papa will always tell you to enjoy your dinner and Mamma will always stop by to see how everything is. They act as owners even though the actual owning/business running is done by their sons. Regardless of who has the real power, the old Italian couple was absolutely precious.
The tables are all covered in white tablecloth, and come set with a bottle of their dipping oil for their bread (more on that later), bottles of wine that have a certain just-for-show kind of vibe about them, and a few other assorted space holders (flowers, salt, pepper, etc.)
The wait staff all wore black collared shirts (of their choosing, not a uniform), and tan khakis. My waiter, a young Italian gentleman name Ubaldo, was exceptional. If nothing else, the people at Joe's got their wait staff in the right place. All of them had pleasant demeanors and smiles on their faces despite the busy night. Ubaldo checked in on our table very often and my glass never got more than half empty the entire time. I think it goes without saying that the staff was one of the best things about Joe's.
Overall the overwhelming tackiness of their outward appearance was a bit much and kinda killed the "authentic Italian experience" for me straight out of the gate. While they could have had better decorators, I couldn't have asked for better waiters, and good service always makes tacky decorations easy to look past.
No comments:
Post a Comment