I had heard a lot of bad things about MJ’s Jazz Lounge before I even walked through the door on Thursday night.
The manner in which they fired top chef Domenica Macchia, in which they basically hired her to design a four-star menu, which she did, and then fired her soon after the restaurant’s opening, did not sit well with me or many others in the restaurant community.
Still, I had heard good things about the food. This may have been due Macchia’s lingering influence. Not that I will ever know. I walked in late Thursday and was greeted by an empty host stand. From there I was ignored by two bartenders in favor of a couple of douchebags dressed worse than out-of-work golf pros. Perhaps my reputation had preceded me. Whatever it was, I gave up after fifteen minutes of nursing a warm, listless martini. But I didn’t leave without a parting shot to the Chef. “I was a culinary school student last year, I was a GM and I’ve been in the restaurant business most of my life. And this was the worst welcoming I’ve ever received from a bar. You’ll be out of business by the end of the year.”
So avoid MJ’s. They started off screwing over their staff and have only proceeded to do worse since then.
