Review: Opia 1541
It’s not too often that I review restaurants, mainly because I prefer a five dollar pizza over fine cuisine most nights. But every once in awhile the urge strikes and I just need a tender slab of red meat to soothe the Neanderthal in me. When that urge hits I have no problem paying for it, nor do I have a problem picking apart the people who provide my fix. In this case Opia 1541 in Worcester, MA.
I’m going to begin with the ending because it’s the basis of this particular review and although I have no problem paying for anything, there is a breaking point in my wallet where service and presentation become equal partners to the food.
That said,
Party of two, before tip: $97.65
First impressions
I’m sure everyone who lives in Worcester, MA remembers the piano bar. Don’t feel bad, I never went there either. Legend has it the place finally started getting a buzz and a decent crowd right as it went out of business. I’m sure part of its failure was based on location. If location is everything, Opia has nothing. Not that it’s a hard place to get to, it’s not, but there is something that just seems so out of the way about the place. It’s not Opia’s fault, it’s mine. My brain tells me I need to get my passport out when it’s only five minutes from my Tatnuck Sq home. The exterior of the building is the same as it was as the Piano Bar. It’s an older Victorian style home, converted for use as a restaurant. Parking is available on the street in front of the place, or in an adjacent lot. The lot is next to the kitchen, not the main, entrance and when we got there it seemed as though the entire kitchen staff was outside smoking. I smoke, no big thing, but this was about to turn into a $100 night, for a hundred beans I want to think the chefs are too busy hand feeding snails to have time to smoke.
Upon entering the place there was a podium for a host, but no host. That duty was taken up by one of the waiters who grabbed a few menus and seated us after finishing his rounds with another table. Normally this would have gone unnoticed, but for a hundred quid, I want an angry Frenchman to meet me at the door, punch me in the balls and call me an asshole before kindly seating me.
Service
Our waitress was very prompt in getting to us with water and to take our drink order. When I asked her what she had on tap her response was a very polite “oh we have just about everything we have bottled, on tap”. Oh, thanks. So what the fuck do you have bottled? Was there an email that I missed? This young lady could not have been sweeter with her ridiculous reply, but give me a break. For a hundred clams I wouldn’t mind if you had the beer list written in bubbly letters across your breasts and forced me to stare at the offerings while I took my time making up my mind. Instead my waitress and I played an impromptu game of twenty questions where I would order a Number 9 and she would say “sorry we’re out of Number 9”, “no we’re out of Guinness too, sorry. But we have Bass”. I’m a relatively proud Irishman, offering me a Bass as a suitable replacement for a Guinness shows a total failing in the History curriculum of the Worcester Public Schools. I got the stinking Bass.
Once our drink order was placed I turned my attention to the bar to see what was shaking in that part of the room. Our bartender was very busy holding up the wall with her back when our order was placed, which I guess was ok. She had no customers to deal with. But for a hundred smackers, a juggling or fire spitting bartender would be nice. I’d like to note that the bar at Opia is gorgeous. I have no idea if they offer a bar menu, but I may have to come back sometime just to get my fill on.
Ambiance
There was something funny going on with the décor. There was nothing wrong with any of it per say. But they seem to have made an effort to incorporate every imaginable facet of modern design into the space and the whole was definitely less than the sum of its parts. The walls were painted with a sponge sorta look which did a nice job of hiding some other wise bland architecture. But the color, a light mustard sort of yellow, reflected too much from the halogen lighting, making the place appear much brighter than it was. I’m not at the age where I fear falling and breaking a hip so I still appreciate a dark setting when I go out. Next to our table was the dessert station which was constructed of glass blocks and lit by halogen track lighting. It looked great on its own but fit with nothing else in the space. It just looked strange. Next to the desert station was a drum kit; I don’t quite know what its intended purpose was, as nobody was playing it. Well except for the drunk guy that wandered away from his party and started whacking the skins with his fingers. For a hundred duckets, I should have been allowed to shoot this prick in the thigh before tossing him into a complimentary lion pit. The staff seemed totally unable to deal with the clown and he soon got bored and wandered back to his table. I mentioned the bar earlier, it really looks great. But hanging over it was one of the bigger oddities of the décor. This giant, sorta neon colored, sculpture. It would fit fine in a dark nightclub. Here it looked like they had a blank wall, a giant sorta neon colored sculpture and a blind man doing the decorating. Two great tastes that just don’t go well at all.
Main Course
This is why I came, this is what I was REALLY paying for and it was almost spectacular. We started with mixed field greens salad with a balsamic dressing, very good. But lawn clippings don’t deserve much press so we’ll leave it at that. Next came a basket of bread, this was a little disappointing. Maybe they have an industrial bread slicer in the kitchen. If not then they bought a loaf of Italian bread from Shaw’s and that’s pretty weak. The main course was what I came for and couldn’t have been happier. I ordered a New York Strip that had some funny words before and after the ‘New York Strip’ part. Either way it was by far the best cut of meat I have had within city limits. My apologies to the folks at the 111, but Opia had you beat this night. The cut was perfect, the treatments were perfect and the chef managed to nail ‘medium’ like it was his job. Oh, wait. But it was when our food was served that I noticed the most bad ass aspect of the restaurant. The feature that trumped everything, and righted all wrongs. There was no salt or pepper on the table. I had to look around the room first to make sure it wasn’t just us. But not a single table had any sort of extras available. BAD ASS. It kills me when I go out to eat, spend a lot of money on food and have a collection of cheap dispensers scattered around the table. The Iron chef doesn’t leave you with salt and neither should anyone else. If you are a chef, it is your job to prepare my food. If you cannot do it perfectly on your own, what makes you think I, who am not a chef, can? It would be like a band releasing an album with extra samples that I could fit in myself, where I deemed appropriate. Why not just do it right yourself, the first time? When you have the nuts to say ‘I made this for you, you will like it the way I present it to you, or you will screw off’ you can count me as a fan. Thank you Mr. Opia meat cooker guy, you made my night. Beyond the lack of salt, the presentation was beautiful, pure art. Halved sprouts and a bunch of delicious things I couldn’t identify all balanced delicately by hand had me salivating and praying that our waitress wouldn’t waste any time in getting lost so I could begin. Perfect.
Dessert
Given that the desert was prepared behind the weird glass block fixture, I had no idea what was taking place. It may very well have been the frantic opening of a Sarah Lee container, but I was blown away with the cute little Chocolate Cherry tort I received. I say cute because it really didn’t look like it was going to be a formidable opponent. I was wrong, this thing was so heavy and delicious I was thinking I might rupture half way through. Beautiful, thick chocolate goodness; with a peeled and quartered grape on top to confuse me.
All in all we had a great time and a great meal. My complaints, as should be obvious, were in the details. But they were such glaring, obvious details, things that even McDonalds keeps in mind, that I have a hard time understanding why a place with this much potential, and serving food of such a high caliber would let them slide. Iron your tablecloths, hire a designer to fix the lighting, convince the bartender that the wall won’t fall over if she moves, round out the décor; this is the easy stuff. They excel at the hard part, making great food. Why the rest of the package is so far behind escapes me. I feel I got my $100 worth and then some, but it was real hard for me to get over the shortcomings.
If you have the time, definitely check Opia out, and please let me know if I’m off on my take on the place. Maybe it was a bad night for them.
Comments
8 Responses to “Review: Opia 1541”
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Does this place have a website? How come I have never heard of it?
A restaurant in Worcester with a Website? Surely you jest!
I know one of the Chefs was listed with Pete in the Pulse Magazines 25 to watch this past year.
Well, I know where I won’t be watching him. Online. They should hook up with our friend Eric at Blogudio, who also moonlights as Mr Eat Creative (http://eatcreative.com/)
just as long as Mr Eat Creative is not in the business of handing out style points for decor I bet he would love this place.
Road trip?
Im in. All of you people-making guys need to stash away the offspring and get out once in a while.
So, wait, how much did you pay for dinner again?? I think that your otherwise accurate and thorough take on one of Worcester’s best kept secrets was undermined by your obsession with money. If you don’t mind spending one hundred duckets on dinner, then why keep bringing it up? WE GET IT. THE PLACE IS EXPENSIVE. So stop hitting your reader over the head with your empty wallet.
do you think this review was based on take out?
Schooligan, fair assessment. But I think there is a point where cost and quality intersect and become too closely related not to mention. I’ll over look the atmosphere at McDonalds because there is no investment or expectation. But the same cant be said for a restaurant that wants you to believe by way of price, that they are top notch. The investment in food doesn’t change much from restaurant to restaurant. So there has to be a pay off to the consumer in other areas. In this case they missed the mark in a few of those areas. But it was in the details, so it was ONLY relevant because of the price of admission.
Who are you by the way?