It pains me to write this review since I’d like to believe in the goodness of people. But my latest experience with Ian has made me rethink about future visits to the restaurant…
I was in Paso the weekend after President’s Day. I was in town to pick up my spring allocations as well as to try out the other chef’s tasting experience restaurant. Because of my previous positive experience with his restaurant I reached out to Ian to see if he was hosting anything the week I was going. Turns out there was an event on one of the days I was there. The normal way of making a reservation at Somm’s is through Tock but one of the restrictions of the platform is that it won’t let you reserve for a single person. I was able to eat there the first time because I reached out to Ian about being a solo diner and he was very kind enough to let me have a spot at the table. So when I saw that there was an event posted I reached out to him again and he confirmed my spot for the event.
This was 2 weeks prior.
Fast forward to 2 days prior.
I was finalizing my Paso itinerary and I find out through Tock that the event was no longer posted. I reached out to Ian and he said that he had to cancel it. Even though I didn’t make a reservation through Tock I wished that he would’ve notified me as opposed to me finding out so that I could’ve made alternate arrangements. He mentioned that he had to do an event offsite.
I also had to do a bottle pickup because I purchased a bottle of his Syrah with the intention of picking it up at his restaurant the next time I was in town. While he was approachable in his texts the date/times changed because I initially thought I would’ve picked up the bottle during the aforementioned dinner. Turns out that I met two couples who ate at another restaurant and were eating at his restaurant the following Sunday for a private event. It was then arranged for the bottles to be picked up that Sunday an hour before his private dinner.
When I saw him that day he and one of his assistants were cleaning up the restaurant after an event held the evening prior- said that he was hosting a wedding party. It just seems a bit shady to cancel an event on Tock and then hosting a private event without notifying all attendees beforehand, especially when the intended event was to be held that weekend! The entire situation was handled poorly. I know that this could be looked at as a simple oversight to some but for me, a trip from SD to Paso is at least 5 hours by car, I had to use PTO for part of the trip and I was looking forward to the dinner as the major highlight of my Paso vacation.