Critic's Review
Michele's was a bad idea when they opened; a classic example of a restaurant trying to sell an average product as something special with fake PR. I'm surprised they stayed open as long as they did; they never had an idea of what to do.
Review 06/29/11
Michele's opened a few months ago, and the only info available were the usual shills on the usual shill blogs, and there wasn't much buzz. They were doing just about everything wrong; not answering our requests for info, they put up a flash website, there was no effective PR. Many believe that the location is cursed; it's probably had more occupants than any other restaurant space in town: Kerry's, Bobby Van's Cafe, Le Q Bistro, BV's Cafe. Sunfish Grill moved a thriving business there; the owners divorced shortly thereafter and the wife has tried to save the place by moving it to a smaller location a few storefronts down. So what chance do they really have?
Additionally, they were only serving dinner and it's a lot more difficult for me to do dinner in this part of town than lunch. But, I noticed the other day that they started serving lunch, so I figured it was a chance to check the place out.
They advertise the place as "upscale dining at neighborhood prices"; when you walk in there's a big chandelier and a dining room on the right and a bar on the left. At lunch, there's no valet or hostess, and it didn't appear that they were serving in the dining room. So at lunch, the upscale dining experience is limited to eating at the bar.
There was no-one at the bar when I sat down, and I had to wait for someone to come out. He didn't give me a menu right away; I asked for a Pellegrino and he went into the back looking for it. They didn't have any, so I settled for a seltzer. I asked for a lime but got a lemon; I didn't really bother to point it out. I finally got a menu; they have one soup and one entree special, neither interested me. I decided on the sauteed calamari, which is described on the menu coming with radicchio, pepperoncini, white wine and garlic. Getting non-breaded calamari is a rarity around here; it's a nice low-carb lunch.
While I was waiting, I took a closer look around. There are a lot of mirrors. They have 3 TVs, but none of them were tuned into anything that might be of interest. Two were on soap operas, and the 3rd was in some sort of PIP mode with only a fraction of the screen being used. I don't get why restaurants have TVs but don't consider keeping them tuned to something of interest as part of the experience.
I'm guessing that most of the people who come here are regulars, because the bartender had all sorts of questions as to why I decided to go there. I didn't give him the real reason.
Finally the food was delivered. Not a bad portion for $10.
The dish wasn't quite what I expected; to me, "sauteed" means cooked in a small amount of fat. Maybe the calamari was sauteed separately, but everything was swimming in a big pool of white wine butter sauce similar to what you'd get with mussels. There were also other unexpected ingredients, like tomatoes, capers and Kalamata olives. I don't really care for Kalamatas, and I don't see how they fit in. The calamari was slightly overdone, a bit chewy, but not total rubber. It was decent food but certainly not something I'd order again. It just seemed that they overdid the ingredients and it played like a mish-mosh of flavors.
I'm sure the place is different at night, but for lunch it just seems like a bar; a bar that you can't watch the news or ESPN on the TVs while you eat.