Loftin’s is “Doing Quite Nicely”

No restaurateur likes to see a column about his restaurant being in trouble, and Peter Loftin, it seems, is no exception. After receiving his response to our post about Loftin’s 1116, I emailed Peter to explain that it’s sort of the nature of these blogs to be snarky and gossipy — but that I could also obviously understand why he would be upset, and offered to let him set the record straight. And, in fact, he does indeed dispute what I had written, telling Short Order: “We are doing quite nicely in spite of the economy”. Peter also couldn’t help but put in a little plug for his restaurant by noting that “We are the first to serve fish on the Himalayan sea salt block.”

I haven’t yet tried the fish, nor have I eaten dinner at Loftin’s to this point. I did, however, have a fantastic meal there for last years’ launch luncheon of Beaujolais, and was clearly impressed with executive chef Dale Ray’s abilities — he’s worked with Jean-Louis Palladin and Charlie Trotter. All in all, though, I’ll probably put off reviewing the place until emotions cool a bit.