Dined with a friend there this evening. How disappointing.

First: The bread was tough.

Second: The glass of wine had dust and spots on it. When I asked the waitress to take it back and bring me a better glass, she didn't even offer an apology.

Third: When my friend requested more bread and butter, the butter had not been softened. It resembled hard cheese.

Fourth: After a "passable" bowl of lobster bisque, I ordered 'blackened trout.' The fish was terribly thin, not well seasoned and the tiny pieces of tomato were tough. In addition, only three tiny potatoes were on my plate. Pitiful!

Fifth: My friend ordered a steak sandwich, a big chunk of beef smoothered in cheese. It reminded me of the Steve McQueen movie, 'The Blob.'

To sum it up, my experience at this place is probably similar to how McQueen must have felt in that movie.

That sounds like a grim outing. It may be hard to make a restaurant great, but it's not that hard to make it good.

Have you ever seen "Gordon's Kitchen Nightmares" on BBC? I may have the name wrong, but a famous chef goes into aggregiously mismanaged restaurants and tries to turn them around. The Firehouse sounds like a candidate for the show.

Yes Spenser, I am familiar with Gordon Ramsey. I've seen his show a couple of times. I think there should be more like him. He's definitely not one to hold his tongue about service.

I believe that when you give your time and money to a restaurant, it's up to that establishment to make your experience as pleasant as possible; granted, different tastes appeal to different people.

However, to present a customer with a wine glass that has not been properly cleaned and a saucer of butter that is 'brick like,' well, there's simply no excuse for that.