No one ever said opening a restaurant in this town was easy. Or quick. It took Lola owners Tom Patrick-Odeen and his wife, Gayle, two years to claw their way to victory over a litigation-happy neighborhood-activist group that made the American Temperance Society seem like a bunch of pushovers. Along the way to re-creating their popular soul-food restaurant in Soho (the original Chelsea location closed in 2004), there were State Liquor Authority flip-flops, private dicks, charges of racism, countercharges of intimidation tactics, and a smoking-gun Zagat blurb. Oh, and two week before opening, their executive Top Chef toque Dave Martin packed up his knives and left. Stepping into the breach to oversee Lola’s Cajun-Creole-inspired kitchen and resuscitate its much-missed 100-spice fried-chicken-and-Sunday-gospel brunch is Jennifer Printz, a veteran of Payard and Le Cirque. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Caribbean Brunch
Sat., 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. seatings, $42 prix-fixe
This restaurant is simply amazing; and after the first time you go, you will without a doubt want to go back. The service is superb even before I walked into the restaurant (When I was on the sidewalk) I was immediately greeted by one of the owners, Gayle. She was so sweet and simply asked me "where would [I] like to sit," which was very different because I am so used to walking into a restaurant and being brought to what-ever table the host or hostess wants to bring me to; and it was great because some of the seating is in the front which at times could be loud and then of course there is more seating at a lower level, and towards the back. The food was phenomenal, I got the crab cakes as a starter and then I got the fried chicken as my entree, which was definitely a great choice for myself, and my aunt who came with me to the restaurant got the Pistachio Crust King Salmon, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Simply just an amazing and superb restaurant, for a date, business dinners, for kids that are well behaved, and everything in between.
I was here for a wedding that rented out the restaurant. At 11:45pm after many guests had left, and everyone was up listening to the toasts, my camera was taken off my table. I was sitting in the back with only 3 other tables and right next to the kitchen. The owner couldn't have cared less. I would have understood if I had just been eating at the restaurant on a normal night, but I was surrounded by friend/family, and there wasn't anyone back there when it went missing. Besides this, the food was MEDIOCRE, and the overall service TERRIBLE. The restaurant is beautiful, but completely not worth the prices and quality of the food. If you go here, make sure you watch your things closely.