La Rustica

Hi Natalie,Thank you for contacting us and letting us know what wasn't up to expectations at your most recent visit. I would love to address those issues. It sounds as though your biggest issue was with our new online reservation system which requires a $50 deposit. This deposit is applied to your bill. We went with the deposit as a way to ensure that people keep their reservations because prior to that we were having a lot of reservations made but cancelled at the last minute (sometimes, literally minutes before their reservation) or no-shows. This really affects us because we staff according to our reservations, and we turn away other customers once we have a certain amount of reservations. When we have last minute cancellations or no-shows, we still have to pay our staff and we have already turned away customers who would have came. The deposit helps to ensure that people come for their reservation or at least cancel with 24 hours notice. It is also allowing us to experiment with later reservations, since we know that people will show up for them and that they will be on time. Another thing you mentioned that you were disappointed in was the carbonara. You even posted a picture to show what it looked like in your to go box. Just to be clear, our menu lists it as Fettuccine alla Carbonara - Pancetta, onions, egg, parmesan 25The onions are listed and there is no cream sauce in this dish. This is the traditional preparation of carbonara. I know some places, like olive garden or cheesecake factory, do make a creamy carbonara, but ours is made simply with just pancetta, onions, pasta water, fettucine, egg yolk and parmesan. I'm sorry this isn't what you were hoping for, hopefully it was still yummy.Lastly, it sounds as if you were not happy with the drinks your server made. All of our drinks are made by each server, so I'm not sure what the actual issue was, but it sounded like she tried to make you something different when you were unhappy with one of your old fashioneds. I understand you not wanting to explain the 1 star when you originally left it, but your vague review was worse than giving me a chance to address your issues. And while the reservation deposit thing is new, so are reservations, as the old owners didn't take them at all for parties under 6 people and then only before 6pm or after 8pm. And if you do not wish to pay the deposit, you are more than welcome to walk in. Also the carbonara has always been made this same way.Thanks,Kat