Atoboy

January 12, 2019

My head hurts thinking about how to write this recap. I‘ve already spent an ungodly amount of time typing, then immediately deleting what I’ve written and I’m only on the second sentence.

Ugh, whatever. I think I just need to dive in. Here we go.

I made plans to eat at Atoboy (ah-TOE-boy) with a friend after a pole class. She had asked me for recommendations and it felt nice when she did; she explicitly said that I always knew good places to go, which is a compliment I truly appreciate since I think that I’ve put sincere, honest work into becoming an educated foodie.

Atoboy is the badass, three-course, $46 pre-fixe older sister to the posh, mult-course, $205 pre-fixe Atomix (ah-TOE-mix), which I have been babbling about since November or December of last year. It occupies what used to be a chicken deli in NoMad. The restaurant opens for dinner at 17:30 and advanced reservations are highly recommended. I tried to make one a few days out and couldn’t, but there are a few seats reserved for walk-ins, including at the bar.

So at 16-something-or-another, my friend and I walked over to the restaurant from the studio. We waited outside on a crisp day for the doors to open; I could see line-up happening inside. A family of three joined our waiting party at around 17:15. They had a reservation, but arrived early, joking that they didn’t want to be ten (fifteen?) minutes late and lose their seats.

The doors opened at 17:25. My friend and I entered, told the hostess we were walk-ins, and were offered a table right behind her stand that needed to be returned at 19:00. We took it.

The table was set with disposable chopsticks and napkins in a copper can by the wall and two beautiful plates. I flipped mine over and lost my mind over the imprint; it was gorgeous.

A backserver came to help us. We got water, we got menus, we got a spiel of the concept, we got some time to look at the menus, and then we got to order. Things were moving at a great pace.

After our orders were in, our server brought us a seaweed chip amuse. It was made by dehydrating, then deep-frying, two strips of nori glued together with rice paste.

Our first courses came shortly after. I ordered Yellowtail, she ordered Lotus Root. I asked the server where the yellowtail came from. He wasn’t sure and said he’d find out for me. Moments later, another server (manager?) approached our table. His name was Will and he had been with Atoboy since the very beginning.

Will told me that the yellowtail came from Japan and answered my favorite logistical questions: what’s the capacity (54), how many turns/night (~3), and how many covers/night (~150).

The first courses were great. The seaweed oil on the yellowtail and the sea beans were flavors I had not tasted before and I wanted a whole bowl of the tofu-mashed-with-seaweed crumbles on the lotus root, but for reasons completely unrelated to the food, things started getting a little shaky by the second course.

Again, I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time typing, then immediately deleting what I’ve written. I’ve also watched a MsMojo “Top 10 America’s Next Top Models Makeover Meltdowns” video to procrastinate getting into this, but whatever, just diving in again:

Bless her, but my friend was *struggling* with life and, in my attempts to make her feel better, I barely ate because I was preoccupied with talking. The Sunchoke dish I ordered was amazing, but I don’t know anything about it other than “I liked it”. Without solicitation, Will had come to answer any more questions I had, but I didn’t get to take good notes because I was rushing through our interaction so that I could return my attention to my friend.

That being said, as a result of my friend’s behavior, (and yikes, I realize that sounds awful — she’s a friend, not an experiment, and she was having a hard time, but how else am I supposed to describe what happened without making it even worse by going into detail?) I got to experience the most phenomenal service I’ve ever witnessed at a restaurant. When the third courses came, my friend was just not okay. Once again, Will started approaching me, but as soon as he saw my friend, he turned and walked the prompt fuck away. His discernment and decision to give us space instead of bulldozing on with “standard” service blew me away and still makes me cheer internally.

For the rest of the night, my friend and I were respectfully ignored by the staff. When 19:00 rolled around, nobody rushed us out. They were so generous we probably could have stayed there for the rest of the night, but I made moves to get us out of the door and that was that.