Brooklyn chef Neil Ganic doesn't take guff from anybody—not even paying customers. A disgruntled diner shared with Eater a hilarious account of her recent experience at the Carroll Gardens restaurant Petite Crevette, where dinner ended with a crazy outburst from Ganic. After her husband sent back an order of Cioppino (fish stew) because it contained lobster which was "pretty much raw," the kitchen returned a dish that "was still kind of weird and gloopy." The couple then "politely" asked for the check, but "suddenly, Neil Ganic comes running out of the kitchen with a LIVE LOBSTER and throws it on the table." We called Ganic to confirm the story, and his response made us wish more people in the restaurant industry were this much fun:
I don't know any Eater; but I don't have time to sit in front of my computer all day. I'm a working man. But this guy told me the lobster was not fresh, so I came out and showed him it was fresh. And I told him to go ahead and blog about it. If you're not happy, you have the right to complain, and I have the right to throw you out. You can blog all you want! I have to pay the bills. For this guy to send back the lobster again and again after their appetizer and other courses, that's unacceptable. But I didn't charge them.
He did, however, ban the couple from Petite Crevette forever. It's unclear how that helps pay the bills, but this whole incident reminds us of Salvador Dali's famous gripe: "I do not understand why, when I ask for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, I am never served a cooked telephone." Somehow, we bet Dali and Ganic would have really hit it off.
