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Effective immediately, Rosendale’s has closed up all three of their Short North restaurants at 793 North High Street: Rosendales Modern Bistro, Upstairs at Rosendales and Details. A press release issued tonight cited “a significant decline in weekly sales since Chef Rosendale’s departure” as their main reason for closing the businesses.
“We want to thank all of Columbus and the many patrons from across central Ohio for the last several years, and to the outstanding staff for all their hard work and dedication,” said Chef Richard Rosendale.
Ate here when I was back in Columbus this summer and did the tasting/pairing menu. It was incredible. Food was amazing, service was great and Chef Rosendale came over and thanked us for dining and talked to us about the upcoming change to the bistro concept. Yes, it was pricey but well worth it.
I think the reputation of being an “event” dining establishment was just too hard to shake once they moved to the new concept. I would think any restaurant that is considered “ultra” high end is having problems right now. I wonder how M is doing right now.
But Dru makes a good point. That building is set up great for somebody else to come in. I think a Mexican concept like one of Rick Bayless’ places in Chicago or something similar to Charro (http://www.charrorestaurante.com/milwaukee/) here in Milwaukee could do well.
I have not had a chance to eat at one of Rick Bayless’ places yet, but just from watching him on Food Network, I think he’s prob. my favorite chef. I would love for on of his restaurants to come here, but isn’t La Fogata right accross the street?
I got violently ill from La Fogata once and won’t eat there again. I know several others who’ve faced the Grim Reaper and luckily talked him down from eating the food at La Fogata.
Thus, I’d welcome a good Mexican/ Latin American restaurant in the Rosendales space and I’d bet they would kill it.
I’d love to see El Arepazo take the Details space and show these fools how it’s done.
If we are going to write a eulogy for Chef Richard Rosendale’s restaurant, then I believe it should be one of only the highest praise admiration and fond memories, plus a gracious bon voyage. Richard Rosendale is one of the most accomplished chefs on the face of the planet. What a joy and thrill to have him here, if for only a short time. He elevated his peers in a humbly inspiring way. He was not afraid to take chances and it’s clear that his, is an ascending trajectory.
We as individuals, colleagues, and as a community wish him and his family well and hope he comes back to visit, since if Columbus is not his first home, then let it be his second, with lots of fans and friends.
Call me heartless, but I’m not really bothered aside from those jobless
The better half and I went there a couple years back, and it was really mediocre, Chef Rosendale or no. My steak was just acceptable, mrsgeedeck’s lamb wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either.
We were going to use the $20 credit thing, but just ordered pizza or something because our most laid back friend wouldn’t even go there due to similar bad/mediocre experiences. I mean, they can blame it on Rosendale leaving, but it’s been meh for years.
i’ve never had the same ill fortune at La Fogata. and i like sloppy mex a la La Fog and Rick Bayless’ Frontera is one of my favorite places in the world. however saying a Bayless type concept would clash with La Fogata would be like trying to dissuade Mario Batali from opening up an Italian concept in the old Details slot because Donatos is a block away.
Mario Batali sweats and coughs into everything he makes on TV. It’s gross.
ate at details only once, not what I need here dont know anything about the chef so no disrespect but who the F wants frozen Faux Gras on a lolli pop- this is OHIO .we want ________simple good food !!!!!
@Doh boy – Sad to hear that you feel Ohio can only support “simple food”.. Probably not a great selling point for this city if that’s where the collective psyche of the city is at… :/
Anyhow, I’ll take Foie Gras anything thank you.
I refuse to stand for the faux stuff. What an outrage. I can’t believe the nerve of Rosendales. If they were serving Faux Gras they had it coming.
@jonmyers
The foie on the anti-griddle was not faux.
A.
doh boy Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
who the F wants frozen Faux Gras on a lolli pop- this is OHIO .we want ________simple good food !!!!!
(raises hand)
Speaking only for myself, I thought the food at Details was excellent. The preparation took a lot of time and effort, but whether you were talking about something as alien as frozen Foie Gras or something as familiar as burgers and pastrami sandwiches (sous vide beef… hand-smoked pastrami), the results were outstanding.
RR simultaneously under-estimated the dining acumen of Columbus and over-estimated it (glaringly demonstrated by some comments here.) Maybe a TGIF can go into that space – that would make a lot of people happier.
A.
Oh, c’mon now. Sounds dangerously close to “Let them eat chocolate peanut butter pie.” And that line of argument rarely ends well….
Details was packed just about every night at its peak. The main complaints I heard about Rosendales had to do with iffy business decisions (design, for one thing) that had been made by a phenomenally talented… chef. There were occasional gripes about the per-plate price, but that’s not too helpful — it just means that something on the other side of the ledger didn’t add up, not necessarily the food. Personally, when I ate there I felt like I was a guest in a panopticon.
Upshot: Contra the griping about people just wanting “good, simple” food, I really don’t think the food was the problem. At all.
@Bear – agreed. I like the food. The problem wasn’t the food at all.
There are two separate issues.
There were innumerable gripes about the prices from inception. Rosendales was almost never mentioned without someone bringing up prices in a negative fashion. Pre-recession, there was a mentality in Columbus which has antipathy to the higher end. That mentality is only stronger now. There are lots of people who actively resent even the idea of a restaurant which they can’t afford and would be happier with something more accessible. (Not referring to CU in particular either.)
In regards to under-estimating Columbus’ food acumen – they did. Badly. The first time we had the chef’s tasting menu, they tried to serve us molten-center chocolate cake. If I can get something from the freezer case of Trader Joe’s, it should not be part of a chef’s tasting menu. I can give other examples, but suffice it to say that people in Columbus who regularly spent equivalent for in other cities were not hurrying back to Rosendale’s.
My assessment is that RR’s ego wrecked Details which was going extremely well, at least on the surface. People had a desire to go to Details and Drew did a great job crafting and producing a menu which was accessible as well as creative. I think – and little birdies told me – that RR was not happy about this. That is the real shame as Details marked out a niche that was unique in Columbus.
Lastly, and what really killed them, was that they just got wrong so many elements of fine dining. Little freebies like an amuse or pre-dessert or a visit by the chef to the table are things help make a dining experience memorable to customers who will view their dinner as a special occasion. Maybe that customer will only come back every other year, but you can guarantee they will tell their co-workers at the water-cooler about the awesome time they had over the weekend. That gets more business and, most importantly, etches into mindshare the niche you want your restaurant to be.
A.
Andrew Hall, I’m confused by your last paragraph. Are you saying the little freebies and a visit by the chef are what killed them or citing those things as things they did not do? All of those things occurred during our dinner this past June and I still rave about it. Our dinner at Rosendales ranks as one of our top five dinners ever along with meals in Boston, San Francisco and Chicago.
I agree about underestimating Columbus’ food acumen, and about what Drew did with Details.
I’m not so sure about price griping coming from people resenting the idea of a restaurant they can’t afford. More than a few of those I heard griping about the price could afford it, which made me suspect they had other issues — like value, or ambience. But I never really pushed on that, so I can’t say for sure.
But I definitely didn’t get the sense that the majority of the citizens of Columbus were walking past the place, glaring inside resentfully at the frozen foie appetizers, and thinking, “When the Revolution comes, that Rosendale fella will be the first one to go.”
@ScooterMKE – The experience of a lot of diners was not that at all. I was rather embarrassed after recommending Rosendales to someone when I heard their account of the dinner. To be fair whenever I arranged tasting menus there, we had a top-drawer experience.
@Bear – That is just silly dramatics, your last paragraph. Look at several of the Rosendale threads here which immediately bring up price even from people who have not gone. I won’t argue that there was a failure to deliver value for price in the perception of people who did go. But there is a general perception which retards Columbus dining that it is not possible to deliver at that price. As long as we have that, it is an uphill struggle to establish fine dining in Columbus.
A.
Details had the good whiskey selection, correct? If so, damn shame I missed out on that.
@Andrew Hall – Thanks for clarifying. Our visit was exceptional so I just assumed that everyone had the same experience. It’s rare for me to find someone who had the totally opposite experience I did at a restaurant.
Not sure why people are griping about price. I knew what to expect before I walked in to Rosendales. Do some people truly walk into a higher end restaurant not knowing what to expect price wise? That’s what websites are for, people! Rosendales was never going to be a monthly or even every few month visit for me. It was always going to be a special night out when I was back in town. I just thought there were enough people in the Columbus area who also had special nights throughout the week that Rosendales would do well. But that was naive of me.