Just over a year after the Atlanta location of Don Antonio opened, it closed. While this is really sad news for those of us that enjoyed the amazing food there, it's not even slightly surprising to hear of its closing.
For our first visit there, the owner and manager rolled out the red carpet so needless to say, the service was exceptional. During every other visit there, the service was friendly enough, but it was always slow. Slow service when a place is slammed is understandable, but when there are four to six tables in the place total, it's really not understandable at all. Buckhead is not Italy and people that dine out in that area are not going to return to places that have the type of service that is common in Italy - outside of Italy. Often called "relaxed service" over there, for the most part, we call it slow and unacceptable over here.
On top of the slow service, it seemed that asking for extra cheese on your pizza (gluten-free or not) was deeply offensive and while we always got extra cheese after asking, it was never an easy get and it was never done with a smile from the servers. So, many people never went back whether they can eat gluten or not. It was very out of the way for us to get to often, but I would put up with the service due to the incredible FRESH pizza crust (made with Italian soy flour) they made in house. I was probably in a small group of diners that would suffer sub par service in exchange for fabulous pizza.
We are trying a new place (for us - not new to the ATL) later this week. It's another Neapolitan pizza place that also makes gluten-free crust in house. Hopefully it won't be an issue to get extra cheese if we want it ;)
For our first visit there, the owner and manager rolled out the red carpet so needless to say, the service was exceptional. During every other visit there, the service was friendly enough, but it was always slow. Slow service when a place is slammed is understandable, but when there are four to six tables in the place total, it's really not understandable at all. Buckhead is not Italy and people that dine out in that area are not going to return to places that have the type of service that is common in Italy - outside of Italy. Often called "relaxed service" over there, for the most part, we call it slow and unacceptable over here.
On top of the slow service, it seemed that asking for extra cheese on your pizza (gluten-free or not) was deeply offensive and while we always got extra cheese after asking, it was never an easy get and it was never done with a smile from the servers. So, many people never went back whether they can eat gluten or not. It was very out of the way for us to get to often, but I would put up with the service due to the incredible FRESH pizza crust (made with Italian soy flour) they made in house. I was probably in a small group of diners that would suffer sub par service in exchange for fabulous pizza.
We are trying a new place (for us - not new to the ATL) later this week. It's another Neapolitan pizza place that also makes gluten-free crust in house. Hopefully it won't be an issue to get extra cheese if we want it ;)
