Our hairy experience at Solare

Last weekend's weather was beautiful, clear, sunny, and warm.  A perfect day to have lunch with the lovely Kirbie...

Liberty Station was our destination that day and we were hoping to not just have lunch, but perhaps check out a festival on site that same day...

We both decided to give Solare Italian Ristorante a try. For one thing, we both hadn't been there before. Secondly, I had a coupon so our wallets wouldn't take a big dent. I'd always admired this restaurant (decor only) from afar whenever we'd visit Liberty Station.

I got there first and waited for Kirbie at their outdoor seating area...

The lighting was so much better outside, so we ended up sitting out here to enjoy the sunshine.

I normally put a link to their menu, but after that day's lunch experience, I won't even bother. Unless you are into trichophagia. More on that later.

We chose one pasta (the carbonara) and one pizza to share between us.

The coupon also specified two drinks (which I hate, but will abide by), so I had iced tea while Kirbie had ginger beer.  I've had it before from a British store and found it to be quite strong.

Our complimentary bread (cubes) with herbed olive oil.

Don't our entrees look so good? Well, that would change in a matter of minutes...

First of all, my Spaghetti alla Carbonara with pancetta. I've never had carbonara before, always fearing that it would be too "eggy" for my tastes. This was actually all right. I have nothing else to compare it to, I guess. The pancetta was nice and crisp and there were more broken up pieces within the pasta as well.

The Pizza Verdure which was topped with market vegetables. Looks good right?

I'm glad I took this quick snap, because it served as my "proof".  I didn't realize I had the shot until I got home later. Anyhow, literally a few seconds after this photo was taken, I took a bite of the pizza, then tried to take a close up photo of it midair, when lo and behold, I saw something that made me almost lose it...

A dreaded hair!!!!

Here's the photo again, but close up. Right above the red onion slice and the crust bubble was a thin brown hair!  WTF!!!

I told Kirbie and we both stopped eating. She examined the pizza that was still on the pan and pointed out yet another HAIR!!!

I took the pizza back to the receptionist and asked him to look at it in the light, where I politely pointed out the hairs on the pizza. He promptly apologized and said they would make another. Our server also came out to apologize to us.

Gawd, don't their chefs wear hair nets? WTF is a hair doing on our food? And not just one, but two! Who knows if there were more. Fuck, what if they were pubes? OMFG.

Here is the "replacement" pizza which was piping hot, unlike the one we were originally served.

The damage was done. Our appetites were lost.  Despite this rather unexpected and unwelcome addition to our food, we still enjoyed getting caught up with each other, exchanging belated birthday gifts, and just chatting.

Here is Kirbie's write up of our lunch last week.

I won't even bother putting their address or info. They suck big time. The restaurant did not respond to my email (complete with photo attachments of the HAIR on the pizza) in which I expressed my dissatisfaction with their lack of proper food handling procedures as well as their lack of follow through (when they did not give back the boxed leftovers). In retrospect, maybe it was a good thing we didn't get the leftovers back. Who knows if they spit in it or what. Their lack of response to my email also shows their lack of concern for customer concerns/complaints. How irritating.

I think it's safe to say that Kirbie and I won't be coming back here. I felt so bad because the pizza was her entree

Solare, you suck big ole hairy and veiny orangutan balls with crusty pubes!!!