At the end of the day, I don’t think it was poor management that has done in Simone, but food that was frankly not delicious. Although there was a service lapse when I ate there (tea served lukewarm and brought long after dessert), all would have been forgiven if the food had been delicious, which it wasn’t. I was surprised about how I found most of the dishes poorly conceived, given how long the restaurant was in development.
I think to succeed with the type of restaurant that Simone was striving to be, it either needed to have delicious food or to become a “scene” where people like to go and be seen regardless of the quality of the food – I’m thinking of Avra in Beverly Hills or Craig’s or Dan Tana’s (although I know there are some on this Board who think the food at Dan Tana’s is good). From the L.A. Magazine article, it appears that Simone was becoming a bit of a scene on weekends, but that still left all the other nights of the week. The God awful Avra seems to be packed every day, but I guess people don’t go to the Arts District on a Tuesday night to be seen.