Customer Reviews

As the Tables Turn: Biography of a Bistro

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If you love Lindeys (and who doesn't) this is a fun & must read. The stories are so entertaining and there are even a few recipies thrown in!

if you are from columbus or travel there and have been to lindey's or have worked there lindey's is simply the best. crazy fun and the leader in columbus.

If you loved Bordain's KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL or Buford's HEAT, or if you ever waited tables, dreamed of opening a restaurant, or even had a favorite neighborhood eatery in your life, AS THE TABLES TURN is for you. It's riotious. From knowing absolutely nothing about business or restaurant operations, Sue Doody and her sons opened a bistro in a saloon built before Prohibition that had housed any number of other businesses, including four restaurants in the decade before she opened Lindey's. Twenty-five years after opening, she and author Rosen tell the tales of how the restaurant grew with the help of a crazy crew of servers, neighbors and regulars who acted as if THEY owned the place, and a series of temperamental chefs including more than one who walked out on the busiest Saturday nights of the year.
But instead of being merely a chronicle for people who know Lindey's, it's an oral history, a comedy, a tribute to the unbelievable energy, expense, and accommodation that goes into running a restaurant. Just the chapter titles alone tell a lot: Can We Get You Anything Else to Send Back to the Kitchen Tonight? / Too Many Chefs / Everyone's a Critic (But It's the Rare Guest Who's Being Paid to Complain) / Good Things Come to Those Who Wait Tables.
One of the funniest stories (and OSU graduates, you'll love it), is about the president of the university coming to dinner in the middle of winter. The valet kept brushing the snow off his car...had his car right at the door, warmed up when he left. Great meal, etc. A couple days later, the valet has a cartoon published in the OSU student newspaper with a letter saying that the President stiffed him, after all he did. Long story short, the valet is summarily fired. The next Saturday night, about 8:30, no one can find a valet. As a little protest for the fiing of their buddy, all the valets walked off walk, locking about 100 sets of car keys in the trunk of one of the cars parked among the ten or twelve city blocks where they'd parked the cars.
The book is packed with stories like that. But I guess if you take 46,000 reservations a year, use 260 skillets on a given night, break 1,600 white wine glasses a year, host more than 1000 parties, and even cater a wedding reception at a concert hall where Grand Funk Railroad is playing, you're bound to have great stories.