Spy Sushi

As many tourists and locals from St. Augustine headed out for the beginning of Nights of Lights in downtown, so did my girlfriends and I.  After seeing the Mayor light up the Christmas tree and the plaza, we decided to check out the sushi bar Spy.  My friend suggested this place because of the chilled out atmosphere and their Saki martinis.  I myself had never been there, but several of the girls had and thought it would be the best place to grab some drinks and maybe a roll or two.  After battling the massive crowd of people downtown to reach the restaurant is was quite surprising that it was only a few minutes before we had a table.  The second floor dining room was dimly lit with crystal chandlers and candles along with colorful couches and mosaic glass tables.  Once we were seated my friend and I agreed this was a great choice for drinks with the girls. 

Our waiter came to the table and took our drink order seemly friendly and nice.  Little did we know his demeanor would soon change.  After he took our order about 10 minutes went by and we still had no drinks.  The owner stopped by and asked if we had our orders taken and we told him we had and we understood it may take a few minutes because they were busy.  About five more minutes went by and we all chatted about the end of the semester and holiday plans.  Our waiter came to the table and told us he had just now put our drink order in at the bar and we needed to be patient because he was busy.  I have eaten in a lot of restaurants as well as worked in two or three so I am aware that sometimes servers and bartenders get backed up, but never have I told a table they needed to be patient or had a server tell me this.  After he left we all looked at each other in shock that he had said this to us, especially since non of us seemed upset in the first place.  About 15 minutes rolled by and the one girl that had ordered food had been served her sushi.  Her Alaskan roll was fresh and looked quite appatizing, it would only be better if we had drinks to go along with it.

After watching her eat for 10 minutes, one of the girls got up to find the owner and explain that we had been sitting there for 50 minutes and still no drinks.  He came up and apologized to us and said the drinks would be half off and they'd be there in 5 minutes.  Sure enough there are drinks were in the 5 minutes alotted along with the bill of all the drinks half off.  By this time we were all somewhat frusturated and in the mood for our drinks.  Once we finished we tried to get the server to take the check and that was easier said than done.  By this point he wanted nothing to do with us and basiclly ignored our table until my friend began waiving her hands in the air saying excuse me.  After the round that took an hour to get, we paid and left.  On the way out, one of the girls stopped to owner to explain how disrespectful our server was and how disappointing the evening had been.  He assured her this would never happen again because he had just fired our server.  All in all the jury is still out as to whether or not I will be back on a busy night.  It was a great atmosphere and my Espresso Saki Cocktail was also really good.  I can also say that if the owner wasn't on top of the situation none of us would be back.  The fact that he was concerned, apologetic and made it right shows that this place definitely deserves a second chance.