Feb. 12, 2016 the Racquette Editor-in-Chief
Marcus Wolf Publisher
Marcus Wolf
Opinion & Editorial
the Racquette
3
At Least They Had Anchovies
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Daniel Cretaro Staff Writer
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and are not shared by the staff of “the Racquette.”
I did not like the food at Sergi’s. I did not like the service at Sergi’s. There was really nothing enjoyable for me at Sergi’s, but at least they had anchovies. Clearly I’m missing something when it comes to this place, because it’s been in business for years, and multiple people have told me that it is their favorite place for pizza in Potsdam. I am willing to concede that I may have gone there on an off night. However, there are certain things that have nothing to do with a bad night. When my friend and I went there last Sunday, the place was packed with people. After being told to sit wherever we would like, we waited. Everything was fine with that, there was nothing the waitress could do to have done for us not to wait. It was just something that is made sadder by the food that we got to eat. It started with the appetizers, bruschetta and garlic bread. Being a huge fan of bruschetta, there is a chance that I have eaten my entire body weight of it throughout my lifetime. Classically, bruschetta is toasted bread with garlic rubbed on it and some oil. That’s all that bruschetta is, and then other things are placed on top of it. It can be anything your mind can think of. In this country, however, it is almost always made with some kind of tomato based mixture. There are places that pile on the tomato — like Sergi’s — and places that only put a little bit onto small pieces of bread. Sergi’s put so much on that it was hard to take the bread off the plate without touching the mixture. That isn’t really a huge problem, unless you are like me and don’t like the idea of other people being
Sergi’s is open 11 to 12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
able to touch food before it goes into your mouth. It is a simple fix with a fork. The garlic bread was an embarrassment. What looked like hamburger rolls that were soaked in butter is what they passed off as garlic bread. When I asked the waitress for some marinara sauce to dip the bread into, we didn’t get it until the pizza came out. That is something that is hard to understand, even when a place is busy. I ordered a meatball pizza with a side of anchovies. There are different times in my life when I have craved those little fish, and Sunday at Sergi’s was one of them. Having anchovies was the best thing about the pizza. There was something strange about the crust. A thick crust is good when done right, but it didn’t have the feel of other thick crust pizzas that I have had in my life. It tasted spongy and not crisp at all. It was like it was in some in-between place, it wanted to be a thick crust pizza but it couldn’t
Bear With Me
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Shawntel Courtney Managing Editor
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be more than a thin crust, that’s the best way to describe the taste. Marinara sauce is really one of the most subjective things in the world. Whatever you grew up with will always be the best, and the other kinds of marinara will never be as good. For a sauce to be good, that means that it has to be better than what you had as a child. A bad sauce is just anything that doesn’t taste like the other sauce you grew up on. All that I can really say about the sauce at Sergi’s is that it wasn’t anything like what I grew up on. So, that really isn’t a knock against them. The main thing that bothered me about Sergi’s had nothing to do with the food or the service. What bothered me the most is what happened when I paid my bill. Sergi’s is generous enough to take Bear, which is always the biggest plus that a restaurant in college town can have. Unlike places like Between the Buns and Little Italy, when you pay with Bear, you
Jay Petrequin
cannot leave a tip. So if you don’t have any cash on you, that means you are not going to be able to give your waitress a tip. That really isn’t fair at all to the waitress who worked really hard. Neither my friend nor I had any cash on us, and I made the mistake of paying with Bear. So if you are reading this, I am really sorry that I was unable to leave you a tip, you can blame the place you work at. I wouldn’t go back to Sergi’s. There was nothing overly good to eat there. It was just one of those places that you go when there isn’t any other place in town to go to. Again, this is just my opinion and it’s one that is clearly not shared by other people on this campus or this community. Even if I thought that the food was the best in town, not being able to leave a tip when paying with Bear means that I cannot support this place. Overall, I would have to give it a single star out of five. At least they had anchovies.