Exhibit A.
Gael Greene’s and a Craigslister’s dinner at Ko has turned into a matter of he said, she isn’t saying yet, and now, Eater said (we weren’t kidding about Momofuku essentially being a satellite office: They’ve now produced computer records which they say show that Dobrowski canceled his resy about a half an hour after making it). Clearly a witness needs to come forward, and that one has. A diner who says he ate at Ko that fateful night has emailed us to offer his account of events.
I had the pleasure of dining at Momofuku Ko this past Wednesday night at 9:15pm. As you know, this was the evening of the now infamous Gael Greene/Tom Dobrowski fiasco. I am by no means a “foodie” in any sense and up until this past week didn’t know the difference between David Chang and PF Changs. However, my new girlfriend likes to dabble in the foodie world that I never even knew existed in city. After hearing my girlfriend mention Momofuku Ko a few times and being intrigued by “how impossible” it was to get reservations I decided to give it a shot and surprise her with reservations. After a few days and endless refreshing of my web browser I was shocked when a open slot appeared on my screen on Thursday April 30th. I quickly nabbed the reservation for 9:15 on Wednesday April 30th. The rest of the evening unfolded as follows:
• Upon arrival to the restaurant we entered the reception area to some confusion as an investment banker type (Dobrowski) and an older blonde woman (Greene, thanks Google Images) were discussing some situation with the hostess. After a few minutes the pair was seated. The hostess then turned her attention to us and requested our print out email confirmation, after verifying its validity she welcomed us and commented that “as least we had real reservations”, an obvious reference to the couple entering before us (Dobrowski, Greene).
• We were seated directly next to Dombrowski and Greene, my gf and I even commented how nice of this guy to take his mother to Momofuku, we thought it was cute.
• Approximately 20 minutes later another couple arrived with valid reservations sending the Momofuku crew to scramble and set up a make shift table near the front of the restaurant. I can only hope they were comped as they were forced to eat dinner at what was essentially the hostess pedestal.
• Ms. Greene was definitely being served differently than all of the other females at the counter that evening. To her dismay, my girlfriend, as the “lady,” was served a chicken dish for Course 9 while Greene and the gentleman were served the short ribs (of course, I shared mine with her). Ms. Greene, of course, was given the short ribs which is one of their signature dishes.
• At approximately 10 pm a gentleman wearing street clothes and a hat (who I now assume to be Momofuku Ops guy, Drew) exchanged some dialogue with the couple seated next to us then went to the back of the restaurant to talk to the chefs. He obviously was affiliated with the restaurant in some capacity.
• After 10 courses and 10 glasses of booze we paid our tab and walked out of the restaurant passing a gentleman who I later figured out to be David Chang (thanks Google Images). This was at approximately 12am
So there is my account of this past Wednesday night, I suppose it is entirely possible that there could have been two cancellations for parties of two that night but seems highly unlikely given the restaurant’s popularity. My girlfriend and I have been enjoying a good laugh for a day now over our unsuspecting “involvement” in the whole drama! I have attached a jpeg image of my reservations confirmation that I received from KO. If you look at the dates it is apparent that I picked up the reservations as a result of a cancellation. As the old saying goes…..where there is smoke there is fire. Anyway use this as you would like.
There’s a large question here, and one that was asked by the Wall Street Journal review— why are men and women being served different plates? But we’ll wait until this drama recedes till we get on that case.
Related: Ko-BOOM: Craigslist Tom’s Appeal & The Momo’ Ko Smackdown [Eater]
