Margot Barnett
Aug 2026
★★★★★
An Excellent Dinner at Marea, Marred by a Disappointing Final Interaction
My family and I recently dined at Marea and, for virtually the entire evening, had a wonderful experience.
From the food to the service, the evening was excellent. The staff were attentive and professional, and I particularly appreciated the warmth and attention shown to our grandson. It was the kind of dining experience one expects from a restaurant of Marea’s reputation and caliber.
Unfortunately, an incident immediately after dinner left me with a very different impression.
After paying our bill, we left the restaurant. Within seconds, I realized I needed to use the restroom, turned around and immediately re-entered.
I approached Mark Lockard, the General Manager, who had greeted us on arrival, verified our reservation and had us seated earlier that evening.
To my surprise, he directed me to use a public restroom outside the restaurant.
I explained that I had literally just finished dining at Marea and had stepped outside only seconds earlier. I also reminded him that he personally had checked us in and knew perfectly well that I had just been a guest of the restaurant.
Nevertheless, he was dismissive and continued to direct me to the public facilities outside.
I found this extraordinary. I had just spent the evening dining in the restaurant, had paid my bill, and had been outside for only a matter of seconds. I therefore insisted on using Marea’s restroom, which I ultimately did.
But what disappointed me most was not simply the initial refusal. It was the manner in which the situation was handled.
There was no courtesy, no empathy, no respectful explanation and, importantly, no apology.
After using the restaurant’s restroom, I returned to Mr. Lockard and specifically told him how disappointed I was with the way he had handled the situation. I told him that, in an evening where the rest of his team had demonstrated such professionalism and hospitality, his conduct had been the least professional part of our entire experience.
Even when given that opportunity to acknowledge what had occurred, he still did not apologize.
That, for me, was perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the incident.
This review is not intended to diminish the excellent work of Marea’s culinary and service teams. The food was excellent. The staff who served us were attentive and gracious, particularly toward our grandson, and we genuinely enjoyed our dinner.
But hospitality is more than serving excellent food and providing attentive table service. It is how a guest is treated from the moment he enters an establishment until the moment he finally leaves.
A guest should not cease to be treated as a guest simply because he has paid his bill and crossed the front door—particularly when he returns literally seconds later.
What could have been resolved with a simple gesture of hospitality instead became an unnecessarily unpleasant conclusion to an otherwise excellent evening.
For a restaurant of Marea’s standing, I expected better—particularly from its General Manager.
The irony is that the rest of the Marea team delivered the level of hospitality one would expect from a restaurant of this caliber. Unfortunately, the final interaction with the person responsible for leading that team did not.
