"We had a very mixed experience this evening. We visited Hazelnut based on some high praises from our Airbnb host and a gentleman from Seneca Lake Kayak. It’s a cute place and everyone was friendly and welcoming. We were sat at a table in one of the front windows, which would have been awesome except there were about 10 flies climbing on the window treatments and buzzing around us non-stop. As we looked a little closer, there were multiple areas around the windows with clusters of dead flies trapped in spider webs. It was gross. My wife and I have 20+ years of fine dining experience between the two of us so we are no strangers to front of the house customer service and attention to detail. We also understand that it’s likely impossible to completely avoid flies in a rural setting but there is absolutely no excuse to not have these windows cleaned up before seating people at these tables. It would take minimal effort to tidy it up before opening for service. Even if some flies are buzzing around, we really don’t need to have multiple fly graveyards this close to our table. We did ask if it would be possible to move to another table but they, unfortunately, didn’t have the space to move us to another table at that time. We received a couple “I’m sorry ??” apologies. After the first apology, our server immediately asked if we wanted another cocktail and I thought, “oh, that’s nice, since they know we are bothered by this fly situation and they cannot move us, they are going to buy us a round”…. Not so much. This is restaurant hospitality 101 where we come from. It would have costed them next to nothing to buy us a round and the gesture would have gone a long way! Instead, we left feeling disappointed, annoyed and like WE were bothering them by being put off by the flies. Anyways, on to the good… overall our service was good and, more noteworthy, the food was excellent. Thoughtful dishes that were all well executed. The bread service with the chive butter and beautiful salt crystals was a nice touch. The corn fritters and the salad with turnips and “Kentucky prosciutto” were both stellar. We followed that up with the hanger steak, tagliatelle pasta and a side of the crispy potatoes from the burger entree. The pasta was great, the hangar steak was beautifully tender, seasoned well and the earthy fontina sauce was nice. Getting the side of crispy potatoes was a great move because they were equally amazing. Not only were they superbly crispy, they tasted great with the curry aioli as well as the fontina sauce from our steak AND the leftover pasta sauce. The food itself is worth a visit, maybe just ask to be seated away from the windows …unless you want to share your $150 dinner with a party of flies and their dead relatives. A little attention to detail would put this place near the top of the list for dining experiences in the area."
