Hey, Cliff Lee, Serafina Is Sorry and Wants You To Come Back

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On Wednesday, after a round of Wiffle Ball in Rittenhouse Square, Phillies star Cliff Lee decided to dine at Serafina, the new and always packed Italian import from New York that recently settled on 18th Street. Now, we’ve been hearing a lot of gripes about the wait there, which is understandable because it’s new and it’s in Rittenhouse, so everyone and their Gladwyne grandmother wants to check it out. But we’d think that someone like Cliff Lee would be entitled to, you know, a little expediting. After all, he did turn down a bigger paycheck so that he could be in Philadelphia.

But after the hostess explained to an unrecognized Lee that there would be a 30-minute wait (which probably meant more like an hour), he hightailed it to a.kitchen, the also new Rittenhouse spot from former Salt owner and onetime Philly Mag restaurant critic David Fields and chef Bryan Sikora. Serafina’s Rose Parrotta quickly learned what had happened and says she “went over to a.kitchen to see if he was really dining there and preceded to get sick to my stomach…” Parrotta explains that the restaurant was completely full but that if she were at the door at the time, she would have “physically removed someone”, though something tells us that Lee would be too classy to have let that happen.

In any event, Cliff, they want you to know that there’s a table waiting for you at Serafina anytime you’re hungry.