Ba-bye Bebo

I never understood the allure of Bebo... a trendy Italian restaurant in Crystal City.  People either LOVED it, in all caps... or hated it.  It was not the kind of place you'd just go to because you needed food.  The one thing both groups had in common was to expect to be there for a very long time.  I suppose if you're enjoying your evening there, that's not a bad thing.  I've never had a great experience and tonight was no different.  Not by my choosing, there was a work dinner thing there with about 12 people.  The place had 2 large parties and the party room was packed.  Nobody else was in the restaurant.  On a Friday night.  That should have been clue 1.  Since we were all work-chatty, I didn't notice the exceptionally long time it took to order and get our food.  The entire ordeal took about 3.5 hours give or take.  My food portion was far too small for the price... I ordered swordfish.  I don't remember if I asked for it with no flavor, but that's how it came out.  On a plate so hot that it must have been sitting under a serious heat lamp for at least 10 minutes.  I imagine had I ordered a meal of courses as is tradition in a good Italian place, my portion was the right size.  But... I don't think that's why it was small.  I think it was small because the place is going out of business and the chef didn't care.  Not only was it small, but it was a bad cut of fish, bruised and previously frozen.  That's not how I want to enjoy my fish... I truly think the chef didn't care.  My coworker's salmon was dry.  The pasta dish was unappetizing and the pizza that came out was described as ketchup on wonderbread smashed thin with some cheese.  Now that last description also came from an Alabama guy who thinks McDonalds is fine dining.  Not an insult to him... he'd probably agree.  When we discovered discrepancies on the bill and couldn't decipher it because it was in Italian, I sought our server... turns out our server didn't even work there and the place was self imploding!  Nobody came to work... if anybody was even scheduled.  The restaurant is closing.  Well, I say good riddance.  It is too good a space and location for it to be occupied by a restaurant like that.  At the end of the meal, everybody was talking about going to Chipotle across the street.