Downtown Flavortown -- Pigeon Forge, TN…read more
Great Concept, Horrible Execution
I really wanted to love this place.
I met Guy Fieri once at a food festival in Atlantic City, and let's just say he didn't leave me with the greatest personal impression. That being said, I'll always give credit where it's due. I take a Carnival cruise about once a year, and Guy's Burger Joint makes an absolutely phenomenal burger. So when I found out Downtown Flavortown was in Pigeon Forge, it immediately became one of the places I was most excited to visit on this trip.
Deep down, I'm a big kid, and I LOVE a good adult arcade.
We headed straight for the arcade, but before buying a game card, I wanted to see what kind of prizes they had. The games looked pretty good--mostly the same type of stuff you'd find at Dave & Buster's--but then we walked into the prize redemption room.
That completely killed it for me.
There was literally not one prize I wanted to win. Everything seemed geared toward little kids, and I think they're completely missing what makes an adult arcade work.
At Dave & Buster's, I've won a really nice poker chip set in a metal briefcase and a crystal whiskey decanter set with matching whiskey glasses. These aren't generic prizes either. They're covered in Dave & Buster's logos and insignia. They WANT me taking that stuff home, displaying it, and showing it off to my friends. When somebody asks where I got it, I get to say, "I won it at Dave & Buster's." That's brilliant marketing because now another adult wants to go there and win something cool too.
Same thing at Gateway 26 on the Wildwood Boardwalk. I've won signed NFL helmets and other legitimate collectibles there. Those are prizes that make a grown adult look at the ticket requirement and think, "I want that. Let's play."
At Flavortown? Nothing.
We were standing inside this massive adult entertainment complex looking for one cool prize that would make us want to drop $50 or $100 playing games, and there wasn't one. So we didn't even buy a game card. They literally lost our arcade business because there was nothing worth winning.
And that's crazy because the possibilities with the Flavortown brand are endless. Give adults Flavortown poker sets, branded barware, automotive memorabilia, quality glassware, signed sports merchandise--something cool enough that I'll put it in my house and tell my friends, "I won this at Flavortown."
Feeling disappointed, we headed over to the tiki bar, which I will admit is a really cool setup. Since I can get a beer anywhere and it was Sunday morning, I ordered their BBQ Bloody Mary.
Now, if you're going to call something a BBQ Bloody Mary at a Guy Fieri restaurant, I'm expecting you to go completely over the top. Give me a rib hanging out of it. Brisket. A thick piece of bacon. Something!
Instead, I got a Bloody Mary garnished with vegetables.
It tasted fine, but come on. Don't advertise a BBQ Bloody Mary if the garnish looks like it came from a salad bar.
There was one big bright spot: the pretzels were phenomenal. Bacon-wrapped pretzels sitting in a skillet of cheese sauce, and they were easily the highlight of our visit. I would absolutely order those again.
That's what makes Downtown Flavortown so frustrating. The building is impressive, the concept is fantastic, the tiki bar looks great, and there's enormous potential here.
But a place bearing Guy Fieri's name should be anything but boring. It should be excessive, ridiculous, memorable and completely over the top.
Instead, I left thinking the best way to describe Downtown Flavortown is:
Great concept. Horrible execution.