Cute neighborhood spot with friendly staff and a menu that has some really interesting and different options. Service was a little slow, and we had a bit of a hiccup during dinner that left us both a little confused, but overall it was a decent experience. We always love supporting local spots, so I'm hoping they continue to refine things because there's definitely potential here.
We started with cocktails. I'm usually not a fan of mezcal on its own, but I've been intrigued by it lately, so I decided to try the Side Piece. Kudos to the bartender because this ended up being my favorite thing I had all night! We eventually moved on to a bottle of wine, although it took our server a little bit to get back to us. He had a large table that had just gotten their dinner, so we totally understood.
For apps, we got the half dozen oysters, the pastrami salmon, and the summer squash salad.
The pastrami salmon was extremely salty. But, to be fair, it has a pastrami seasoning, so maybe I should have expected that flavor to come through pretty strong.
The summer squash salad was an interesting idea and I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, the Aleppo pepper was way too powerful for me. My boyfriend ended up eating most of it, and even he, someone who loves spice, said it was a little much. He was literally sweating in his cheeks .
Here's where things got a little weird.
We ordered everything at the same time, cocktails, wine, apps, and dinner. I ordered the A5 Wagyu tri tip rare, and my boyfriend ordered the NY strip medium rare.
After we had finished our apps and were about halfway through our wine, basically when we expected dinner to be coming out, our server came over and let me know that my steak was no longer available.
Okay, weird, but things happen. I said no problem and switched to the ribeye, still ordered rare.
It took a while longer for dinner to come out. My steak ended up coming out medium rare, which honestly I was okay with. But my boyfriend's NY strip came out medium and had a pretty grainy texture.
He mentioned it to our server, and our server offered us dessert on the house, which we appreciated.
And honestly, we loved our server. This review definitely isn't about him. He was friendly and did his best, especially considering the situation.
The one thing that stood out to me was that the manager was clearly aware something was going on. I noticed him peering over at our table several times, and he was standing near the line for most of the night, but he never came over to check in or acknowledge the situation. I'm not someone who needs a manager hovering over my table, but even a quick "How is everything?" or "Sorry about the wait" would have gone a long way.
Overall, a nice neighborhood spot with good ideas, friendly people, and a menu that's trying to do something a little different. There are definitely some things that could use refinement, especially timing and execution, but we still enjoyed parts of the experience and, as always, we love supporting local businesses. read more