The only reason this is a 2 instead of a 1 is because the manager gave us "what I thought" was a good rate for a 2 night stay ($250) on a Wednesday and Thursday night with a 1 day notice. Upon arrival, you're blown away. You walk into this 4 star dining room with decor that blew us away! That feeling went away within 10 minutes.
As soon as you top the stairs to the second floor landing, you quickly realize that this is a just a restaurant, with beds upstairs. The immediate smell of urine was overpowering. I wrote it off as the musk you generally experience in older buildings at first, but after multiple trips through that hallway, it became apparent that the smell was definitely more like urine. Luckily the door to our room blocked the smell. I have dogs. Urine smells like urine.
The room was weird (Room 205). You walk into what looks like a motel room out of a bad French movie. 1980's wallpaper, cabinetry, decor. The wood floors were very sticky. (We never walked barefoot once) The furniture was average. Heavily used and kind of dirty looking. Extremely bad water damage stains on ceiling. Loose popcorn and discoloration.
The bathroom was strangely separate from the shower. The toilet-sink room had newer fixtures in it. The massive 1987 four person jacuzzi/shower room was slightly impressive, due to the skin-sheering water pressure and extraordinary air-conditioning. Careful stepping out of the tub. The marble is polished and slick as ice.
On to the master-main bedroom. Complete different decor. Canopy style bed made out of fake wrought iron. The AC barely blew in that room. We slept HOT with the thermostat on 68. So did our daughter on the couch. But you could hang meat in the shower room. Explain that... haha. There were two big windows that looked out onto the balcony where they had stored a bunch of old food carts that were rusted up and some old broken patio furniture. Mix in cigarette butts and old planters. There was a 27" TV with cable in the bedroom, the living room ironically had a TV smaller than my Dell Laptop with cable.
The food- I'm a chef. So I'm already a food snob before I open the menu. But I'm open minded and always hungry. The scallops w/risotto were perfect. The chicken pasta was great. The 22oz Ribeye, well, that deserves a review on its own.
I eat steaks everywhere. We live in Central AR so if we want a decent price cut of beef, we'll hit the Butcher Shop. 30 bucks gets you 2 lbs of prime rib. And when I order a steak rare, I don't want medium, blue rare or well done. 130 degrees. That's it. I even told the waiter 130 degrees. It came out Medium Rare. I should have sent it back. No one would have known. We were the only patrons in the place. (8pm on a Wednesday) But I bit my lip, ate the steak, the 4 potatoes I got and a bite of broccoli. 50 bucks for a cut of meat that wasn't aged more than a few weeks. That left me pretty ticked, considering they advertise the chefs name on the sidewalk. Jeff something. The Grand Taverne Steak Sauce is a mixture of Country Bobs Steaksauce, with powdered cayenne pepper and a hint of mustard. It did not compliment the over cooked steak.
The bread smelled fresh, but was microwaved. We asked for fresh bread and had a steaming loaf that scalded my hand as I cut into it, delivered within 1 minute.
We didn't go to the bar. There wasn't anyone in there anyway and I didn't want to pay 14 bucks for a Bloody Mary.
Overall, it's a pretty building. But that's about it. Theres a homeless mission in a church next door that shares the parking lot. The guy working there playing piano drove a green Honda that was parked in guest parking Thursday night until around 11pm. We had to wait for him to leave to park our car in the closest thing they have to handicapped accessible parking. The only other option is in the church/mission barely lit parking lot. I mentioned it to the ponytailed host/dude and he said "we don't have any handicapped spots and I can't just make him stop playing to move his car". He wasn't rude per say, but I could tell he could care less about my request.
I should also mention that this establishment is not ADA friendly. No ramps to enter the building and only stairs to reach the rooms. They certainly couldn't accommodate someone who was chair bound.
When we go back, we'll rent outside of town where the price drops, and just drive into town and grab a daily trolley pass. We will not revisit this establishment.
*** I forgot to mention an envelope was left beside our bed to tip the cleaning staff, if we so chose *** read more