It breaks my heart to write this review, which is why I've been putting it off for over a year just hoping things would change but, sadly, they have not. I've been to Local 149 probably 15 times over the past 3+ years. When I first moved to the area it was the only place I wanted to go but over time I started to get really frustrated with just about everything you could possibly be frustrated with when you visit a restaurant.
I'll start with the good. Local 149 is really fun and versatile; the decor is eclectic, energetic, and hip and you can sit at the bar just to watch a game, meet a few friends to have a drink, sit down and have a date night, or have brunch with the family. Their drink menu is ever changing (huge, huge, HUGE!) and they have some damn good cocktails. Their food menu changes seasonally, and they have a weekly or even daily rotation of bar snacks, apps, and specials...also huge, I'm a big fan of rotating menus if you couldn't tell. They have some fun items on the menu; I'm a huge fan of the hot wings, fried mac n' cheese balls, and definitely the spicy wings when they make a rare appearance but you honestly can't go wrong with the snacks. The bar staff is fantastic, and same goes for the hosting crew.
The bad and the ugly. I first started to notice that something was awry when I would fall in love with a menu item on one night, only tell people how good it is, come back a week or two later and order that same item but not actually get the same thing. Let me elaborate, I'm a cheeseburger fanatic, not all burgers are created equal and nor should they be treated that way. I really appreciate a properly executed cheeseburger and I'm no easy critic. I think the first thing I ever order at Local 149 was a cheeseburger, it was a far cry from the best I've ever had but it was simple, tasty, and perfectly cooked. That cheeseburger was the first of many I've had at Local 149 but few would compare. The very next time I ordered a cheeseburger (always medium rare and should be on the rare side of medium if its a premium burger) it arrived fully cooked through! Not having perfectly cooked meat or more importantly perfectly cooked the way you ask for it is a tell tale sign that someone doesn't have any idea what they are doing. When your job is to cook cheeseburgers, you'd better cook it perfectly, its not that hard. This is a huge pet-peeve of mine because its usually indicative of a much larger systemic issue. I naively moved past that horribly executed burger only to face disappointment after disappointment. Local 149 made me fall in love with chicken and waffles as well, and they are also the reason I will literally never order chicken and waffles again anywhere, ever. I finally realize I wasn't crazy and put Local 149 on the back burner for about a year when I read a review of Local 149's burger on bostonburgerblog.com. Of the 100+ Boston area burgers that have been reviewed by the author only Local 149 received two scores, one low and one well above average. If you haven't yet picked up on what myself or the blogger were trying to get at it's that Local 149 shows flashes of brilliance but is consistently inconsistent. One thing I just don't understand is the lack of quality control; its not hard to look at a burger and know it's been way overcooked, that a waffle is cooked to the consistency of a piece of cardboard, or that a sandwich had been sitting on the heat counter way too long and the bun is destroyed with grease. These are issues I encountered far to often, and I just got tired of wasting my money. The only other thing I will note is that the servers are not quite up to par with the bar or hosting staff... not really sure what the disconnect is there but it's a stark difference. Anyway... after a year break from the restaurant I was once infatuated with I decided to give it another go, unfortunately I have to say I'm jumping ship for good...farewell old friend.
I'm never the type of person who is going to send back an overcooked burger, I might eat it, I might not but I'm not going to send it back. I've always been a bit of a martyr and although I realize I'm an insignificant part of Local 149's customer base I would prefer to punish them by no longer giving them my business or recommending the restaurant to people I know instead of making a stink about a cold burger with a soggy bun. I really hope they can turn it around but I'm having trouble seeing good things to come for them, only time will tell. read more