Red's Tavern hides behind a facade of pub decor and standard peppy chalkboard speak of Happy Hours and (frozen) finger foods when it's really the devil in disguise. Draped in a generic smattering of slapped-on tavernesque atmosphere and beige tones, creeps an out-of-place restaurant and live music setting adjacent a wall of blaring coin-op arcade games and an otherwise oddball arrangement among a largely vacant, evil-shade crept dining room. As long as you stay away from the food, you might find something to enjoy here on a weekend.
Red's is the kind of place that wants to be legit but looks as if it's trapped in a 3rd floor basement of a hotel chain. Think Dave & Busters crossed with a local pub scene, tack on tacky decor, poor fusion of concepts and a mostly limited menu selection of bland wholesale food palatable only for three-beer-in drinkers. No creativity on the menu, bad, loud country musak and a very unhelpful wait staff plagued the scene on a Wednesday night.
And there's not much of a welcome mat and less a road attraction to the poser restaurant that feeds on the unfriendliness of a frosty-haired bartender slash waitstaff with a gruff demeanor of being inconvenienced if you don't sit at the bar.
Upon entering, the oddball layout consists of a dimly-lit hall leading to a garishly lit room of arcade machines and on the other side, the restaurant apart of a complex called "Nomad's". Somewhat reminiscent of D&B, the copycat operation wasn't even pulling off the fun part from the road view, which was far off, down what appeared to be an industrial/office road. The only salvageable aspect of the building was the billiard room (didn't play), which, if you like a quiet place to play pool on a weekday, come fed and drink up.
7:30 on a Wednesday night and the restaurant was completely vacant. It remained as such for about an hour and some change, as we watched a trickling of bar patrons coming from whoknowswhere. We chose our seats among a sea of emptiness and bad country music which overcast conversation, compensating for a lack of patronage. Roughly eight booths and tables and nobody to fill them at primetime and we still sat down, knowing the fate of our hunger would lead us to certain disappointment. The lone waitress didn't wish for anyone to be seated in the dining area, immediately pushing the bar stools -- at 7:30 mind you. After taking a drink order, the waitress sat back down and talked to a somebody not associated with the joint before disappearing with the bartender falsely reassuring us the place might have hope by taking our orders.
Drinks, a beer, water and a Sprite mostly went dry without refill a half hour before the meals came. One of my party never received another soda, the other wasn't asked if he'd like another beer. I rationed my water knowing I wasn't going to be seeing anyone for another half hour. After my buddy ordered a soup, the bartender told us it was going to be another 15 minutes, after waiting 10 on the piping-hot microwave soup.
After ordering a soup and a beer (further demonstrating he wasn't ordering cheap things like myself) and the waitress disappearing without explanation, service was taken over by the bartender, who was mainly chatting at the bar, mostly ignoring our drinks, later our check which we waited about 15 more minutes post finishing to collect.
We ordered very simplistic items of a likewise menu; a burger which the bartender insisted medium was OK as if the grill cook couldn't handle cooking a burger, a Hormel-grade triple-decker turkey sandwich and a heap of frozen-to-cooked-enough steak fries. The quality and care of food was abysmal, embarrassing. The meat was cooked more well than medium, the sandwich featured a less-than-Subway helping of pre-packed smoke-flavored deli meat instead of (typically sliced) diner fare.
Nearing the end of the meal, a family of four were greeted roughly upon walking in to which I wanted to tell them to go back. The overall mood was cold as if the staffer was ticked off he'd have to wait or wondering why or how we found the place. He even sighed as if to burden him when asked to split the bill. Usually I won't let a bad waitstaff experience bog down a culinary experience but the experiences were married at Red Tavern.
Disclaimer: Originally written by myself on Urbanspoon on Aug 23, 2012, but nobody knows that site exists anymore. read more