the food was bad, only to be outdone by the rude and disorganized service - save your money, don't go. went for a joint birthday/going away party for some co-workers. we had a large party and called our reservation well in advance. first we were told that we could only make reservations for 5pm or 8pm, which was surprising given how far in advance we'd called. i'm not sure it was the best decision by the management, as we stayed until about 8:30 to make sure everyone could make it to celebrate. had we been allowed to reserve our preferred 6pm, they could have turned our table much quicker.
lets talk about the food/drink:
i looked on the website and noticed it was a bit pricey for stereotypical southern food, but was willing to give it a chance, in hopes of some originality. bland, bland, bland. this food was bland. i am not someone who adds additional salt to anything, but it seemed as if they had run out of salt in the kitchen, because nothing was seasoned with salt. ironically, however, cumin and chili powder coated everything my party ordered. the chips served with the sandwiches, my fried pork-chops, my boyfriends chicken, our fried oyster appetizers, everything! most of the mounds of chips served at my table were left and very few of us took anything home.
i didn't eat any of the barbecue, myself, but no one said anything good about the food in my party, so i can only assume that the negative reviews of the barbecue itself by others are right on point, and there certainly was no barbecue fragrance in the air.
the quality of the oysters was good, for an inland eatery. sadly it seemed that they were spending too much money on seafood, and not enough on the chefs.
i don't think many in my party ordered cocktails, but the drinks were fine. a 20oz. pbr was, strangely, served in a giant glass goblet that weighed about 3lbs. i'm not sure if this was an attempt to elevate the cheap beer, but it proved more annoying, especially when the condensation on the glass made it difficult to even pick up.
now to the service:
the only positives about the whole experience is that our food came out fast. that said, it all came out at different times, probably because the server seemed to have no clue how what he was doing. he didn't take orders at one time, but rather as people arrived, and brought out the orders at all different times, too. at one point he even stated, "i have no clue whose orders i have, so just tell me if you haven't ordered." had he waited to take everyone's orders at once, he wouldn't have had this problem.
our server's communication, in general, was horrible. when we would try to get his attention he would hold up his finger and tell us to wait, then seemed to forget that we needed him. he did a lot of pointing overall, to his ears, to people at our table. he rarely spoke, no thank yous from our party were acknowledged, and nor eye-contact reciprocated.
in fact, all his actions all seemed rude and almost aggressive, like we were putting him out. he snatched our appetizer plates off the table, (literally, like a drive-by, took them without turning and kept walking) again, pointed to his ear if he couldn't hear what we said, and just generally seemed bothered to be there. we were, honestly, so perplexed by his behavior, that we were nice the entire time, though the service never got better.
the building/atmosphere:
the building itself was kind of cool. i could see how some parties would probably have enjoyed the atmosphere, but lighting, seating, windows and decor varied so wildly between "zones" we'll call them, that only really a few parties had good seats. the one consistency was how loud it was in the entire building. a choir would probably sound great, but the acoustics were so bad, that you could only really hear the people sitting next to you (and as i said, the server couldn't hear any of us).
my party was seated all the way in the back, a long, narrow trek through three rooms. i'm really surprised that this place passed a fire inspection, because it took us several minutes and body maneuvers to get to the exit, once we'd finished eating.
last words:
if you are looking for an interesting eatery downtown, i can think of about 20 other places within a mile i would send you to before i ever suggest this place. don't get sucked in my it's vintage look; save your money. you will regret it if you don't.