Stars: 3.2. out of 5.0
Pros: Outside Seating Area, Simple Lunch Menu, Food Prepared Perfectly
Cons: Poor Experience With Bar Staff on 2 Separate Occasions
I will start out by saying that this post comes on the heels of a strange set of occurrences. I had a poor experience at the bar here while Christmas shopping. Then, SB had a similar experience while at the bar for a work happy hour. I will get into this in just a second. Normally a bad experience is enough for me to say screw it and move on. But the arrival of a set of Buy One Get One Free coupons in the mail (they were sent out to our neighborhood) allowed enough forgiveness in my heart to at least try the food. So, NK and I went on a sunny Saturday to see if my views can be changed.
American Tap Room (American Tap Room) is a new restaurant in The Shops at Willow Lawn plaza. It inhabits part of a wonderful brick building in the middle of the plaza. It's an excellent location with ample parking and shopping in the vicinity. It's also very convenient to my house, which I greatly appreciate.
NK and I were out doing some Christmas shopping and decided to use our lunch coupon for a quick refreshing break. As it was a nice day, we decided to sit outside. There are 2 nice outside seating areas. The first is right off the bar. On nice days the giant doors/windows are opened and tables placed outside. Great for a beer outside. The other out side are is right off the lobby. It's got a giant fireplace which puts out a wonderful amount of heat. There aren't many tables, but it's a nice area. We chose to sit here.
Our waiter was very pleasant. After turning on the fireplace, he brought us our menus. He took our drink orders and was prompt on bringing them to us. He took the time to explain a few menu items and helped NK make a lunch selection. The lunch menu isn't extensive, but offers a variety of tasty looking choices. I appreciated it for it's simplicity and it's range. NK chose to do the soup & salad lunch combo while I couldn't pass up a burger as rare as humanly possible. Some restaurants refuse to cook it any less than medium. I shun these places. Allow me the simple pleasure of under-cooked ground beef!!
Our meal didn't take awfully long, but we also arrived in that weird period between the lunch and dinner crowd. That most likely means the kitchen wasn't swamped which is a great time to go. NK's soup was a wonderful Maryland crab soup. It had nice flavor and didn't lack the crab. She also went with a Caesar salad that was fresh and crisp. I thought she made a good choice and she agreed. I went with the ATR Angus Burger that has caramelized onion, cheddar and ATR sauce on it. As I said, I ordered it rare as humanly possible and that is EXACTLY how it was served. It was perfect! This was a great burger from the flavor of the meat to the zest of the accouterments. And the fries were crisp and well seasoned. They were a nice side-car for my taste buds.
My trip to eat was an excellent experience from the food to the service. Yet, it could not help but to have been tainted to my other experiences at American Tap Room. The very first time I was there was but a week before. BN and I were out looking for tacky Christmas sweaters and we needed a break/beer. We entered the bar area that had MAYBE 20 people in it. For the size of the bar, that isn't a lot. There were 4 visible bartenders working. We claimed 2 seats at the bar and perused the beer selection. We sat there waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and WAITING to be acknowledged by anyone. In that time I watched one bartender wash a few glasses, glance up at us and go right back to washing glasses. Another found himself so engrossed in chatting with 2 guys that he didn't even know we were there. One walked up and down the length of the bar serving some people at the far end. The 4th must have been responsible for filling restaurant orders. I only say that because they kept disappearing and reappearing in the general direction of the restaurant. As we stood there for what was probably 7 to 10 minutes, we weren't acknowledged once by anyone. Now before you say I'm unreasonable, allow me to explain my thought process. I worked in a bar. A college bar in Blacksburg to be exact. I know what it is to be swamped to the point where you feel like you'll never get all the orders filled, the beer restocked, or the glasses cleaned. But I never once saw our staff not acknowledge a person, even to just say "I'll be right with you". So, when your bar ISN'T busy, what is your justification for not acknowledging your patrons? Waiting at a bar for 5 minutes as a customer already feels long, but to not be acknowledged feels like an eternity. So, we left and went down the street. BN stated he would not be returning anytime in the near future. Now, maybe the bar was having an off day. Maybe they didn't see my not small frame. I can't really say.
I was ready to write it off as a 1 time incident. But then SB (another restaurant veteran) told me of her experience at the same bar for a work happy hour later on. She said the bar had a few people at it and a crowd from work, but it wasn't busy. She pulled out her debit card and stood at the bar holding it, ready to order a drink. No one said a word to her. It was as if she didn't even exist. A customer ready to pay and she can't even get a word of hello... It boggles my mind.
American Tap Room as a restaurant proved itself to have all of the right things going for it. It's waiters are informed, polite and on point. The food has flavor and is cooked just as requested. I look forward to eating there again. As a bar, it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I hoped for so much from someplace that promotes itself as a Tap Room. The lack of focus by the bartenders has soured me on ever going there for drinks in the near future. I hope for American Tap Rooms sake that these incidents are highly rare. I guess others will just have to go and see for themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment