John and I went on a date last Saturday for Valentine's day. Our first outing, as a couple sans baby, in over 16 months. Of course we didn't get our shit together to make a dinner reservation until the Tuesday before so we couldn't get in to PF Chang's. (yes, I know, way over hyped but I love me some dandan noodles). I made an online reservation at the new BBQ place in Bridge Street called SmokeHouse. We were able to get out first time choice so it was set. Our new (and potentially permanent) babysitter, came over to meet and greet Alice and the dogs. Amazingly enough, Alice took right to her - a big relief to me.
We arrived at Bridge Street, headed to the restaurant, and were seated in the back corner against the wall. The entire place was set up in 2-tops (presumably for lovey couples) but I could quickly see that there was a huge disconnect between splitting the tables for maximum occupancy and staffing appropriately for maximun occupancy. The physical area of our table had 16 2-top tables and only one server - who was literally running.
We sat for about 5 minutes before we were greeted. I ordered a Cosmopolitan and John ordered a Jack on the rocks. The drinks came and the server disappeared. My drink was gross. It tasted like it was made with those sugary syrups that you buy at the grocery store and "just add alcohol" and it tasted virgin instead of the Grey Goose that I ordered.
Um...just looked back at this post and realized that it is long already and we have only ordered drinks....so, here is the short, short version....
Sent drink back, ordered wine. Ordered dinner - John ordered combo plate of spare ribs and chicken, I ordered Sweet Garlic And Green Chili Grilled Red Snapper (perhaps a stupid thing to do at a bbq place but it sounded good). Dinner arrived and John had ribs and brisket not chicken and my fish tasted like it had sat in the window for about 30 minutes....it was icy cold. The waiter took my fish back and eventually a manager came over to tell us that the kitchen was out of John's chicken. Fast forward 25 minutes, another order of my fish arrives and while it is piping hot, it is also the hardest piece of anything that I have ever attempted to chew, so back it goes. The manager came out again and offered to get me something else. After some convincing, I ordered the baby back ribs. 10 minutes later, the manager was back to tell us that the kitchen was out of baby back ribs. Are you kidding me?
Now at this point, John and I are past annoyed and starting to laugh at the ridiculousness of this dining experience. We were not looking for the restaurant to buy our meal at all but a nice place such as this, needs to live up to some expectations, right? In the end, we ended up paying about $20 (John's drink, my wine, and a side salad) and recieved a coupon for a free appetizer and a $25 gift certificate. We think that we need to use the gift certificate as soon as possible because we don't see this place open for too long. Too bad....John's ribs were really good.
To cap off the evening, we walked over to Connor's for dessert and another drink(s). They have the most amazing strawberry shortcake and made me a cosmo that was insane! mmmmm....Grey Goose L'Orange Cosmo with a lime. DAMN!
So our re-entry into the dating world was a little rocky but I think there might be a little hope as long as we don't go back to SmokeHouse. :)
What did you do for Valentine's day? post a comment!
1 comment:
You left out the whole part where I called you drunk off my ass and told you to meet us at The Station and then we got busy making out on the back steps and ditched to go back to the Westin. Lot of fun we are, huh???
Adam said we can never go out to dinner on Valentine's Day again b/c it is too cheesy.....so next year we are going to just spring for the room and order in ;)
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