Crowd A.
Yelp
Big fans of Archive for their wonderful servers and most especially Rachel. She always greets us with a warm smile and makes us feel welcome and appreciated. I can't tell you how far that goes in making you want to return to this establishment. A couple of things at Archive that are especially great are the crème brûlée and the rice bowl--no matter what item you add to it. We've had it with both steak and tofu. Both are great. Right now they have a flank steak that is excellent and if you're vegetarian there are also plenty of options. Their breakfasts are very good, especially the breakfast burrito which has crunchy bacon, egg and other deliciousness in it and also the avocado toast. One of the most fun things is the revolver from the cocktail menu, which means the bartender will make a specialty drink for you based on which base liquor you choose. The server will always come back and make sure you like it. It's just a quirky fun interestingly-decorated great atmosphere for breakfast, lunch, dinner or late night. I would say there's only one negative and that is on Friday nights there is an absolutely atrocious street "musician" who sets herself up on the street corner opposite Ritters and Archive EVERY Friday night. She plays electric guitar with an amp and is so bad it will make your ears bleed. You can't sit outside at either of these establishments on a Friday night without wishing you were wearing earplugs. Every Friday night since springtime she is out there ruining these businesses' customer enjoyment of outside dining at their establishments. It's incredibly arrogant to inflict this on the entire neighborhood and she appears to be completely un-selfaware of how bad she is. Patrons have actually complained and moved inside or just paid their check and left because of her. She plays the same several chords over and over again, occasionally there's some flat attempt at singing, a depressing Janis Joplin wanna be, you think maybe you are listening to some young person practicing only she's practicing in the middle of a busy restaurant neighborhood, the same songs over and over again and is there every. Friday. night. I work downtown and after a week of work I would just love to go to Archive with friends and sit outside at their great outdoor sidewalk tables, but this awful street musician absolutely ruins it. Other than THAT, Archive is great for outdoor dining the rest of the week, or if you sit inside on a Friday night also great. I wish somebody from the restaurant would go over and suggest she try a different spot, maybe one not surrounded by restaurants and bars with outdoor seating and who are all playing their own music which is drowned out by her noise. We want to go sit outside at Archive every single Friday night otherwise, until it is too cold to do so, because it is one of our favorite places in downtown. Great food. Menu changes regularly. Great service. Great atmosphere. If you're sitting inside on a Friday night that is. Great bartenders too!