Sabrina C.
Yelp
TL;DR: PACKED when the weather is nice, expensive but great food and drinks, OK view.
Ambiance (4/5): We arrived as a party of 4 on a Saturday and immediately walked into a live-action game of Musical Chairs: Patio Edition. Not a single table was available. Instead, there were rows of empty tables with RESERVED signs on them, apparently reserved for ghosts, because no one sat at them for 2+ hours.
Meanwhile, groups of people, including us, circled the patio like vultures waiting for a table to finally open. The oyster pop-up bar had a line wrapping around the patio like people were waiting for Taylor Swift concert tickets instead of shellfish.
There are small campfire setups around the outside area. But in 69°F full sun with a gentle breeze, you'd think no one would use them. Wrong. The whole side patio and hill area turned into a smoky campsite, with diners getting smoked out and leaving.
On top of that, we had to fend off a rotating cast of unattended children. Kids wandered around like they were in an unsupervised theme park. One repeatedly tried sticking their hands in our dog's face while she was calmly chewing on a bone outside like a civilized creature. We ended up disciplining other people's children just so our dog could exist without being harassed.
Food (4/5): We ordered the Nduja Sausage and Ricotta Pizza ($26), a red sangria pitcher ($40), a red sangria glass ($12), and the s'mores cookie tray ($10 for 3 cookies).
The pizza was delicious, but the crust was so thin and flimsy it needed structural reinforcement. I used part of the previous slice to smear the ricotta around to get a balanced bite each time.
The sangria was great, but $40 for 4 1/3 full glasses of wine felt disappointing. It's sangria, not liquid gold. The cookies were good, but for $10, 3 cookies should at least come with hot cocoa.
Service (4/5): The lines were out the door. That is not the staff's fault. This place is popular, and the food is great. While I waited the 15 minute line to order, I reviewed the menu, dodged tiny children, and stepped away from random dogs on leashes inside the establishment trying to jump on me. It felt like a low-stakes obstacle course.
When I got to the counter, I placed my order quickly. The bartender whipped the screen around with such precision and stared me down during the tip prompt like I was making a morally questionable decision.
I pressed "No Tip" (listen. I stood in a line, picked up my own order, and bussed my own table) and his face shifted from "happy to help you" to "you have personally wronged me and my ancestors" in seconds. After tapping through 5+ different prompts, he told me to set a timer on my phone for 10 to 15 minutes and go to a different building to pick up my pizza.
Finding this second building required me to use my nose like a bloodhound, following the faint scent of pizza through crowds until I finally tracked it down.