Ginger M.
Yelp
Oh dear. Let me just start by saying I fully realize this is "week one" and naturally there will be kinks to work through. The owners of this adventure also operate Carolina Ale House and by the end of our meal, I kind of wished we were there instead..
The highlights: the space is great on Fayetteville, easy"ish" parking but no valet. The decor was stunning, it has that modern retro with deep green and gold fixtures, the lights were perfect. Sets you up for a classy diner in the dining room. They have another area called the blue ridge room, I didn't get a good peak back there but maybe it was more secluded? I'm not sure of the allure, you have to request it when booking. The bathrooms were sparkling and have full doors which women appreciate! There is an open yard space behind the bar and the window opens to let you sit there and order. Green space and porch swings, looks like a fun area, would be extra cool with some fire pits. Friendly hosts and we were whisked to our table swiftly even though we were a few mins late. We were in main dining room, in one of those two by two with long back seat (why can't we eliminate these, I hate them).
Now the kinks.. our waitress was not on her game. It was a good 10 minutes before she took our drink order, I had the dirty martini (this is important) she asked if I wanted it shaken or stirred and confirmed the vodka and my husband had a draft. About 10 minutes later she sets down my luke warm martini and the beer.. no olives in the drink (they come with blue cheese olives per menu). "Where are the olives", "oh, we are out" "Can I have any olives?" 'I'll check". - she comes back "we only have spicy olives, no regular olives..." "ok let's try that". These olives were seriously spicy, she brought them separately, I took a nibble and decided not to eat them but my martini was also spicy. So next round I order G&T and send the martini back (no comp btw).
We ordered appetizers that took a good 20 or so minutes, honey cauliflower and deviled eggs. The eggs were pretty good but I realized she never told us what kind (they rotate) and we didn't ask, so they were good but we will never know what they were lol. The cauliflower was way underdone, almost raw but the coating sauce was good. For our main I had shrimp and grits and hubby had salmon. Another 30 min later (or more at this point), dinner arrives - it's ice cold. My grits were clearly out for a while, the shrimp was ok but not well seasoned. Salmon was ok, lightly burned, but the rice it was on was very cold. At this point, we decide no dessert but that's ok because as we took our third bite the waitress shows up and asks if we want dessert, we say no, she walks away and comes back after we have three more bites and asks if we are ready to pay...... at this point we are so exhausted we actually pay so we can go and she asks if we will be back......Time frame for reference, 7pm sat, depart just before 9.
All in all, we won't likely be back but maybe for drinks on the green. It's hard to say if this was waitress, kitchen or bar, manager or all the above. Hope they work things out, it really is a great space! I think if the manager and or waitress had at least acknowledged the issues I would feel more confident about the future here. The tables around us were in the same boat, so it did feel like we were all in it together :)