Caroline N.
Yelp
I want to give Foundry five stars because the food is consistently delicious and the space is inviting and lively.
The service is also consistent - if you enjoy being treated like an annoyance and waiting far longer than necessary to get orders in and your check taken care of.
Look, this place could be fantastic and clearly has some issues with staffing where there are sometimes not nearly enough servers working the bar and floor. But even on the best days, the servers - as a whole, it's not isolated to one or two, it's all of them - pull the most obvious tactics for ignoring tables by appearing busier than they are. I was a server, I know the game. They will do everything to avoid eye contact, with the quick head sweeps to look like they're checking on things as they move through too quickly to prevent you from catching their attention unless you are prepared to wave them down.
They also have a habit of checking on only one table at a time and then heading back to the bar to chat and "pick up drinks" aka hang out til one set of drinks are made, then huffing and looking around when they do deign to check on you to give the appearance of being rushed and busy every time they choose to stop by your table - it's pretty clear they just don't give a crap about moving things along.
I don't need them to treat me like their best friend, but damn sometimes I just want another drink after finishing my first. Let me spend more money! I have only once, after multiple visits to this spot, had a server who checked in on my table regularly and got us our drinks, food, and check within a reasonable amount of time without making me feel like I was a massive inconvenience.
The staff needs some training. This can be a real sh*t job and I'm not asking for royal treatment by any means (I don't think anyone should kiss a** just for a tip), but I don't want to wait 15 minutes to get in an order, wait 15 minutes after finishing a drink to ask for another, and wait then another 15 minutes to get the check once I'm done with my food. I don't want to have to flag someone down every single time just for the basics of service to be fulfilled.
Furthermore I have never once, after a year plus of coming here, encountered a manager or owner. No manager has ever introduced themselves or checked in, I never see anyone managing the floor to ensure things are moving along. Despite being relative regulars by this point, no one recognizes us, no one bothers to.
Much as I want to love this place, it's increasingly difficult to justify going. When every night there feels like an off night, it gets pretty tiring.
TLDR: could be great, it's worth a visit for the food, don't expect much from the service.