Kristen H.
Yelp
I thought long and hard about my rating for The Public House. I was really torn. The atmosphere? I like it. Having been completely gutted from the cafeteria it used to be to the current iteration it's roomy, with a large bar, booths, tables, high tops, a family table, couches and even bocce and dartboards. The food? The kitchen is doing their part well, bravo to them.
I ordered Rusty's PB&J Burger (Peanut Butter, Grape Jelly, Sriracha, Candied Bacon, Pickled Jalapenos, $15). The flavor profile sounded intriguing. The two burger patties were very good. There was too much peanut butter which overwhelmed the grape jelly and sriracha but I bet if the right ratios were put on the burger this is probably pretty fantastic. We opted for the homemade chips and these were outstanding! Thin, crispy, freshly made, absolutely addicting, these are quite delicious. They come with your choice of french onion, queso, ranch or house ketchup. We unfortunately were not given a choice and I was simply given the ranch, which was fine (their ranch is good) but I had wanted to try the french onion.
My husband ordered the Chicken Parm Sammy (Fried Chicken Cutlet, Marinara, Flash Fried Basil, Roasted Garlic, Parmesan & Mozzarella $14). He also ordered a side of mac and cheese. The sandwich was very good and the mac and cheese looked delicious but was sadly bland.
The drink menu here is fun and quite inspired! They're pricey but hey, we were downtown to see a concert so we tried a couple. The Girl From "IPA" Nima (mezcal, mango rum, aperol, citrus IPA $15) was my choice and it came in a fun glass with a little umbrella. Very cute.
So why three stars and what's not working here? First, the website itself. And there's no menus posted. If you want to see the menu you have to go to Yelp to look at a picture a customer has posted. (I've posted all the food and drink menus here for you.) C'mon, Public House... really? It's 2023 and I like to look at menus before I go to restaurants.
More importantly, what else isn't working? The biggest issue of all, the service. It's pretty non-existent. We walked in around 5 pm (early, we were headed to a concert starting at 7 pm). There were a number of filled tables and some folks at the bar. We were greeted immediately and told to pick our table and order at the bar when ready. This was fine at 5 pm when it wasn't too full.
I was thirsty and looked around and noticed a water station with cups and napkins so I served myself some water while my husband ordered some cocktails. And then he had to navigate a quickly filling up bar to order food. Utensils were dropped off by someone we never saw again and eventually food was placed on our table by someone else, who we of course never saw again. I needed something from the kitchen but was unable to flag an employee and unwilling to squeeze in between all the bar patrons to catch the eye of the bartender closest to us who was busy flirting with four girls.
We still had time to kill so I stacked my own plates and tried to clear some space at our table since we still had our menus and dirty dishes. We would have ordered dessert but by now the bar was packed and you literally had to elbow your way in and wait quite a bit to order food or drinks.
A note on the menu states "All of our food comes out as it [is] hot & ready, please let us know if you want all [of it] out together". This bothered me because I hate when the kitchen won't time a tables orders to come out together. They know to the minute how long it takes to make every item on their own menu.
Public House, you're not providing table service but you're charging the same prices as if you were. I didn't come in looking to refill my own water, elbow up to the bar and order my own food, go back again when I wanted another cocktail, not have anyone ask if everything was ok and if we needed anything else and then, because we're good people, we still tipped 20% and then felt ticked off. $100 for no table service. And looking at the Yelp reviews you've not been providing table service for over a year so the (valid) complaint that it's hard to find servers rings a little hollow now. You seem to have given yourself a little boost in profits by charging the same prices but not paying for servers. Thus my three stars.