Holli K.
Yelp
We have only been to Wooden City Tavern once, during their Tinsel Town pop-up, but I feel like I can tell that this is my kind of place!
I used to work at a gastro-pub with a vibe similar to this years ago in Dallas. What is special about the environment is that the atmosphere is lively, but the restaurant designers did their diligence. The acoustics of the space work in a way that the music is loud enough to hear clearly; however, it is not too loud that you are struggling to hear the person next to you or even the server or someone speaking to you from a reasonable distance. During the Tinsel Town pop-up, the playlist seemed to be carefully curated to blend Christmas classics with upbeat, unoffensive, subtle indie tunes that would likely fly under the radar for most, unless you're a fan, in which case you'll really dig (which we did!).
My husband and I were excited to try it out a few weeks before Christmas but were a bit worried since they do not take reservations for parties less than 8 or 10 (I think). We rolled with the punches and put our name on the list with the host who was super kind and quoted that it would be about 30 minutes. She suggested we grab a drink at the bar and showed us where to go. We managed to find two open barstools and thought it was quite comfy, so we took our name off the list and stayed there.
The craft cocktails are en pointe. You can tell they take their craft seriously. Even during the Tinsel Town pop-up, while there was probably an influx of customers, where a restaurant might want to take shortcuts, the bartenders delivered holiday spins on classic tiki drinks with pride.
Each bartender that we had an exchange with was very friendly, although we did find food service to be quite slow--but that's to be expected on a busy Saturday night. We ordered the Bigfoot Long (hotdog), the Burrata, and the French Onion Soup--all to share. We waited and waited for the much-anticipated Bigfoot Long hotdog to come out... I'll admit, I have been following Bigfoot Longs on Instagram for a while and was super stoked to see that I would finally have an opportunity to try one of their elusive, fancy shmancy dogs at Wooden City Tavern. We checked on it, and the bartender said that she had coursed it to come out last, and it was still on its way. After another 30 minutes, we checked on it, and she said that the kitchen had actually 86'd the hot dog and never told her, so it would not be coming. She was super apologetic, and they took care of some of the other items on our check. We were having such a good time, and we appreciated the way that the restaurant handled the mistake--they were genuine in their apology, and the items that were comped more than made up for our inconvenience.
I will definitely look forward to going back post-holiday season to see how the menu is updated! I can tell the crew at this restaurant is passionate about the food and drinks that they serve, so I expect there's lots of delicious things in store as the seasons change.