Background: Saturday night dinner, first time guest, party of two, made reservations.
The Good: Seated on time; cool old-school vibe to the place; decent wine list; wedge salad was outstanding; side dishes were great (HUGE loaded baked potato); crab cake was one of the best I've ever had; service was strong but not overwhelming or too stuffy; prices were very reasonable for steak houses in CLT.
The Bad: We were seated right smack in the middle of two other parties at a 4-top table when there were plently of other open booths or other tables scattered around in more intimate parts of the restaurant. It's just awkward when you can hear every word each other guest is saying when you know it doesn't have to be like this. It's my understanding they chose to sat us in our location to balance out the workload of the servers - I get it, but it's still frustrating. The steak was just OK. When you pride yourselves on your steak, it better be good, but there was nothing special. 6 oz filet was cooked like I ordered, but it wasn't an especially tasty cut of meat. Disappointing. Maybe I just set the bar too high - I was expecting Del Friscos or Ruth Chris or Mortons and I received Outback.