This place has really taken a dive. I went out on a date last week and suggested Custom Shop. The last time I ate here was over a year ago and remembered the food was pretty good. Unfortunately that was not the case this time. I felt compelled to write a review after our experience. We ordered the cheese and charcuterie to start. The waitress brought out the wrong order but that is completely forgivable as she corrected it quickly. She said the cheese won a gold star for some cheese award so of course we had to have it. The cheese was well cheese. I am not a connoisseur of cheese but it was pretty good. Honestly I could have made this plate at home. Ok so then we ordered the BBQ Octopus small plate, again another Charlotte Observer favorite suggested by the waitress. The plate was just well weird. The ony octoupus tentacle lacked flavor other than a very burnt grill taste. Not their best dish by far. After that we had the beef carpaccio. My date had never tried it before and it is too bad he tried it here. The beef is supposed to be sliced thinly with olive oil and pepper and salt. This meat was thicker and was covered in horseradish. You could not taste the flavor of the meat at all. We had to scrape the horseradish off the and the fennel they sliced. The other thing is their complimentary bread. It was very dry and again nothing to write home about. Needless to say, I will not be going back. I think if you stick with the large plates you will be ok but their small plates lack flavor and are just weird.