| rev:text
| - This is going to be one of those Good, Bad, and Ugly reviews. Hopefully these folks read their Yelp reviews. My husband and I visited them with my cousin and her boyfriend. It was one of those 'get dressed up and go out' kind of evenings.
First, the good: I really, reeeeeealllly want to like this place and see it succeed - without selling out. The splendid beauty of the space itself is stunning. It is every bit as upscale as anyplace of the same calibre that I have been to in New York, San Francisco, or Chicago. The food was great, with one exception, I'll get to that later. The wine list is impressive and priced appropriately without being excessive. The sommelier/or manager was attentive and charming.
The bad: our waitress was awkward and not very literate of the menu which, unfortunately permeated our experience. The exception to the lovely food was my fois gras appetizer. It read that it's served with funnel cake and season's jam. The perfectly cooked fois gras was complemented wonderfully by the mascerated berry jam. Unfortunately, this delight was served on a giant funnel cake almost twice the size of my fist. Now, I don't normally eat things that are fried in a vat. I thought I'd be getting a much, muuuuuuuch smaller confection that would be an interesting twist, not going against my own dietary grain. To me, the abundance of fried pastry was gross and vulgar. I actually and quietly told the aforementioned sommelier/manager that it was an abomination to treat such a lovely goose liver, it was removed from our check.
The ugly: the television screens above the bar. The last thing this place needs is a fucking tv! It cheapens the experience - which, for four of us with a bottle of champagne before dinner and wine with - was anything but cheap. The tv downgrades the atmosphere and tone they appear to desire to create. I know, I've heard it all before. Cleveland is a sports town, blah blah blah. Cleveland is a working class town, blah blah blah. I have news for Cleveburg...not everyone buys into your over hyped gladitorial traditions, and once you breach the threshold of $2000 rent you can kiss your blue collar pride good bye.
The other ugly thing was the 'music's. The evening we were there, they had a couple of 'roaming minstrels' who, most unfortunately were playing along to a recorded track. In other circumstances that could work, but not in the cavernous environment of a glorious Beaux Arts bank building. I'm not going to elaborate much. Needless to say the combination provided for a disjointed sound that was horribly loud at table side. There is a beautiful central staircase in the rear of the room, setting a perfect stage for musicians to perform, and stay put.
All said, we will be returning in a few months to see how things settle in after they've been open for a little while.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)