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| - I didn't expect much from this place. It was my 14 year old daughter's birthday and she wanted to go here so we did.
This place was definitely built with teenagers and teenager-wannabe girls in mind and I am none of the above so I was mostly annoyed by the bad top 40 music and the cheap-chic decor. My daughter, of course, was mesmerized.
What they did here at the old SF is pretty apparent, they melded several different concepts together to form one big, awful monstrosity that is less than the sum of the stolen parts. Part "brasserie" to poach customers from Mon Ami Gabi next door, they serve French onion soup and mussels and croque monsieur, part Serendipity 3, they serve big, gut-busting ice cream concoctions and frozen hot chocolate, and part Hard Rock Cafe due to their large retail element selling $35 dollar sparkly t-shirts to unwitting parents and douchbaguette rubes.
Whatever. It is what it is. My problem was with the service. The server was rarely seen since I had a couple of kids in tow. You see, their game is to sell these tooth-achingly sweet cocktails that start @ 18 bucks. Our server didn't think we'd be ordering any of the fancy cocktails, but she thought wrong. When she finally made her way to our table to take our drink order and heard me order a Blow Pop she perked up real quick. Constant upselling and pushing of more cocktails ensued. When the time came when most people would be ordering a bathtub full of ice cream treats for dessert and we passed due to our profoundly bad experience up to that point, she rolled her eyes and disappeared again. Just turned and left. Wow.
I was noticing the same sort of behavior at the tables around us. The loud, obnoxious drinkers were getting all of the service and the families splitting $22 club sandwiches and not finishing their awful candied cocktails were ignored. I mean, we spent over 300 bucks for 5 people and the place was barely half full. It's not like we were drinking ice waters and taking up space.
SF is not good or cheap or charming. Even my daughter was disappointed. They wouldn't even make her a non-alcohol frou-frou cocktail. What fun is that?
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