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| - I'd've given the Vinyl Pi a 3.5 altogether if I could. I wish we could do half stars. Located in a strip mall-ish style building next to a gas station, I drive past here all the time. I finally stopped in because someone on Facebook recently mentioned how much they liked it and I like to check things out for myself.
We arrived at 7 PM on a Saturday night to ample open seats and we were greeted promptly by a hostess who offered us dining room seating or a high top in the bar. We opted for the high top which would keep us near the band when they were scheduled to arrive at 8:30pm. (Worth it, we liked them... "Open Soul Project").
Our service this evening was immediate, pleasant and consistent. Our server was Audrey and she was great at making sure drinks were refilled quickly, empty dishes removed promptly and that food came out looking correct. She's definitely on top of her game.
Since it was our first visit we asked for recommendations on what is popular at the Vinyl Pi. She assured us everything on the menu was excellent and said that a couple times. That's always a warning sign to me (and it turned out the other couple as well) because when servers claim everything is excellent it never, ever is. Never. It's totally ok to tell me that item A isn't the best but item B is always a hit. Even everything I make in my own kitchen isn't always the best, it's just not possible to have everything be fabulous.
We started off with the pizza rolls (handrolled pizza dough with mozzarella and pepperoni and marinara dipping sauce $9.) The handrolled distracted me because I was thinking homemade or housemade. Our table thought the pizza dough tasted pre-made frozen and voted it good/fine. I did like the marinara dipping sauce very much though.
We also got the Bruschetta which was supposed to be four toasted crostinis topped with diced tomatoes and onions, parmesan, basil and balsamic glaze $8. Look at my picture. It was an absolutely beautiful presentation! The tomatoes and onions were finely diced making it easy to take small bites. However, there was something going on with the crostini. I couldn't decide if it had been taken out of the freezer and thawed or if it had been toasted earlier in the day and put in the refrigerator. The crostinis themselves were stone cold and felt and tasted like bread that had never met an oven or grill. It was an odd sensation because bruschetta crostini are always toasted and never "out of the fridge" cold. But they looked SO BEAUTIFUL! Great plating on the dish, at least.
I got the Pendergrass sandwich (shaved rib eye, diced onions, red peppers and provolone on a toasted hoagie roll $13). This was almost an A+ sandwich. I liked the meat, I liked the tiny dice on the onions and peppers and I was really, really happy with the hoagie roll. The only problem was that it was so oversalted that my mouth felt puckered (and I have a strong salt tooth). So too salty for me means way to salty. Paired with parmesan tater tots the server had steered me to over the fries, I wasn't digging the tater tots but it may have been the double salt overload between sandwich and side. Great sandwich with great potential and great bread. Just a mere dusting of salt, please.
One person got a double order of wings (medium and whisky maple bacon) so 20 wings for $19. Comes with plenty of carrots and celery and a nice ranch dressi, which she particularly liked about them.
Two people got the Corleone Kitchen Sink Pasta ($13) which was penne (that was actually slightly overcooked rigatoni) and tossed in their homemade Kitchen Sink Sauce (hot italian sausage, meatballs, ground pork, marinara, topped with pecorino cheese). The pasta portions here are very small, which I'd already known because I read reviews before coming but neither of the men finished their dish! They didn't like the meat or the sauce, which makes no sense to me. I'm a little confounded.
So overall, here's my take. We had immediate seating, an immediate hostess greeting, a very attentive and pleasant server, a very good band. Food came out promptly and correctly. If my sandwich wasn't oversalted I would have said I LOVED that sandwich, and that's high praise from me (the hoagie roll was the perfect one for the sandwich, too). The bruschetta was so beautifully plated that I know someone in the kitchen is very good at what they do. (The pizza rolls were well plated, too, btw.) That bruschetta with freshly grilled crostini would have been an A+ and that's really easy to adjust, just by making the crostini to order. We did not try the pizza but the one at the table next to us looked delicious. My wine was buttery and smooth and I've gotten used to bad quality wines at so many bar places that I was really happy to get such a nice wine here (though the pour seems small). The beer menu was interesting. I'd like to give Vinyl Pi another shot down the road and see what my take is then. Stay tuned.
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