| rev:text
| - It wasn't the best of times. It wasn't the worst of times. It was just another overpriced meal.
After moving some furniture to my new house with a friend who lives on the North Side, we needed to get some food more in his vicinity than anywhere else, and after weighing some options, decided on the one that might have more available parking, which ended us up at James Street.
For a place that presents itself as a 'jazz' and 'speakeasy' setting, they kind of presented some of the 'look', but it really didn't have the 'feel'. It 'felt' kind of like a TGI Fridays without the 'flair'. Even the background music was so background that only intermittent bass line rhythms came through. The 'air' was mostly filled with dining room conversation white noise. The PLUS was that we weren't bombarded with the usual sports coverage found in 99.9% of the OTHER bar/restaurants around.
The host, who kind of turned into our assistant waiter/busboy, was very nice, and kept up with our table a little more than the waiter did, although the waiter wasn't dismissive or rude. He was just kind of innocuous. He was there, took our order, refilled our drinks, and brought the check, but he wasn't really 'there' in any kind of interactive way.
The menus themselves were kind of cool, having taken old record sleeves of jazz albums and slit them open and the printed menus were inserted within. The albums themselves were more notable than the menu.
After perusing the options, there wasn't much in my price range for a meal aside from a plate of wings or a burger, so I opted for the burger. 8 oz hand formed angus patty, swiss and mushrooms, lettuce, tomato on a bun. I figured well, the burgers at Winghart's are half pound, so give it a try. But somehow this half pound was smaller than the half pound at Winghart's, not as flavorful, and was more expensive, served up with potato chips. Fries were another two bucks.
They served Pepsi products, so I opted for the brewed iced tea. My friend had an order of pipe bombs, which looked like egg rolls filled with meat and peppers, and two beers. The two beers made up half of the bill.
I saw the ad board for the upcoming 'jazz' nights, and they were all locals, nothing that would draw me in. Exactly why, since the demise of the Balcony, no one brings any of the smaller level jazz artists to town, is a puzzlement. But then again, since the demise of DUQ, no one really KNOWS of any of the smaller level jazz acts anymore, and that certainly didn't take long to happen.
So after all of it, there really wasn't anything about the evening that would draw me back. If I were a higher paid local, or one of the Docs at the hospital, maybe it would be my yuppie fast food joint, but I honestly can't say that I experienced or saw anything that would make me say 'Hey, let's go back THERE!'
It wasn't 'bad', but it wasn't anything remarkable either. It truly was just another overpriced meal in da burgh. (and seriously Yelp? When did $11 to $30 become 'moderate'?)
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