| rev:text
| - Visited August 22nd
We were considerably excited to visit the Cellar at Duckworth's -- probably the most anticipated opening of the past year for us. Perhaps it was because we were pining for it for so long, but the experience did not live up to expectations.
We arrived soon after they opened and asked to be seated at the bar, which is common for us. The air was not yet circulating, and a distinctive whiff of 'bathroom' was evident. Not many smiles as we arrived either.
We usually enjoy sitting at the bar, conversing with the bartender and receiving attentive service. In this case, the bartender was overly bragadocious, consistently talking up the chef, the beer selection and the restaurant in general. In fact, it was his own boasting about the Yelp score and the backstory of the one bad review that caused me to write this review. As a tip, don't denigrate the people who leave bad reviews - it comes off as defensive. For whatever reason, he insisted on shaking his cocktail creations right in front of us each time, even though there were areas where he could have stood that wouldn't have been in front of anyone. Plus, the bar back was loudly chopping ice at the end of the bar for a long time. For us, the service was just too much and cloying... made for an uncomfortable experience.
One of the biggest reasons we were excited to go the Cellar was the beer. We heard it was to be an elevated beer experience, with access to rare beers and a higher quality selection. We found the evening's draft list to be fairly "meh." While it was true that the selections were lesser known and less often seen in Charlotte, that doesn't mean it was necessarily a great list. Add to that the fact that their beer cooler is not yet available and they had no bottles on-hand. The biggest reason we visited was for the beer and it was not what we expected.
How about the food? The best dish by far was the tuna tartar, which was truly awesome. Almost worth coming back for by itself, served with guacamole and a generous portion for the price. However, the other two small plates we got were below average. The cheese plate was laughably small for the price, with very modest portions of cheese and the typical accoutrements. The smoked salmon flatbread was wafer-thin and somewhat tasteless ('the chef smokes it in-house' the bartender bragged). After such a strong start with the tuna, we found the rest to be fairly pedestrian. We decided to forgo additional small plates and asked for the check.
Will we be back? Probably, but not until they get their act together. And we won't be sitting at the bar. Oh, and like another who left a review, my wife's bag was stained by whatever was near the floor at the bar. She had to throw it away - the stain is still wet?
Atmosphere - 2.5 out of 5
Beer- 2,5 out of 5
Food - 2 out of 5
Overall - 2 out of 5
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