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| - All the cool kids like this place. And I want to like it. I have tried twice (in two different locations) to like it and meh - not again. Today's lunch was a huge fail in practically every aspect.
The new spot is lovely, well decorated and should make for a pleasant dining experience. I was instantly greeted and seated upon entering. There was one other gentleman there banging away on his laptop and a few minutes later a table of 4 was sat. That's it. At 11:30 on a Friday, we were it.
Not a fan of the pizza at their Ballantyne location (personal preference), I thought I would try a sandwich. I ordered the grilled chicken with mozzarella and peppers sandwich lunch special for $8 with fries. I waited. And waited. And waited... my waitress came by about 20 minutes into my wait to let me know the kitchen was working on a huge delivery order, and while I appreciated the update, the reason as to why it was taking an eternity for a freakin' sandwich is inconsequential. Shortly thereafter she brought the sandwich, no fries, and told me the fries had been dropped and would be out in a few minutes. Um... okay. The wait for my food had allowed me to listen to the DMB, Hootie, (that douchey guy that keeps getting much hotter girls that plays guitar) music and the guys in the kitchen going back and forth about one of their f'in girlfriends and her habits that are annoying to him. As with the Ballantyne location, the voices from the kitchen and the language is disruptive. With a fairly open floor plan, high ceilings and solid-surface floors, it reverberates.
I'll get off of my rocking chair yelling at kids to get off my lawn and back to the food... the sandwich should be called a pepper sandwich with cheese and chicken bits. The grilled chicken, charred as I imagine only the temperature from the flames of hell would produce that shade of black on a chicken, was about 1/2 of a very thin chicken breast (think the Perdue thin cuts from the grocery store, but not an entire breast, just 1/2). The black edges and end pieces would break off as I bit into the sandwich, but since we were 30 minutes in, I trudged on after dissecting the sandwich to see if I was just getting bad bites, or if the sandwich really was that bad. Loaded with peppers, the peppers were cooked well and well flavored. The mozzarella, while not much of it, was fine. The bread was fine. All I could taste were carcinogens and peppers.
I was about 1/2 way done with my sandwich when the fries came. They were smoking hot and good. The kind that are soft on the inside and super crunchy on the outside. I was then brought a small cup of ketchup, that was enough for about 1/2 of the fries.
Service was fine, kitchen staff was loud, food was yuck (1/5 for sandwich, 3.5/5 fries -the highlight of dining should not be french fries), the wait for the food was not justified by the quality of it, the portion of the meal was very reasonable for the price.
At 0-fer-2, Libretto's gets my Pawpaw's smackdown - "I ain't goin' back".
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