I was itching to try The Parlor after reading reviews on here. I went today on my lunch break. The building is pretty sleek and the parking was limited plus it was peak lunch hour.
The inside was nicely done. Stained cement floors, a small patio, a small bar on the north side, a pizza counter in the middle, and a wine shelf in the back. The south side of the dining room has huge 10 ft glass windows with mosaic brick on the outside that let in some light from the street without grand displaying the ugly Indian School traffic. There are also a few sky lights that let in just enough light to let the day in but also keep it low key. There is also tons of wood throughout the entire restaurant that is very cool and gives off a real nice effect that makes the inside better than the other urban/modern style joints. I sat at the pizza counter that has some sweet old school barber chairs for stools. The counter is right in front of the wood fired oven and a perfect view to see other dishes and pizzas coming out of the oven and being plated.
I ordered the duck club based on recommendations I read. I asked for the jam on the side as I'm not much of a sweet guy. After about a 20 minute wait my food arrived. After seeing pictures from Joel I was disappointed. The bun was plain and not grilled as I expected. The filling of the sandwich was lacking big time. The flavors were definitely all there. The duck was cooked to perfection albeit a little on the cold side. The bacon stood out the most. It was awesome. The jam was ok nothing special and the aiolli tasted like watered down ranch. The fries were tasty. The portion of the fries was small but the flavors and texture was on point.
The service was good. The waiter checked on me a few times and gave me a couple updates that my club was almost ready and the chef was about to plate it. Unfortunately they dont take Discover (the only credit card in America that doesn't outsource their staff).
All in all it was definitely a cool looking spot with a great feel to it and nice staff. Even though I felt jipped on the portions I would give it another shot as some of those pizzas looked delicious coming out of the oven. There are quite a few places on my list so I don't know how quickly I will be back but I will give an update if its worth while.