| rev:text
| - This review took me a week to think about what to write. The jury may still be out, so we will go with a "middle of the road" 3.
Our hosts had been dying to try, as this was the newer trendy joint in town, and had gotten a good bump from the locals.
Let me give it a try to word this experience up. The seating was interesting, Mess Hall meets kindergarten library. Meaning: you have to sit on wood blocks and share basically half a picnic table with others. Sitting close to other patrons is nothing new, seeing as I come from the city of the dreaded row of tables for two, where you are closer to the patron next to you than you are to your date. But at the same time you are not physically sharing table space with them.
The entire menu was on the wall, chalk board style. This I liked. It's in view of everyone all night, and you can continually refer to it after you get your dish. The other cool thing about it is the menu can forever evolve with just the erase of chalk.
The dishes were all unique, and came as a dish, not a main + sides. For example mine was the lamb shank over polenta and swiss chard. Yes that sounds like a main + sides, but they were all swimming together in a pool of intense flavor. Everything flowed together nicely as if it were meant to touch. The lamb shank meat had the classic "fall off the bone" tenderness. So this was a plus.
The drinks... I enjoy a nice G&T from time to time, so I wanted to keep it light (especially since we had just come from Penn Brewery), but my G&T can have either Bombay (dry or sapphire) or Beefeater. Any other Gin does not mix well with me at all. The waiter said they only had a local (local as in Philly) gin. Ok, I'm up for new things, always, especially when it benefits the locals. AWFUL. I would've rather had well gin at this point. How do you only offer 1 type of gin? You live and you learn. I learned never trust anything from Philly in one sip! (little secret, I already knew that anyway)
The staff. It was as if a requirement of working here, one needed to display an exorbitant amount of tattoos. Why? I have no problem with tats, but every single staff member, including the kitchen (which is on display) all looked exactly the same, like some sort of hipster cult. Also the way they described the meals to you is oddly robotic. That's it! This place is the design of some sort of robot hipster cult!
If I was unsure on whether or not the hipster trend had made it to Pittsburgh, I certainly know now!
Wrap up;
So what to do? I like the food, hated the drink, was uncomfortable with the seating, and the staff creeped me... Do I come back.... maybe. The jury is still out.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)