And just like that, two years passes. Saturday marked the two year anniversary of this little adventure we call Where To Go Wednesdays. While we didn’t actually start chronicling our outings here on this blog until a few months later, July 25, 2013, was the first time we uttered the words “Hey, you know what would be fun …” And the rest is history.
Or an alcohol induced blur of fried foods and sometimes sketchy locations. Whatevs.
Anyway, enough patting ourselves on the back … on to this week’s adventure of choice, Spunkmeyer’s Pub. Which is just funny to say. Or dirty. I haven’t really decided which side of that coin my head gravitates to just yet. In any case, it was NOT as much fun to actually find, as we started out our visit by completely walking into the wrong place. Yep. To their credit, the name “Crafted Cocktail Company” was clearly marked on the door we walked in … but to our credit, said door was also conveniently housed very nearly underneath the large sign overhead that read “Spunkmeyer’s Pub,” so we can’t have been the only ones to ever make that mistake. Or maybe we can. Who knows. At least it was dark enough in there that I’m fairly positive no one even realized we had walked in, save for the sliver of light that permeated the place when we opened the door.
Blunders aside, we made it next door to our destination (mental note, it’s the door on the left), and were seated for all of about 2.2 seconds before our server came over to ask if we wanted drinks. Woah, slow down there cowboy. I mean, great service is impressive … but it would be even more so if maybe you don’t take it personal and disappear for like 2,200 seconds after we tell you it’s our first time in and we need a hot minute to decide what we want. Hi, I’m a happy medium, I guess we haven’t met yet?
Especially since the drink list was a tad difficult to navigate. If you’re looking for beers, you’ve basically got the craftiest-of-the-crafts … or Miller Lite. OK. See “happy medium” reference above. I mean, that’s fine if you’re, well, Ted – who’s the king of choosing some high potency craft beer with a crazy name (case in point, this time it was something called the “21st Amendment Hop Crisis.” Exactly.) The rest of us went the mixed drink route, with the July drink special – something called a Wideon Runner. All I remember is that it contained like five different kinds of rum. And they were heavily poured, especially for only being $5.00 each. Enough said.
Our server finally reappeared and took our drink orders (yay!) but then ran away before we could even broach the subject of an appetizer order (boooo!). I guess you gotta be quick in these parts.
The next time we saw her was when she cruised by to deliver Ted’s beer … which he proceeded to nearly finish before our mixed drinks even made it off the bar and over to our table. OK, look, I understand only having one bartender, and that mixed drinks are harder to concoct than a draft beer … but it wasn’t busy. And we’re not talking about getting all Cocktail up in here. Honestly I think it was more the fault of our server than the bartender, since we actually watched our drinks sit at the end of the bar while our she took orders from another table (we hadn’t even put in our app order yet, BTW), then put those orders in the computer – stopping to have a conversation with some girl on who was passing her on her way to the patio – and then finally picked up our drinks to bring them over. I’m half surprised the ice in them wasn’t fully melted yet.
Amanda actually joked that she should just go grab them off the bar herself while our server was talking to her friend. Bonus points if she would’ve “accidentally” elbowed the server on her way through.
Anyway.
So eventually we were able to put in our food order, just a hair shy of Shane actually eating one of the menus out of sheer hunger. For apps, I had my eye on the stuffed mushrooms, but then realized they were stuffed with shrimp, which Shane is allergic to. Oops. I’m an awful wife. So Amanda ordered them – and they ended up belonging to just her and I, since not only were they filled with something that could kill Shane, they were also covered in melted cheese.
Ted: how often is it that you girls find somehthng on the menu that neither of us guys can eat?
But that actually worked out OK, because they were delicious and we didn’t want to share anyway. They had tiny diced up jalepenos inside, which gave them a nice spice. I mean, honestly, if they hadn’t also been made with shrimp and cheese, I’m sure the guys would’ve really liked them. Oh well.
Don’t feel too bad for them, though, because they did OK with their respective app selections. Shane ordered the fried poppers, which were also delicious. He actually talked Ted into trying one (gasp!) – and Ted then actually admitted he couldn’t really even taste the cream cheese, just the fried breading and the jalepenos (double gasp!). So, win. Although maybe he was just being nice since he and Shane were also sharing an order of calamari, and he didn’t want Shane to spit on his side of the plate.
And here is where we hit our usual calamity, as we’ve discovered in our travels that when we hit the jackpot on appetizers, usually it means that our meals will not be as good. And this was no exception.
Amanda ordered the Philly with fries. Which she said must’ve been the first of our meals to be cooked, because it wasn’t really even still warm by the time it came to the table. Heat lamps are not cooking devices, people. If it has to sit there longer than five minutes, you’re best to either bring it to the table first or just start over cooking it. Or rethink your entire kitchen system.
Ted got “The Boss,” which is basically an open faced steak sandwich. Or steak on bread. Meat and carbs. He said it was a good cut of meat – very lean, reasonably tender. The server had him cut into the steak to make sure it was done properly, which was a nice touch – especially since that meant she actually had to stand at our table for a minute to make that happen before disappearing again. For shame.
The only thing he said he didn’t care for was the bread, but other than that it was good. So basically he should’ve just gotten a steak, I guess? Hmmm.
Shane got 10 boneless wings (the Wednesday special) and an order of ribs. I’m still in awe as to where he puts all this food. So was our server, it seems, since she commented as she was delivering the plates, “Do you have enough food?”
Shane: “I’m eating for two.”
Unfortunately, though, he probably should’ve left the ribs off of his order, as he said they were fatty. He ate most of them but then couldn’t finish his fries or eat more than two of his wings. Wait, what now? Shane … with a to-go box?? I think this in only like the third time in WTGW history that has happened.
I got the cheeseburger wrap and onion rings. It was OK, but my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach. I couldn’t finish the onion rings (hand battered, usually my fave but way too much to handle on this visit) and the 2nd half of the wrap I just ate the meat and cheese out of. Because unless it’s ciabatta bread, I can do without the carbs and just go for the good stuff.
Unlike showoff Ted, who was a member of the clean plate club this evening.
Sidenote: I had also intended to order the garlic fries with my sandwich – but having learned from the mistake that was Sassy’s butter-and-garlic-sauce-soaked-fries, I asked the server first. She confirmed my fear that these fries would in fact be similar, so I moved on to the steak fries … which she then warned me were dipped in batter before going into the fryer. Right, because French fries need to be made less healthy? Exactly. And that’s the long winded story of how I decided on onion rings. You’re welcome.
Also of note, for the second week in a row we were charged for our requested condiments. 0.35 for a side of mayo? Really? I mean, come on, we all know you buy those giant tubs of the stuff at Sam’s Club or some restaurants wholesale store for like $2.00 each. Is there some sort of shortage we aren’t privy to? Did the National Association of Mayo Makers go on strike?
In any case, remember the above paragraph when you look at Amanda’s “thumbs down” photo below, as that reflected in her scoring of the place.
So all in all, the food was decent, but nothing spectacular. We might think about putting it on the return list if it wasn’t a 30-minute drive for us, and also if we’d felt like we weren’t bothering our server by coming in and asking her to do her job. Actually, I think all of us customers were bothering everyone “working” there that evening. We watched as one server/bartender/maybe manager(?) did nothing but walk around and pretend to work … and if it’s that obvious to us, how must it be for the rest of the staff? Meanwhile our server seemed to have set her watch to “beach time” and assumed everyone was on the same clock, because she took her time on everything. They were staffed well, but no one seemed to work quickly or really care about doing things fast. Because that’s helpful.
We were sorry to have not checked out the patio, as we had heard good things about it – but then when we walked out and noticed it had rained while we were inside we were glad to not have gone that route after all. Us: 1, Mother Nature: 0.
CAPSULE
Picked by: Shane
Drinks: Good monthly specials, but the draft list was either uber-crafty or bottom of the barrel domestics. If you go down the mixed drink path, just know that the bartender poured well – which is good or bad depending on your level of alcoholism.
Food: The apps were delicious. The meals, not so much. Once again proving our theory that perhaps we should just choose from the first page of the menu and stop there.
Service: Um, no.
Overall: This place sounded great on the website. But what we experienced definitely lacked the same pizzazz. If it was our local neighborhood bar we might be more inclined to visit more often, but we weren’t impressed enough this time around to vote for a second journey.
Next Pick: Steph
Where To Go Wednesdays 