Well, it's been kind of a gloomy week; rain, clouds, cooler fall weather...you get the picture. I really do enjoy hooded sweatshirt weather, but it makes it so difficult to get out of bed in the mornings to get ready for work. I would imagine most of you can relate to that feeling. Luckily coffee brews quickly and the waking up process doesn't feel so awful anymore.
On a slightly gloomy note, my birthday dinner which was moved to The Butcher Block in NE Minneapolis instead of the Red Stag, was sub par. Bummer. I will say that the food was good! We ordered the rigatoni alla norcina and the chicken parmesana to split. Both items were really tasty, but I preferred the rigatoni; the sausage was tender with great flavor and the truffle cream sauce was deliciously silky. The chicken was juicy and lightly breaded which made me feel like I wasn't inhaling a deep-fried piece of chicken. It was served on mashed potatoes which were also good, but nothing to write home about. If I was forced to go back, I'd get the rigatoni again. The food was good, but that was it. The service was awful; sorry Katie (our server) but your lack of service was the only thing we really remembered about our dining experience. She greeted us 10 mins after we had been seated, brought our bottle of wine with two different wine glasses and then told us that she "forgot her wine key and would be right back." She set the bottle and our mismatched glassware on the table and then stopped by two other tables to take orders and delivered food to a third table before returning to open our bottle of wine. She spilled wine on my napkin...woops (it can happen) and did not check on us the entire time we were eating. We waited another 10 minutes for her to take our empty plates away from the table...and that was just the service.
Have you ever been to a restaurant that you felt shouldn't really be in the space it's at (like the tables are all too close together and there really isn't a good flow?). That was how I felt about The Butcher Block. Our table was near a corner along the wall that has the open kitchen. It was also right next to the door to the bathroom, which was not marked and customers were confused about where it was located. The entrance to the place was also a bit confusing, it was like walking into a mall entrance and thinking you're in the wrong place or that a book store should be at the end of the hall not a restaurant.
I say Give it a shot for yourself and let me know what you think! I wish I would have tried the Red Stag instead...next time.
I hope I don't sound too harsh for the above review, however I was a server for over four years at a decently nice restaurant that had legitimately good food (that I still go back for) and I know the lack of service would have been noted from management and I would have been in trouble for that performance. So all in all, I may be a tougher critic, but I think I also am more lenient in the same respect.
On another good note: Our kickball team won it's forth game in a row last night; unfortunately, I was not there to help kick butt! I was at home meeting with one of our contractors to discuss his quote/bid for a kitchen remodel! Super exciting, but we'll see how our 2nd contractor meeting goes on Friday for another quote/bid.
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