Bar Sugo

Bar Sugo feels like a first try at running a restaurant - maybe a few friends from the industry striking out on their own about 3 years before they are actually ready.  It's embryonic, but it has potential.

There is certainly no problem with the food.  Our four-top sampled a little tour of the menu: a fantastic (and unique) mozzarella sampler served with cured meat bases and savory toppings, the meatball sampler which ranged from pork/veal to chicken, a fig and prosciutto pizza, a fusilli/oxtail ragu, and a mint tagliatelle with lamb ragu.  It was more than enough for the four of us to share.  With a bottle of wine and two rounds of cocktails, the bill was average for the area, with the food exceeding the median.  

Everything was tasty, the pastas were filling and cooked well, the pizza was fresh and crisp - a very good artisan variety (although the toppings were poorly spaced, with large barren areas between the oases of ricotta and prosciutto.  The wine list has many choices under $40, and they are keeping it simple with the cocktail menu, with good negronis and a nice white sangria (served in a wine glass with a straw).

Decor is simple and casual - lots of woods.  The wine bottle wall seen on the website is mostly void of bottles.  I suspect having a wall of dust collectors might have been a youthful indiscretion.  Maybe they just rotate the empties - hard to tell.  The wood, tile, and brick work together well, in any event, and the simple placemats and formal settings are very welcoming.

So far so good.  But then, the rains came...

The service is creaky.  You can see it in the watistaff's eyes.  The way they stare you down when you try to order from the tapa-style menu in a tapa-style way, a few plates at a time.  They are warning you that the kitchen might not manage that very well.  The way they wince slightly when you order cocktails on a busy evening, knowing you'll be waiting, maybe 1/2 hour, for two glasses of prosecco, a negroni and a simple gin martini.  

They are wise, those waitstaff, but they are not very friendly, and they don't make up for the flaws they know by keeping the water, the bread, the silverware flowing.  Quite the opposite.  There were no serving utensils offered for the two sampler appetizers.  The pastas were cold before any spoons appeared for those.  

In short, this is not the place you want to go during a swine flu outbreak with a date or couple you don't know very well.  Especially if the conversation is hard work, since you'll be sitting there awhile.

Bar Sugo would be an easy four stars were it not for the service issues, which I chalk up to growing pains.  I'm certainly rooting for this place!

First visit was on Mother's Day.  We enjoyed brunch. I had the french toast and two egg whites.  Delicious.  This place is trendy and hip.  Love the windows / doors that open right to the sidewalk.  2nd visit. was Father's Day.  We ordered brunch again.  Lots of mimosas!   Live music and GREAT food.  They were having a pig roast - right on the sidewalk!

Yummy food, great atmosphere.  Excellent service.

Went here as a party of 3 on a Saturday night off several high recommendations.

Several complaints:
- Drinks took forever to come and as it turned out they came AFTER we received our entrees.
-One drink was a vodka tonic and took literally 2.5 sips to finish. Hardly worth $9.
-Service was nonexistent. Waitress was super inattentive. Offering no apologies for anything.
-Ordered the Cavatelli as an entree. At $19 it was a tiny portion. Didn't even come close to fill me up.

Cool atmosphere but awful service which always ruins the experience.