The Brasserie Restaurant & Bar

Stopped by this weekend because we were looking for an outdoor venue for food and drinks, close to home. On a Saturday night, around 9pm, their deck was already closed. Not only disappointing, but surprising because it was a beautiful night! Yet we persevered and went inside for a round of drinks and appetizers. Food and drinks were, again, nothing to write home about.

We've been the Brasserie many times before and had decent food, so we stopped on our way home from a family trip last Saturday. The food is still decent, albeit with some odd twists, but the service and the atmosphere need professional help. When we walked in, there was no one at the hostess station for several minutes. A guy walked by after a few minutes and said someone would be right with us. When she finally arrived, our teenage hostess asked if we would like Fine Dining or Bistro (ie in the bar area). When asked what the difference was, she replied "we have a new fine dining menu. There's 2 different menus and you can only order from one." Oh. That's right, I'd forgotten this was the place that apparently has an invisible barrier that prevents some food from crossing specific door frames. Try ordering the famous tomato bisque outside sometime. So bizarre. Anyway, we decided on Fine Dining since the high top bar tables weren't going to cut it with our three year old and I'm a fine dining kind of girl and it was my birthday, so why not? I thought perhaps we'd see some upgrades in the decor to go with the "new fine dining" menu, but as the hostess led us back to the very small table in the farthest back corner next to the emergency exit, I sadly realized no, those are the same chairs and lamps and tablecloths that have been here since the 80's. My husband's first comment after we were seated was " wow, Gordon Ramsey would have a field day with this place. Our very young but very nice server appeared 5 minutes later to take our drink order, which took 15 minutes to fill. A draft beer, an iced tea, and milk. Difficult stuff, I know. She then timidly asked if we were ready to order. I noticed an entry for Risotto di Jiourno on the bottom of the menu and asked what the risotto of the day was. Her response: " it's a small white flat rice shaped pasta." Seriously. Clearly the serving staff was about as fine dining as the decor. After I resisted the urge to educate the poor girl about arborio rice and politely said, thank you, I know what risotto is, and pointed out the menu item, her next response was " oh, I don't know. We just got this menu a few days ago so I don't really know it." Really. Shocking.  " But I could go back to the kitchen and check?" Hmm. Considering the previous long time to fill the drink order, it was already after 8pm, and my husband was about to start gnawing on his own arm, I refrained and ordered the "classical bouillabaisse."'He ordered the steak oscar, with the lobster sauce on the side. We ordered the grilled cheese and fries for the kiddo. Individual bread plates arrived first, classy rectangular app plates with potential, until you realize it's a dinner roll with a scoop of green and red tapenade likely made from cocktail olives on the side. Not so much. Next up are the salads, a nice little mesclun mix with finely grated carrot, which could have been picked through a bit more but sure, I'll pick out the brown lettuce pieces myself, no problem. My real problem with the salad was the really strange pile of cubed and shredded pepper jack cheese on the corner of my plate. What is that and why is it on my salad? Pepper jack is not fine dining, my friends. I'm still baffled by that. Husbands response: " Gordon won't be happy about that mess." Apparently they're friends now. I waited with trepidation for our entrees to arrive. First up, grilled cheese. It looked amazing, albeit so huge that a half sandwich was bigger than my child's head. We cut it into smaller pieces and she was in fried food heaven. Next was the steak, which also smelled fantastic, and the bouillabaisse. The plates were huge and we had to rearrange everything to fit on the small table. The steak was plated on top of green beans. Hmm, no asparagus? Interesting substitution with no comments from the wait staff. The bouillabaisse was delicious. The mussels were bountiful and tasty in the broth, although pretty sure it was missing fennel. I had 3 shrimp, 5 tiny clams and a lot of fish hunks, including salmon, another interesting addition. It might have been nice to have a bowl for all of the empty shells. Instead, I had to heap the empties along the side of my bowl, which became really fun when I had to empty my shell and broth filled bowl into leftover containers myself. The grilled steak seemed to be cooked medium as requested, but we're still wondering what cut of meat it was as it curled up on both ends. The crab was tasty but the "lobster" sauce was overly salted and clearly made from commercial base so glad it on the side. We kept our sense of humor, thankfully, because after we declined dessert, and stood to put on our coats, our old friend the hostess came back and turned the lights off." Oops." Icing on the cake.
The food is decent, but before you try to call yourselves "fine dining" make sure you can provide the correct ingredients, quality of service and atmosphere to back it up. We won't be back.

Very nice place and great food. Great for everyone.