Cass Bar & Grill

This seems to be a cursed location; every club/bar/restaurant that has operated from this location seems doomed from the start. Funny how it operated as a second hand store for decades without too many problems... until they too closed; or more than likely just sold the joint.

My first and likely only visit to The Cass Bar & Grill/Hogs Hollow Smokehouse (a nice play on words; Utica was at one time called Hogs Hollow) was rather unremarkable. I'm also confused. Did I eat in The Cass Bar & Grill, or was it Hogs Hollow? Anyway...

I had the brisket, which is a staple at just about every BBQ joint, and a good measure of their overall BBQ menu. Not good, not bad; just, unremarkable. The sauces were likewise average and nothing to write home about. This place is so unremarkable, that I can't even remember what my wife had.

Beer selection was OK. Nosferatu from Great Lakes was on tap, a few other craft offerings as well... If they cared, they probably should have had some local craft beers on hand. They're only a stones throw away (maybe a but further...) from Rochester Mills, so I'm kind of surprised that they wouldn't support another local business by carrying their exceptional product.

I was a little surprised that my party of three made up 75% of the patrons for the evening. We walked in to find the place void of customers, save for the one guy at the bar. Again, how unremarkable? Despite the lack of action, the bartender/server couldn't have cared less about his only other table. You would have thought that he was all alone, working a packed house on a Friday night. This tells me that he was just lazy...

I don't wish for any local business to close, but I can't help but wonder how much longer this place can remain open. Low quality service + low quality food is usually a good indication of the doors closing sooner than later.

Too bad, because this is actually a really cool, old building. Hopefully things change for the better, or it's good luck to the next sucker that tries something here.

Most restaurants in downtown Utica just don't do well, Cass Bar is no exception.The place was basically dead on a Thursday night. They serve great pizza, so if this business survives... It will because of the pizza.

We went there for dinner on a weekday evening, there was no one else there for dinner, but a few people for drinks at the bar. We ended up there because of my entertainment bogo coupon and it was close to our church.

I had the smoke chicken salad, smoked chicken on a good sized portion bed of mixed greens. They showed no sign of wilting. The smoked chicken meat on top was good but dry, but thats ok because of the salad dressing. It also had a generous portion of pecans, dried cherries, and some other veggies. The viagrette was good and came on the side, so I could put on as ittle or as much that I wanted.

My wife had the veggie sandwich, which the main veg was a breaded froed green tomato. It also had lettuce, tomato, sauteed zuchinni, on a multigrain chiabatta bread. It had good sauce and was pretty good.

Kids meals for 4.99 was grilled cheese with fries, and my daughter had cheese quesailla with fries. We asked for chicken on it, but the cook didn;t put it on, we asked the waitress and she apologized and tried to correct it, but said it was ok.

Our server was great, kept my pop filled. She was very professional. Their menu is on their website, pretty good selection for a place that would be considered a bar. They evidently smoke their own meats. It was clean and had a somewhat updated decor. Many tv's inside as well, with sports on. They have live entertainment which is pretty cool, I will go back to check that out one day.