Charlie Yokes

A colleague of mine and I visited this restaurant/bar on a Monday afternoon for lunch. Neither of us was terribly impressed. We were the only people in the restaurant at around 11:30, but talking was difficult because loud music was blaring in the background. Service was adequate, except for one detail: the waitress brought me a refill of my diet coke without my asking, which was nice, but then she charged me for the refill, something I didn't notice until after I had returned to my office. If you're going to bring somebody unsolicited food or beverage, you ought not charge for it. The food itself was only adequate. I had a meatball grinder, my friend had one of the various burgers; I had fries, he had onion rings. The meatball grinder was OK but very difficult to eat; I wound up having to use a knife and fork on it. The onion ring that I stole from my friend wasn't anything to write home about,  and he also didn't think that his burger was all that special either. I did get quite a lot of fries, and although they were of the frozen variety they were fairly tasty. Prices, though, struck me as unreasonably steep: burgers run about six or seven dollars, with an extra two dollars for fries and three dollars for onion rings. My meatball grinder was seven dollars (again, plus two bucks for fries). For that kind of money, you can go to Wallaby's, a mile or so west, and get a really fabulous burger and fries.

This has not been a good location for restaurants. Judging by the lack of customers on the afternoon we visited and the just-mediocre lunch we got, I have some doubts about the long-term prospects for this one. That's too bad, since the campustown area could certainly use a good burger-and-bar type restaurant, particularly now that Legends is closed. I don't think this one is it, however.

Remember People's? Remember the Cyclone Burger?

They don't have it.

But what they DO have is a pretty basic menu of top notch bar food. It's not important to have 75 things on the menu, and they don't. They have a handful of things. Our party ordered 3 different things off the menu and they were all fantastic.

If they would only improve their beer selection, I could be persuaded to become somewhat of a regular.

Service was good, though it wasn't very busy. Folks, get to this place and try the food! Let's help this one stay open!

This was my first time being in the old People's since it was people's and I'll admit - it was weird at first.  But if you let go of that odd feeling and start focusing on the establishment that is Charlie Yokes, you'll enjoy yourself, I promise.

We visited on a Wednesday in the early evening and we were the only table.  The server was therefore very attentive, but I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she would be just as good even if she had more customers to deal with.  

If good beer is what you're looking for, well, the beer list could use a lot of work.  (Can we all agree to please stop calling Fat Tire a craft beer?)  But we were also there for food, and it did not disappoint.  I had the Memphis pulled pork, saucy and topped with coleslaw - and onion rings.  My boyfriend had a southern tenderloin smothered in chili and coleslaw, and my dad ordered the ham and cheese grinder.  Everything was  good - REALLY good.  It's quite obvious that everything is fresh and homemade, and it's delicious.  The cook also brought out the bacon that he'd accidentally left off my dad's grinder, and took the time to chat with us for a second about how we liked everything.

The food comes served in baskets, something that would be totally understandable in the later, busier, drunker hours, but I think they could really stand to use real plates and silverware the rest of the time.

If you're looking for a value, the three of us each had a beer or two and a meal for somewhere in the ballpark of $40.  You're not really going to do much better than that.

The businesses to inhabit this space since People's left in 2007 have not been successful.  I think Charlie Yokes has a real shot at making it, and I will be doing everything I can to help them out.  I urge you to give this place a shot!