Overview: Clinton Street Social Club is a speakeasy with great booze and a schizophrenic kitchen that is equally amazing and disappointing.
Location/space: The Social Club is located above Short's burger directly across the street from the Old Capitol. The interior is wonderfully decorated with exposed brick walls and metal accent pieces that evoke a turn of the century speak-easy. The dining area itself is very modest and divided from the bar area by a staircase leading to the third floor. There's also a pool table and occasional live music.
The Food: The restaurant serves mainly smaller portioned appetizers meant to be shared among the group of diners. These range from small slider sandwiches and charcuterie to more substantial dishes like Shepard's pies and flank steak.
Since the restaurant is still fairly new (within its first year), the food has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde quality to it: some days its amazing, other days not so much. For instance, the pork belly was luscious, tender, and flavorful the first time I ordered it, but when I talked it up to friends and returned a month later, the pork belly was dried-out, overcooked, and a major letdown after the first experience. Similarly, the first time I ordered the hush puppies, they were perfectly cooked with a crisp golden shell while a subsequent order produced darkened hush puppies that had clearly stayed in the fryer a bit too long. Finally, an unexpected and very pleasant surprise was the apple bread pudding, which had a lightness and balance of flavors that managed to draw warm praise out of a guest who normally hates bread pudding.
The drinks: This is clearly the Social Club's strength. They have a wonderful selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and spirits (which includes an awesome collection of whiskey). The Grandpa's Coffin, in particular, is fantastic and worth the steep price.
Summary: Clinton Street Social Club is a great downtown bars for those who are looking for a reprieve from fraternizing with undergraduates in a dive bar or club. The drinks is clearly the Social Club's forte, and its food will steadily get better as the kitchen staff gains more experience with the still relatively new menu. In short, this place has the potential to be something amazing. Time will tell whether it can achieve that level on a consistent basis.
Clinton Street Social Club is a great new find for downtown. Â Their menu includes Duck Confit, Hanger Steak, a Goat slider, and Poutine! The bar on the main floor is a neat crafted wood with the edges left semi-finished. Very good tap list, with the Belgians upstairs. No lunch on Sunday or Monday.
Review Source:Hands down the WORST service I have ever encountered anywhere.
Group of ten for a birthday party. We called in advance to let them know we were coming and a table was waiting for us on the third floor. That was the last pleasant aspect.
Please bear in mind with this review, we had 4 people who worked and still currently work in the service industry so we are understanding of things taking time, whether its a staff or kitchen issue, etc.
After we were seated we spoke to the server and explained that 2 of us were on the same tab, but everyone else was individual. She said no problem. She then took our drink orders. The special Bourbon menu was also requested at that time as 3 people in our party were interested in ordering (we received it 40 minutes later). Our first round took almost 20 minutes to get to us. There were only 2 other tables upstairs and a bored looking bartender. Our waitress also proceeded to take one drink at a time from the bar to the individual person at the table. It began to become comical after a certain amount of time. Â Average wait time for a drink was 20-25 minutes after it was ordered throughout the entire evening.
When it came to ordering, we had to ask what the special was, and when one member of our party asked what were the "root vegetables", our waitress responded with, "Carrots....um, I don't know, I am a vegan". Baffling. Â Once our orders were placed, the food took almost an hour to come out. Food was hit or miss, salmon was undercooked, chicken pot pie was cold in the middle, pork chop and shepherd's pie were received well, as were the sliders. At this time, our party decided to not order any bourbon due to the ungodly wait for a drink. Our water was also never refilled and once party member had to ask 3 times for more water.
Now the fun part...the check.
First check came out, everything on one bill. In addition to her not splitting it as we requested at the beginning, it was also wrong. We politely brought this to our server's attention. She then took out a pen as asked us all individually what we had. She then went back and brought back the same check two more times! While one of our party took to a pen and paper to write it out, another member asked our server to speak with a manager. Our server responded with "For what?". Unacceptable. The manager was polite and apologetic, but did nothing to even try and rectify the situation. We weren't looking for a freebie, but offering to do something would have been nice. It took over an hour to get the check correct.
For a large party willing to spend money, this was ridiculous. Had service been acceptable we would have had at least 100 dollars more on the liquor bill, and probably another 100 dollars in after dinner bourbon which was vetoed due to the ridiculous amount of time we had already been there. One member in our party has been a server for over ten years and was fuming. All in all our dining experience took 3 hours.
Maybe I would go back to have a drink at the bar. That would be the only way I would ever suggest to try this place out. Vibe was cool, but unfortunately due to the horrendous service there are 10 people who won't be back.
What a fun little find! Â
We ordered nibbles like the Cajun spiced nuts and cheese curds and drank lots of beer. Â The atmosphere was very chill, a nice change of pace from the rah rah Hawkeye bars downtown. Â
Our waiter was very knowledgeable about the beer offerings, and they even serve mead! Â I don't know about full meals here, but for a cozy place to meet up when you just want to get warm and tipsy and chat about nothing, this is perfect!!!
I haven't eat there yet, but always have a drink or more there.
5 stars because they have a lot of different beers that we usually can't drink, draft or bottles. They also have a lot of different liquors, whiskey, scotch, vodka, etc... The owner even bought some french liquors after being advised by a friend.
The prices are not very expensive, people are very nice and you can even play pool for free.
One thing: I love the ambiance there! The music is not too strong and very relaxing.
I went here for lunch with a group of six. We were seated in the downstairs area and there were two other tables of people when we got there.
The place looks nice, although I was sad to see the bar from Jake's is gone. Despite the reputation of the place, Jake's had a pretty nice setup downstairs. Regardless, the new decor is an upgrade for sure.
My party ordered some of the garlic nuts, fries, and fried cheese curds as appetizers to share. The nuts came out within a few minutes in a cute jelly jar. Easy to share, very tasty. The fries and cheese curds came out at least 20 minutes later. Warm, but not hot. The fries were tasty, but a bit on the soggy side for my taste. The cheese curds were served in a small bowl, which left the curds on the bottom absolutely swimming in oil. The curds on top were great.
For the main event my party ordered mac 'n cheese, the soup of the day, various sliders, mashed potatoes, the heirloom tomato salad, mushrooms, and a burger. These dishes trickled out of the kitchen over the next hour. The sliders were served on ridiculously large plates. Who cares about plates though, the real issue with the sliders was the temperature. Two different versions of their sliders were ordered by three people and every one had the same complaint. The burger part of the slider might have been hot at one point, but the bun was cold. Straight out of the refrigerator cold. Not at all pleasant to eat. The only full-sized burger that was ordered was declared good, but the bottom bun was soaked in oil or grease. Again, not pleasant. The mushrooms were smushy and boring. The mac n' cheese was well received. Lots of flavor in a creamy cheese sauce. The mac 'n cheese orderer in our party was also the person that ordered the soup. Oddly, the soup was one of the last things to come out of the kitchen and had been completely forgotten about by the time it arrived. It was also declared yummy. The very last thing to come out of the kitchen was the mashed potatoes and gravy. This was made all the more frustrating as we had already been sitting in the restaurant for more than an hour and the person that ordered the mashed potatoes had gotten one of first sliders to come out of the kitchen. She'd been done eating for quite a while when an absolute mountain of mashed potatoes arrived at the table. The portions for every other thing we'd ordered had been reasonable, then those arrived. Completely bizarre.
Oh, and a note on the heirloom tomato salad, not yummy. Five thin, sad slices of a garden variety red tomato. Boring.
The real fun started when the check arrived. We were a party of six women out to lunch at a place that was not busy at all. Our waitress didn't even offer to split the check. When we had two people with credit cards and four with cash, it was a complete cluster %$&# to get the payment situation figured out. Since we wrote down what should go on each credit card we really couldn't see what the problem was. We've all been to restaurants before and we all know that different payment methods are just not that complicated. It sure was @ this place.
The drink menu looks interesting and I wish we'd had time to sample some of them, but after an hour and a half for lunch we were ready to get the hell out of there.
Try it if you must, but don't go with more than two people and don't order food if your time is limited. Most of our social experience at the Clinton Street Social Club revolved around how odd the whole thing was, but it was social none the less.
My husband and I dined there on a Thurs. evening. Â They were pretty busy but we got seated right away. Â The atmosphere is nice, but with all the hard surfaces, we couldn't even hear each other, so loud! Â Right after we ordered, a young female was being seated behind us. Â She went to sit in her chair and the whole thing broke. Â She ended up on her butt! Â Not Kidding. Â She was so embarassed. Â The soup was so cooked down that it was more like a pile of food and very spicy (something we weren't warned about). Â We had to ask our server for another drink, even though our glasses were completely empty. Â He wasn't very attentive. Â Lastly, the chicken pot pie was more like a carrot pie topped with an undercooked, raw pastry over the top. Â Also, I think the chef forgot to season the thing, it needed salt in a very bad way. Â Won't be going back any time soon.
Review Source:Excellent Tapas and drinks
I went Tapa and Bar hopping one night in Iowa City and stopped here with my sister. I love the ambiance and sophisticated aura of the setting. It didn't feel like a typical bar and tailored more towards my tastes. I came here in excitement for the fresh cheese curds. I ordered the Wine Cocktail that had fresh strawberries and other fruits. It was like a wonderful blend of good wine, grape juice, and strawberries! It was quite refreshing. I had the oysters and fresh cheese curds. I absolutely LOVED them. The oysters are extremely fresh and they are already seasoned with lemon juice, garlic and whatever else they put. It's also already prepared so that you don't have to use a fork to take the oyster apart. Every time I had an oyster, I felt like it was pure heavenly delight. I want more! The fresh cheese curds come with a side of ranch. They are indeed fresh and the cheese curds are high quality.
Alongside those items, the menu is very impressive. The tapas are at reasonable prices. Hush puppies with aioli are only a mere $3. If you share tapas with a group of friends, it won't be too heavy on the wallet. Â The only thing I wanted more of was a bit more decor. It felt a little bland and empty inside. Â Overall, I love this place!
Went here one week after it opened. Â I like the concept but it definitey fell short of simmilar places in bigger cities (what can i expect.) Â The drinks were ok, a tad pricey, but ok. Â The food was definitely overpriced in relation to quantity and quality. Â The service was great though.
Review Source:Second trip here. Â My cocktail was served in a rocks glass, when I asked about what drinks come in shorter "neat" glasses, the bartender responded that any drink can come in any sized glass. Â I ordered 2 dishes, one came with info that the other was out of stock and the one dish that did come came undercooked. Â 2nd visit and things were lookin' down. Â Bartender ordered some duck corndogs for me on the sly and saved the day. Â Like i said in my previous review, you must be patient while working out kinks. Â Go here, seriously!
Review Source:
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