Copper Kettle Bar & Lounge

All right... First, see Bradley's post. Second, don't order.

So, we called and made a reservation for 7:00pm. Being prompt, we arrived at 6:50. We were seated right away (hostess gets a star), and became very excited about the advertized specials--Seared marlin with shrimp with a butter sauce. Our table had a great view of the night skiers falling down. The mood couldn't have been better. But: we waited 15 minutes to receive water and bread, and the waitress didn't think we were quite important enough to take our order for another 15 minutes or so.  When ordering the Marlin Special, the waitress recommended it medium or medium rare.  Two members of our party ordered it medium rare per her suggestion.  Then, instead of bringing an appetizer or our side salads, the waitress proceeded to ignore us for the better part of an hour. When our food finally came out--we never got the appetizer, the salads came out with the entrees--we were disappointed that the most of the food was lukewarm. The marlins had clearly been sitting under a heat lamp and instead of medium rare and hot, they were well done and cool. They put peppers on something we specifically asked them not to, so they took it away and brought it back with some peppers remaining (they clearly had just tried to pick off some of the peppers), and they never brought the ketchup someone asked for.   We ended up sending back the two marlin entrees, and decided it wasn't worth ordering anything else off the menu because it may have taken another 45 minutes to arrive.

By comparison, while we were there, a party of four was seated 20 minutes after us, ordered, received their food, and left half an hour before we could.  Other obvious regulars in the restaurant seemed very content with their service; we were not treated with any sense of respect or importance.  We had to finally get one of the busboys (he can share the one star with the hostess) to get the check for us because our waitress was nowhere to be found.  

When we finally paid, we decided to speak to the manager about our experience.  She was full of excuses for how overwhelmed the servers were (despite the restaurant being about halfway full) and that some staff had called out for the evening.  She did not seem concerned with our dissatisfaction.

There was one positive.  The Pepsi was perfectly mixed.  Whoever is in charge of setting up the soda fountain can also share the one star.

The moral of the story is that if you're new to Bryce, go to Brogie's Tavern instead.  They're closed down, but you'll still probably get better service.

Ok first off. When I order a rail whiskey and coke, don't give me a whiskey and Pepsi. That was horrible. It made me enraged. I almost cried. Secondly, when you have 4 waiter/waitresses behind the bar, don't have them all running around, avoiding eye contact, trying to help the bigger spending tables, ignoring my group and the two other groups at the bar. Luckily the manager lady (or someone with some savvy on how to get a tip) took over and helped us. The first guy was rude, ignored us, and looked like he was trying too hard to be a hipster in the middle of a mountain town. Doesn't work out here, bro, I just want my Jack and COKE (Pepsi, WTF?) and some decent service while we order food. The setting was great, so two stars, and the lovely lady that did help, she gets the other. But Captain Ignoring People while carrying around an aura of attitude, he gets no stars. If you're there skiing, great place to get a snack and some drinks, but beware if the regulars are there with friends or family, they seem to get overwhelming priority, while you sit at the bar watching mid-life crisis golf commercials, pondering why Pepsi would ever be mixed with Whiskey outside of a Frat House. For Shame!!! And by the way, the chicken fingers were good. The moral of the story is that Pepsi, paired with bad service, can ruin an entire day.

I've been back to the Copper Kettle a few times since the first night with the HVAC debacle - it still feels a tad to warm and stuffy in here - but not nearly as bad as the first time.

Since then I've been back to watch the Virginia Tech vs. Florida State college football game on a Thursday  at the bar on ESPN. My new fave Ale at the Copper Kettle is the "Stoudts Double IPA" - available in a bottle. This is a strong, very hoppy, crisp, tasty Double IPA (9.34% ABV) if I recall correctly. I've sucked down a few of these Ales during my last stay.

Bartender Ann is awesome! She really knows how to make some good drinks - and she makes an awesome Bloody Mary! Ann had me try a shot of some special vodka they had - I sipped it -- it had a really nice flavor.

I've also sampled a few other dishes, including their Nachos (average) to their Cobb salad - which was pretty good.