Parkside Bar & Grill

So I read a few of the reviews.  If you're looking for quiet, fine dining or a romantic dinner with your significant other...go downstairs.   This is a bar with great food and great drinks.  There are games on the TVs, a pool table, a juke box, and fantastic patio seating when the weather is nice.  They have incredible food specials (like .25 cent wing nights!) and reasonably priced drinks.  It's a fun place to hang out, the owner is there regularly and takes good care of his patrons.

Parkside is a dive bar with mediocre food and generally low-standards from the kitchen.

My boyfriend and I stopped by after riding our bikes at Goddard Park on a Sunday afternoon.  They have really great specials there every day.  On Sunday, the deal is half-price appetizers.  

It was nice to sit outside on their patio.  They are very dog friendly, which is cool by us as we are animal lovers, but when this huge German Shepherd started puking all over the patio, it was a little bit of a buzz kill.  Fortunately, the dog owners were cool about it.  As soon as the dog started yacking, they went to take him off the patio.  Unfortunately, he barfed the whole way out.  The wife took the dog to empty the rest of his stomach in the parking lot while the husband cleaned up the puke.  So, none of this is any fault of the Parkside.  Just know that if you want to enjoy the patio, there will be dogs there.  And people smoking butts, too.

So, about the food.  We got some calamari for under 4 bucks.  That was nice.  The calamari was a little on the bready side and was just barely over-cooked.  It wasn't rubbery like a lot of calamari tends to be when it is grossly over-cooked, but it wasn't that perfectly cooked, melt-in-your-mouth tender, either.  It was worth the 4 bucks.  It was, however quite awful looking on the plate.  It comes out of the kitchen scattered over a plate that is at least twice the size as it should be for the amount given.  To make it look like more, or maybe look "pretty", they serve it on a pile of chopped lettuce.  The lettuce immediately turns into a wilted, pathetic, greasy pile of sliminess.  Not sure whose idea that was, but they should rethink it.  Trying to make it look better actually makes it look worse.

I ordered the blackened chicken served on a salad, and my man got the BLT wrap.  My salad was pretty sad.  The lettuce part, which was chopped romaine, was full of dried out, brown ends.  I ate around them and ended up with a pile of cruddy lettuce that would have filled at least a 1-cup measuring cup.  The cucumbers in my salad were limp and desiccated and looked like they were left over from the day before.  My chicken was nice and spicy, but, unfortunately, was over-cooked and dry.

My man's BLT wrap was on the skimpy side.  He would have preferred a smaller wrap for the amount of fillings it had.  He described it as "anemic".  His bacon wasn't crisp, it was flabby.  Are there people who prefer flabby bacon over crisp bacon?  Really?  The menu said that with the wrap, there was a choice of fries, salad or coleslaw, but the waitress never mentioned it, and it just came with fries.  The fries were ok.  Nothing great, nothing to complain about either.

I do have to mention that the 2 women who were the staff that day were both wearing tank tops.  They also both had very long hair that was not tied back.  Both of these things are violations of the health code.  i'm not a freak about everyone following every rule everywhere all the time, BUT, really, if they don't follow the basic ones that everyone can see, it makes me wonder what goes on in the kitchen where no one can see.

I might try this place again for another one of their daily special deals.  One day they were advertising 2 for 1 burgers.  If I do go back, it will be with very low expectations.

Parkside is a total local bar. Wood paneling on the walls, a pool table and darts round out this little gem.

This is the type of bar where if you go more than once, everyone knows you name. Kinda like Cheers, minus Kirstie Alley (bonus!).

The bartender was incredibly nice! She got us our drinks quickly and after waiting what felt like no time at all, our food was ready. I had chicken fingers, which were tasty. My BF has the buffalo wings and raved about them. Not too saucy with just enough kick.

We will definitely be back! I am hoping to become Parkside's Norm!