Russell's Smokehouse

I have to say that I was hesitant to go here because it only had 3 1/2 stars here on Yelp. I am glad I went. Starting with the atmosphere and decor it just feel fun. We had the "nacho" that are made out of homemade potato chips and BBQ and they were amazing. The menu is a meat lovers paradise. I settled on the country ribs with a side of mac and cheese and baked beans. The ribs were flavorful and had a lot of meat on them. Others in the party expressed that the chicken was some of the best they had ever had and that the salmon was great. We finished it off with one of their amazing pies. I will have to say that not everything was perfect. I thought the baked beans were poor...or at least not my style of beans. The cole slaw was a little dry for me, but the good FAR exceeded the bad.

I've only been to the Green Russell prior to last night and wow....I am sorry for not coming to Russell's Smokehouse prior to last night.

This restaurant is superb!!

Both the Pigs in a blanket and the potted trout appetizers were great but the potted trout was absolutely phenomenal in my opinion. Do not miss this dish!

We then shared a hickory brisket and cherry pork for main entrees. The brisket melts in your mouth and was fantastic but I recommend the pork. It was my favorite of the two. Although, it came with sweet potatoes that I felt were not cooked all the way. They had the texture of steamed carrots. In fact, I thought I was eating carrots until the waiter told me otherwise. Oh well, I won't ding any stars.

For dessert, we shared an apple pie and bread pudding. Again, both excellent but I fell you will be doing yourself wrong if you do not get the bread pudding. It is served warm with a scoop of ice cream on top. Mmmmmmmmm

The service was great and the ambiance, terrific.

I will return for sure!!

I have no idea if the food at Russell's Smokehouse was good or not. I was so distracted (and enraged by the end of the meal) by the whole service package that I can't really remember how it tasted.  Here's what happened:

7:20 my partner and I show up at 7:20 for a 7:30 reservation. The three hosts assured us we would be seated just as soon as possible. We figured, it was restaurant week, things are moving slow, we were early, no problem.

7:25 a bunch of other tables seated in front of us, both in the smokehouse and the green russell section.

7:30 we hear all about host 1's ex- boyfriend's ex-girlfriend sexting her boyfriend.

7:31 small group enters, asks host 2 what the wait is - "oh, well we have a short wait, you can come back around 11"

7:40, we are eventually seated, +/- 10 minutes from the reservation isn't bad, but the table is right against a server station which means I am continually bumped into by the servers throughout dinner.

7:50 waiter decides to say hi, fill up our empty water glasses, drops off menus.

8:00 would you want to order something to drink?

Somewhere around 8:15 our drinks arrive right by our apps. Water glasses were empty by this point and would remain so throughout the rest of dinner.

8:30 mains come. By this point our first drink is long gone, so we try to get the waiter's attention by putting our glasses at the edge of the table and actively flagging him down. He runs by us, despite spending most of the dinner behind my chair at the server station, and doesn't check in with us again. One of the runners asks us if we would like an additional round of drinks. My partner ordered one, I asked for a menu, as the drink I had wasn't that great and I wanted to order something else. I never get a chance to even try to order another drink.

8:45 one of the floor managers, who up until this point had been polishing the sauce bottles on the tables and spilling water on a woman's cell phone at a neighboring table comes over and asks us if we'd like more water. I told him about the missing drink, my failure to order a second drink, and the general failure of the servers. He apologizes, tail between his legs he runs off.

At this point, waiter finally comes back, takes the dessert order. This is restaurant week, so there are only two options, and we both get the pie. I wanted it without ice cream, my partner wanted it with. We both get ice-cold pie with whipped cream. During dessert the missing drink finally appears. Fade out.  

I specifically stated that I didn't want or expect to have anything comped during my conversation with the floor manager, and I was simply very disappointed with the service and general experience with the restaurant. When we had paid and were getting up to leave, a different manager came up and apologized again, and gave us a $50 gift certificate to any of the Frank Bonanno restaurants. The certificate was a nice motion, but it should have been obvious by this point we were so angry that the last thing we would want would be to return. The problem wasn't anything individual with the servers or hosts, it was that there was a genuine feeling that we were an inconvenience to their stylish and oh so hip restaurant experience, and we were supposed to feel fortunate to have even being allowed to glimpse the glory of their brilliance. We happen to be at least slightly sophisticated diners, and we recognize good or indifferent service, or in this case service which is either too disorganized or hostile that we couldn't imagine returning again.

When we were walking out, saw a couple guys smoking in front of the restaurant. I said "You guys want a gift certificate to any Bonnano concept restaurant? No tricks or anything, it's yours". The first guy said sure, so I gave him the certificate, and asked if we had just eaten at Russell's Smokehouse. We said yeah and we wouldn't be returning, and he said "yeah, I wouldn't eat there either. The service sucks!"