Spirits Pub & Grub

I'm torn between 2.5 and 3 stars, and here's why:

A group of 6 of us stopped by for the first time at 9 pm on Saturday night for a very late dinner.  As we approached the hostess in the near-empty restaurant (maybe 1/3 full at most), she snootily asked if we had reservations.  We didn't, and after much deliberation between her and another hostess, she basically made us feel as if sitting outside was our only option.  I thought "okay...well maybe they have a whole lot of people coming soon or a reserved area for a party taking place shortly".

Outside was decent, but the rocking wrought-iron chairs were seriously uncomfortable to me.  Our waitress was okay, but seemed really ditzy and kept flirting blatantly with the 60 year-old man at the table next to us.  We laughed about how creepy her quest for a tip was with him.  We ordered hash browns and fried pickle chips for appetizers.  The hash browns were a weird cheesy concoction I could take or leave, but the pickle chips were phenomenal (and I don't even like pickle chips!) I ordered the "award-winning" mac 'n cheese and while good, it definitely wasn't great.  For nearly $10 the portion seemed small, and I had to load up on the salt and pepper to make it taste much like anything.  The reviews from my friends ranged from "great" for the wings, "okay" for the burger, and "pretty bad" for the crab cake sandwich.

Our waitress did a decent job of taking care of us, but nothing stellar.  We had to hunt down salt and pepper at another table, and after food was served she essentially left us pitchers of Pepsi outside and we refilled our own drinks.  However, I was surprised to see an automatic 20% tip added to our bill.  I hadn't noticed anything on the menu regarding that and in my mind our waitress did a 15% -ish job, not 20%.  As we walked back into the dining room to leave we noticed it was even more empty than before.  I guess reservations were clearly NOT needed that night.

Overall, our first visit to Spirits was lackluster, but not horrible.   Food taste seemed to vary with the items ordered and the service was okay.  I was pretty put off by the snooty demeanor of the hostess and the automatic 20% gratuity.  Since my husband and I just moved 2 minutes down the street I think we'll give Spirits another shot and hope our next experience is a bit better.

Drinks are really good.   Do not discount the food though, better than your average pub food.   Great service and nice outside sitting area.

The food is good, but it's overpriced for pub food.