State Street Grille

It's your standard bar, serving - well, not quite bar food, but it's food as if it were bar food. For instance, there's a soup and salad bar. But it's a bar soup and bar salad bar. They serve upper scale sandwiches, like beyond burgers. For instance, french dips and reubens. But they are bar french dips and bar reubens.

I visited during an afternoon in which I was one of three or four tables active, and my service was not stellar.

I figure, if you're just going to drink and watch the game on a busy night, you could probably do worse in town, but I bet you could do better, too.

The happy hour sliders were really quite good; but everything else was disappointing.  The service was terrible with the server paying more attention to stories about himself than our order.  Four people 3 errors.  

Our bill was overcharged and overpriced by $15 to $20.  Not recommend at all.

I'm flirting with breaking a few of my own Yelp rules here.

I've never been a fan of reviews where people don't have a "true" experience with the business and leave it a bad review. For example: "The wait was too long so we left. 1-star".

To be fair, I actually did go in and attempt to get service, it didn't just work out that way. (this will make more sense later)

I had seen this place many times and something about it just never really drew me in, until it was recommended by a server at another place as having a kitchen open "late." (11pm on Saturday,. which to me really isn't "late")

I first walked through the main dining area and glanced at the inside, which I thought would be a lot nicer, but it seemed a little dark and dumpy. No worries though, as we were headed to the patio anyway.

It was a little crowded- not jam packed, but a decent crowd- so I didn't let it bother me that it took about 10 minutes before a server even addressed us, when all they had to do was give you "Be with ya in a second" or acknowledge your existence, even when there were 3 of them swirling all around us. I would have went to the bar to get drinks, but we were still hoping to get some food (i.e. a server).

I guess I was just feeling really patient that day.

What did bother me a little bit was her attitude. When we asked if the kitchen was open, it was answered with a snort or a grunt, with no eye contact... not sure which farm animal she was impersonating(I can think of a few)... but the distinct impression I got was that it didn't matter if it was technically open or not, she did not want us ordering food. (my dining companion later correctly pointed out that if it hadn't taken them 10 minutes to get there, there was plenty of time to get an order in.. evidently the people next to us *did* get menus a few moments before from another server)

The person I was with was getting all the same signals, and on top of that, wanted food, so she was ready to go somewhere else... "Hey," I said to my friend, "we're here, let's give it chance. Let's just get a beer." She  reluctantly agreed.

Again, still really patient and very pleasant, I said to the server..

"We'll just get couple of domestic drafts, whatever is easiest, and I'll pay cash."

It was little loud, but I had to repeat it three times. She seemed utterly confused.  Then I leaned in, spoke louder and I slowly and politely explained "Look I was just saying we'll take a couple of whatever you have on draft, and that there is no need to start a tab for us, we will just pay cash. "

Paraphrasing, what I really meant was: "You're giving me the vibe right now that you're so inept, that if the beers even do make it back here, you'll drop them off and we won't see you for a half hour, so I don't want to be stuck here waiting for a bill or having a bill and waiting to pay you. And I'm trying to help you succeed in not sucking any further by allowing you to bring us whatever beers you can properly pour into a cup."

But I didn't say that, I was still patient...

For whatever reason,  despite my attempts at politeness,what I said made her feel silly or weird, because she reacted very awkwardly, like she just asked me to dance at the junior prom and  I told her to ask me again after she had the Caesarian ...  while entire 11th grade, along with her OBGYN, laughed and pointed.  

Seeming somewhat flustered: "Oh... cash. Of course cash. I don't want to you to start a tab either. I want to get out of here."  All uttered with a mocking tone and facial expression on her face that said "Well, duh!" (which ironically, would have probably been less obnoxious than her actual reply)

Yeah, that you want to get out of here is obvious, weirdo. So they really have you out here dealing with the public?

A little confused as to how to take her comment, my dining partner and I exchanged glances that were a combination of  an eye roll and a non-verbal "Is this bitch for real?"

My patience was now pretty much on E.

I don't know if we even said anything to her... we pretty much both simultaneously got up and walked away, with her still awkwardly babbling about how she thought we wanted to order a "beer called Cash" as we had our backs to her and her voice slowly and thankfully faded away.

I honestly don't know if she was bitchy, clueless, or just plain insane. What a freak. Really rude, despite my attempts to be polite.  

So here's the second part of my Yelp review policy that I am potentially breaking. I believe 1-stars should pretty much be reserved for places you would absolutely not go back to. And still, the answer is probably a NO. But there is small part of me that doesn't think it's fair to take out the actions of one dumb employee, taken from one experience, on the business in the area. However, many of the other reviews seem to have had disappointing experiences too, so a return is really unlikely.