Vine Tavern & Eatery

I really want to give The Vine a better review based solely upon the wings, but the staffing has really cratered in the last few years. My wife and I eat here about twice a month and have been coming here for years. (Full disclosure: I used to tend bar here when I was in college *mumble mumble* years ago.)

TL;DR: wings good, beer cheap, A/C broken, service questionable.

The real standouts here are the wing sauces and the sour cream and chive fries. Basically, anything fried. If you are looking for a steak or some quasi-vegan-gluten free experience, this ain't it.

The wings themselves are on the small side, particularly considering the $8/dozen pricing. The last few visits we have seen a number of the "drum" wings (they cut them in half, so you get six "wing" pieces and six "drum" pieces for a total of 12 pieces, but only six wings) with very shriveled meat that basically look like a  tiny wing Popsicle. We have also been shorted a piece several times in the last few visits. The sauces are fantastic and you could probably cover pieces of cardboard with the sauces for an okay meal (the secret ingredient is butter, lots of butter.) Sadly, be sure to count the wings when you get them and point out any shortages to the waitress immediately.

The beer specials and happy hour prices are generally good. However, as several other Yelpers have noted, the service is lackadaisical to comatose. We visited yesterday (July 9, 2013) for the "discounted" wing special of $5.99/doz. Notably, the Air Conditioning is broken. Not a good thing in an Iowa summer.

Despite telling the hostess we would sit anywhere in the restaurant, she proceeded to seat us in the bar. Our waitress was quintuple-sat (they seated four other groups of four in her section at the same time as us) and was running eight four-top tables. This is an overwhelming work load for any server, so our service (predictably) sucked. The bar area is also two steps higher than the rest of the restaurant so the temperature was basically the same as the outdoors - not good. I tried to find a manager to bring some of these issues to their attention but we never saw one in the 1.5 hours we sweated through our meal.

Love the food! Horrible service! I just had the spinach artichoke chicken wrap and it was delicious! I love spinach artichoke dip, so adding it into the wrap was perfection.  The fries are great and are especially good with a side of ranch to dip in.  Our server was Dylan and was extremely rude the entire time. After serving us, we had already finished our food and sat there waiting for our checks for 15 minutes before he returned.  He was extremely impolite.

The Vine is an enormous building.  It's like a dimly lit warehouse with chairs and tables scattered around.

Cavernous as it is, my family felt comfortable bringing two screaming kids there.  It's not the place to have a quiet conversation.

I ordered the hot wings.  I liked the taste, but the wings themselves weren't very meaty.  Sometimes when you order wings, you get the gnarled, gristly variety.  That's what I got at the Vine.  Sad.

On the plus side I ordered the Vine Ale and enjoyed that.  It was nice and smooth.

It's not like I had an awful time at The Vine.  It was okay.  But it's definitely a "third or fourth tier"-type bar.