The Local Tavern Bar & Grill

Having been here now at least 3 times I felt it was time to write a review. My wife and I have been here for lunch as well as dinner and ordered different items off the menu. While service and food during lunch is good, dinner, we found, was lacking. While I do like this place and wish it to succeed, sadly, this place feels ripe for an appearance on Kitchen Nightmares. Why? This primarily focuses on our experiences with dinner. Having had good experiences at lunch, we thought we'd go for dinner. Once with just my wife, daughter and I, and the second also including my in-laws. On the first dinner service, our waitress was pleasant but extremely slow. We overheard a conversation she had at another, nearby table, where she said English was her second language. While she could speak English well enough - it was clear there were a few more specific words that were unknown to her. For example, when I asked for a Coke with grenadine, although she feigned that she knew what this was - she ultimately came back with Coke without grenadine. When I mentioned that the Coke had no grenadine, the exchange became awkward. Ultimately, she took the drink back, only to bring another - again - without the grenadine. The second dinner service was a comedy of errors. First, my father-in-law tried to order a Negra Modelo (dark beer). We were told they were out of that option. When he tried to order something similar - they further explained they were out of nearly every dark beer. My mother-in-law ordered a burger with a gluten-free bun only to be told that they were out of gluten-free buns. For my meal, among the things I had ordered was a french onion soup. When I began to eat it - I found what appeared to be a broken pen cap inside it. The waitress graciously took it back and offered a salad instead, which I took. Finally, we tried to change my daughter's pullup using the family restroom. Although they have a men's and women's restroom - only the family restroom has a changing station. However, this bathroom was locked. When I asked the staff - they said someone must be in it. But after several minutes - no one had come out and we never saw anyone enter it during our time there (we were seated closest to it so we would've noticed). Eventually, several staff tried in vain to open the door but it seems they either misplaced the key or it went missing. I wound up changing her pullup in the car. If any one of these things happened during a visit - one might chalk it up to coincidence. But all of this happened on a single visit. This paints an image of ownership/management being highly disorganized and a lack of awareness of inventory - often core elements of the usual episode of Kitchen Nightmares. I do want this place to succeed as even during dinner the food is good and the menu is eclectic with some fairly unique options (like a lobster grilled cheese) but they seem short on good leadership and organization which affects every aspect of how the restaurant is run and whether or not it succeeds.

Nice menu with just enough selections. We started with barbecue Brussels sprouts and that I was afraid I would not like because of the barbecue sauce but they were perfect. Also had the macaroni and cheese which were formed into balls and coated with what I think was Panko and fried and that was a surprising treat. Everybody had something different including one who had the steak and that was just the right size at just the right price and delicious. They only had three dessert items so we ordered one of each the 10 layer chocolate cake was out of this world, the orange cheesecake was delicious and the gluten-free carrot cake was so surprisingly good! Went there for a graduation dinner and we all decided and that we would gladly go back when we were in the mood for a good meal. Thanks for an outstanding menu to the cook Chase!!