GRDine

So after a grueling month and a half of boycotting the Dog Pit for not being served before close one evening, I decided I have too big of a weakness for chili dogs that the boycott could never last.  The Dog Pit on Monroe Center is now in good standings with GRDine.

Last week I was downtown for a meeting and when the meeting got out I just needed something quick and easy for dinner.  I considered the new Pita House next to the Dog Pit, but how could I resist eating unhealthy?  When I entered the Dog Pit, I was greeted by none other than who I had once referred to as Man-boy.  Let’s call him Keith (I don’t know his real name, but he deserves something other than Man-boy).  Keith wasn’t very busy and served me very well.  I went with a Junkyard Dog, and Frito Nachos…Fantastic!  It must have been my pent up guilt over the last little while I left Keith with a nice tip as an offering of my apology…Not like he’s seen this blog, but it made me feel a little better.

I’ve moved on.  I’ve forgotten the poor experience.  The previous experience has been masked by chili cheese Frito nachos.   We can all move on with the weight lifted off of our shoulders.  Go to Dog Pit!

-Jon Dodge

I have come under criticism in the past for not posting a negative article but no worries:  this will no longer be the case.

I have dined at the Winchester before and don’t get me wrong:  their food is pretty good, but the problem lies in the attitude of the restaurant.

Strolling into Winchester on Wednesday my wife and I were looking for some good food and beer.  My daughter was with us (she’s one), and as such we needed a high chair to accommodate her.  When we asked the waitress about this she informed us that there are no high chairs in the restaurant.

Now, I understand there are space limitation concerns with any restaurant, but I don’t think there is any excuse for not having a high chair that would take up minimal space.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the purposefully don’t want infants/toddlers in their restaurant.  This is slightly confusing, because while everyone has experienced “that one noisy kid”, the layout of the bar (long and narrow) makes it prone to being loud whenever the bar isn’t empty, thus making any child (noisy or not) virtually unnoticeable.

Memo: Having a high chair available for your patrons does not make you a family restaurant.

Another problem I have is that it is the mission of our website to support local, and we hold restaurants to that same standard.  Why they have no Founders beer on tap is beyond me.  I’ve heard it’s because they “want to be different”.  If that’s the case, then why do you have Miller Lite on tap?  Please.  Don’t punish your patrons for a company’s success.

All of this taken in its entirety comes off as arrogant.  As such, I will provide a list of restaurants below with a similar “feel” (although in some cases not exact) to Winchester to provide as an alternative.

Greenwell (www.thegreenwell.com/)

Cottage Bar  (www.bonetgroup.com/CottageBar/HomePage.html)

Gardella’s  (www.jgardellastavern.com/)

Hopcat  (www.hopcatgr.com/)

Bar Divani  (www.bar-divani.com/)

Founders (www.foundersbrewing.com)

–TM

It was around 2:17am on July 11^th that a new category is needed on GRDine.com…Boycott.  I didn’t realize business was going so well for the Dog Pit that they now have to turn away business.  I congratulate them on their new found success.

Cutting through the sarcasm you can tell I had a poor experience and this story needs to be told.  A recent blog comment called GRDine out on not having any poor experiences to write about.  Honestly, it is because we have been visiting restaurants we enjoy and tend to have a positive experience.  Dog Pit is one of these restaurants I enjoy frequenting after a night out with friends…not anymore.

It has been a while since I’ve visited the Dog Pit, but I was out for a good friends bachelor party and happened to stay out long enough to require the “fourth meal” (I’ll credit Taco Bell for that).  A few of us guys were in purchase decision mode and the winning option was chili dogs.  Now that we identified fare, we needed to lock down location.  I personally made the argument for Dog Pit since I enjoyed Ritz just a few weeks prior…Wrong choice…

When we approach Dog Pit, the location was buzzing and extremely busy.  There was a line at least 10 people deep, and most of the seats were taken by customers with the same goal we identified minutes earlier.  As soon as we approached the door, a couple was leaving and held the door open for us (we will find out later the door was locked to the outside, but not for those looking to exit).  We decided we were willing to bare with the long line.  We stood in line just long enough to identify what we were going to order (and really looking forward to enjoying the dogs) when the man-boy employee came down to the end of the line and drew a very distinct imaginary line and asked us to leave because they were closed.  I responded with “You are still serving people so how are you closed?  Why are we being asked to leave?”.  At this point we still had not known the door was locked from the outside.  I tried to proposition the man-boy with an offer I thought he couldn’t refuse…he refused.  I offered 3 X’s payment for dogs… Apparently money is not the currency I should have been offering.

Now, in defense to the man-boy, he had probably been dealing with drunks for a majority of the night and just wanted to close up shop.  However, we were polite and still refused service when obviously we had no idea the restaurant had closed.

Never again will I visit Dog Pit.  I will resort to street vendor dogs before I even consider eating another one of their dogs.  A bit harsh?  Give me one good reason to think otherwise.  -JD

Correction: Previous post indicated 2:35am.  It was 2:17 based on a call I made when in line.