An Average Joe in San Antonio

Who doesn’t love restaurants in old/historic parts of the city?  Who also doesn’t love a place that buys directly from local growers and uses those ingredients in the meals that they prepare?  This is why I had to try Texas Farm to Table located in the redeveloped Pearl Brewery site.

The look and feel of the restaurant seems to exude this cool as a cucumber vibe.  I am always amazed at how developers can take something that was run down less than 2 years ago and transform it into be something chic and desirable; they hit on it perfectly in the Pearl redevelopment.

One thing that I noticed as my friend and I walked into the restaurant was how smart all the people dressed, in particular the women.  I almost got a little of the Alamo Heights vibe at this restaurant, and don’t imagine that it will be long before that part of town gets gentrified completely and has a new identity.  My buddy I was eating with made a terrific insight: “This restaurant has that funky feel that if it were located in Austin you would really get a lot of the indie/hipster crowd; however, it is located in San Antonio and you get the more pretentious feel.”  Once you are there you will know what he is talking about.

The place is pretty expensive (I think that a signature sandwich can run you upwards of $11), and I imagine that it is that way to afford the rent that a newly developed hot spot demands.  It has the look, feel, location, and taste (more on this later) to warrant that price, but there is one thing that they lack and had better fix soon if they want to stay in business – service.

The service is TERRIBLE, and by terrible, I don’t mean the least bit good.  Funny how the only people not dressed and lacking zero personality are the ones behind the counter and delivering the food.  After waiting in a long line I had the enjoyment of being greeted by a kid with a fedora who obviously didn’t want to be there.  He mumbled some sort of greeting, and my friend couldn’t understand a word he said and asked him to repeat everything.  This guy looked as though I was bothering him with my presence.

I ordered a half of New Braunfels Smoked Ham sandwich with a cup of chicken curry soup; my friend had another half sandwich/soup combo.  It rang up at $8.60 with a drink, and I will give them props for having the Imperial Sugar Dublin Dr. Pepper.  It took 31 minutes (no joke, I looked at the time on my receipt versus the time that we got the food) to get our food; I mean, for crying out loud, it was a sandwich with a cup of soup.  I didn’t know they had to actually grow the food on the farm from the moment we ordered it…

It took 31 minutes to make this. Really. Yes. Seriously.

Not only that, but they brought my friend out the Chicken Curry soup instead of the Tomato Basil.  When informing the person bringing out the food, he first didn’t believe that a mistake was made and after examining the receipt, mumbled something that he couldn’t change it out and we would have to go back inside to get it corrected.  They also screwed up on giving my friend cheddar cheese instead of Swiss; I mean, it is not like they didn’t have 30 plus minutes to get it right…

I will say this: the food is excellent.  The sandwich had a great flavor, though was pretty pitiful on the amount of meat; all the vegetables had an abundance of flavor, in particular the tomato.  The soup also was exceptional.  I wish I had more to say, but the service just really soured my taste buds, plus I don’t think I had the time to really enjoy it as I had to scarf it down in less than 5 minutes to get to the next place I had to go.

Value: 6/10 ($11 for a “signature sandwich” is a lot; the half soup/half sandwich combo at $5.80 is decent, but you will wait so long for it you will wish you had ordered a full portion of each!)
Atmosphere: 9/10 (very cool and trendy; a lot of put together people dine here)
Service: 1.5/10 (abysmal; they will go under if they don’t fix this)
Taste: 8/10 (good tasting food; just wish I had more time to enjoy it…)
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