Last night Brick City Supper Club got together at Awesome Newark, another one of the city’s newest restaurants. Honestly, there’s a good chance you haven’t heard of it. There’s an even better chance you’ve never walked past it. Tucked away on Alling Street, a small side street that you may know better as “the yellow cab stand next to Penn Station”, foot traffic isn’t much of an option for Awesome. So I, for one, was pretty impressed when the owner actually joined the Brick City Supper Club group at the last outing at Lakay. That showed that they weren’t stuck on the “if you build it, they will come” mentality that so many business fail by. I had heard good reviews from a few different people and met the owner at a couple of events throughout the city. The decor was nice enough. And the seclusion of the restaurant (it’s actually underground as well) gives you a feeling of privacy.
Now, granted, the way Brick City Supper Club works can be a gift and a curse. For the group, accommodations are never a problem since most restaurants’ slowest evening is probably Monday. The flip side to that coin, however, is that some restaurants don’t staff up on Mondays, and a group of 20+ people can be challenging if they aren’t operating a well-oiled machine. To allay that challenge, Brick City Supper Club reaches out in advance to each restaurant, and maintains open lines of communication regarding the amount of people expected, and suggestions that the restaurant may want to try to keep things running smoothly. Usually, this helps tremendously. Last night…not so much.
The group topped out at about 24 people (plus a couple of extras who came by to say hey but didn’t actually eat). The first group of about six arrived at 7pm and gradually more and more people continued to come in. By 8pm just about everyone was there and the staff came around to take everyone’s order. And then…we waited…and waited…and waited. Some waited as long as 2+ hours before their food arrived. One person waited that long just to finally get word from the kitchen that they were out of the dish she ordered!
To be fair, the group is pretty good on patience and empathy, even when service is sub-par. And a large part of the Supper Club experience has more to do with conversation and meeting people than the meal itself. But this was getting out of hand.
Once the food began to arrive, the expectation was that the flavor and quality of the food would eclipse the poor service. And for some this was true. For others…not so much.
Finally, before everyone began to gather themselves to depart, the chef came out. Strangely, what started out as an apology swiftly turned into a scolding of sorts. By the time all was said and done, everyone’s face was bewildered at best, disgusted at worst. But don’t take my word for it. Here is how the group reviewed the restaurant.
Comments:
“Not so awesome! Should have limited options for the group. Received food way too late! Attitude of the only cook unprofessional. Proper planning on owner’s part should have been done prior towards the club arrival!”
“Food was tasty, but the service was incredibly slow. The staff was cheerful, but unable to keep up. The room also does little to muffle noise and gets quite loud.”
