Gather Restaurant — Restaurant in Atmore

Short and to the point: Fantastic food, drinks, and the bartender (who was also our server) Eric was perfect.

In Depth: I was over 1,000 miles from home, for work, and I always make it my mission to find the best food in the area. Located in quite a small town in Alabama I was expecting to be led to a restaurant featuring southern cuisine our simple and delicious BBQ. Admittedly, but without offense, that is rarely my first choice so I was very excited when I found Gather on Google Maps. I was immediately interested after seeing the contemporary American menu, and the drink list added even more confidence in this option.

I walked in with 2 others and we were asked if we had a table reserved; it was just a Tuesday evening and there dining room is not small. We did not but we able to be seated at the only available table in the bar area which we were not upset about. From there my collogues ordered IPAs and I had their featured Old Fashioned which was fantastic. For appetizers we ordered hummus and the great balls of fire (fried cheese balls). When these came out it was confirmation that we picked the right spot. Next up was perfectly dressed caesar salads which came with toasted crostini that you could crumble into croutons. For dinner, two of us ordered one of the features which was a bison steak with fingerling potatoes and the other ordered the Pepsi pork chop. The steak was truly the best I had which surpassed my now second best from a steakhouse in NYC. The also tried the porkchop which was over an inch thick and had a delicious Pepsi glaze. Everything was perfect but unfortunately we were too full to for dessert.

In fact, our experience was so good we came back the next night which was out last night in town. We had the steak fries which was french fries with cheese sauce topped with strips of steak along with crispy onions, buffalo sauce, and crumbled gorgonzola. I feel the need to add that this steak was cooked in a large piece then sliced so that each strip was crusted on the outside and perfect medium red through the center. Highly recommend but beware as it is very filling. For dinner the second night I had the mahi mahi special which came topped with a crawfish sauce which was unbeatable and my colleague had the shrimp fettucine.

I am so glad that I found this place and I would recommend it to anyone. I hope to...

I can't complain about the food--I think they have a solid, varied, and inventive menu and a good staff and the atmosphere is overall really happy. I had a Paloma cocktail (grapefruit) and seared scallops over creamed corn and while it was on the salty side (a lot of things come with bacon mixed in) I really enjoyed the food.

However, I had a poor experience when I walked in the door and that negatively colored my whole meal. I came in around 5:30 on a Saturday, thinking I'd beat any sort of crowd, and when I walked in there were several empty tables. But I was told I had to wait for a spot at the bar to open up, and since the group currently at the bar had just come in, I was looking at a 45+ minute wait. That was really frustrating--to see almost an entire room of empty tables and be told to wait that long. After I questioned the hostesses at bit about it, they let me have a 2-top that they were holding for a reservation at 6:30. So they were holding a table an entire hour before the reservation, just to make sure it was clear in time for it. That seems a little extreme to me, I guess the reasoning is that another couple could take that spot and linger forever, but they let me have it since I was alone. But then I felt like I had to rush--I ordered something that wouldn't take long to make and ate it pretty quickly and downed my drink pretty quick too. I mean, I don't take long to eat when I'm by myself anyway but I just felt like I was on borrowed time from someone else's precious reservation. While I waited for my food, I counted 7 empty tables in a room that only had about 10-11 total and I was told I had to wait. And tables were already socially distanced so it wasn't like they were skipping tables. It was just frustrating. And I don't think the hostesses were trying to ruin my night--I'm sure they've had their fair share of folks yelling at them when their reservation wasn't available when they walk in.

I guess the moral of the story is, make a reservation! Of course, had I done that, I probably wouldn't have gotten a seat at all? I dunno. I'm not local so it's not like I'll be back anyway. It was an expensive meal (~$50 with tip) for an experience I think I...

We go to The gather twice a year when my boss comes to town . We had closed on a big business deal and were celebrating . She had made two back to back reservations. We were there a hour and still had part of our food on table when they ask about desert . We were not asked before our food was taken and we still had some food on our plate About 20 minutes later my boss had ordered another glass of wine and we were ask if we wanted a box for our desert . We were shocked and told manager we were not finished and Management informed us they had another reservation at this point we were there a hour and a half and to be informed that more or less we needed to leave , we still had some of our desert left . I had noticed 4 women at another table who were eating , drinking wine and enjoying theirselves were being given checks before they were done It was embarrassing ! We were a party of two . I know sometimes you can be done eating fast other times your relaxing talking drinking and enjoying your food It took a while on Decisions regarding appetizers and the wine clearly two hour window should be permitted in some cases I feel the situation was handled poorly and it was sad bc we were genuinely enjoying ourselves I hope the owners read this so it doesn’t happen to others that our wanting to take their time and enjoy the...