Copper Fire — Restaurant in Belleville

Update to respond to co-owner response. Working in the restaurant industry I know that reviews are out there to be honest with the good and the bad. You get four and five-star reviews when you give four and five star service. I'm sorry you didn't like me giving you a three-star review but I feel my review was honest and respectful. People should know that even though there might be some issues your management team will take care of them, so why you would want that handled privately and not show as an honest review is beyond me. I'm sorry you're not happy with me taking the honest approach but it really makes me question if you're four and five-star reviews are your friends and not actually honest. I contemplated taking a star away but then that would make me not honest because my actual review is based on my experience for that day not your terrible reply to it which you seem to have a bad habit of. Have a good day!

First time visiting (arrived 12/11 approx 12:45 pm) Ok so this is going to be a mixed review. I'll start with the bad. 1. We ordered mozzarella sticks for app and 40 minutes later, no app, no waitress even came by or noticed. At about the 50 minute mark after arriving, Finally here is our food. Whoops, just my husband, son and daughters food. Mine is not here yet at this point. 2. About 5 minutes later, here is waitress asking if everything is ok? Um well cancel our appetizer I guess, we told her and mention still no food for me. Shocked as a waitress she didn't know we hadn't received the appetizer yet. Now about 5 minutes later here is my sandwich finally. It's called an ultimate BLT. That's laughable. The little tomato on it was like the edge of a piece of tomato, like it came from scraps left on another table (being sarcastic, I know I didn't get leftovers) the bacon was so hard I couldn't even bite through it. I love crispy bacon too, but this was like a brick. Had maybe 4 little slivers of grilled onion. How you call this sandwich ultimate is really beyond me, especially for the price you charge and then add $3 for fries instead of chips. Oh and no mayo on side as stated on menu. Ridiculous prices. Actually ordered sweet potato fries but they were out, no worries as I know they were busy this weekend. (We tried coming yesterday 12/10). Hubby ordered the pesto chicken panini and he didn't get the choice of fried or grilled, he likes chicken both ways so no biggie but thought I'd mention it. He said sandwich was good. Son's pizza was supposed to be Bacon and Pepperoni. Was just pepperoni and no bacon. Not once did waitress offer drinks as we only saw her that one time to tell her to cancel apps.

Ok now the good. I did ask for a manager. She was very sweet. She took my Non ultimate BLT off our bill and took the drinks off the bill and gave us to go drinks. She also took the bacon off the bill for my son's pizza as well. She saw the bacon and tomato sliver and agreed it was not a good look. I ate half my sandwich without the bacon and some of my fries because I needed something as I'm a diabetic and has taken my medicine. I will say my daughter absolutely loved her pasta dish but we did notice we were charged $3 for garlic bread although it said served with garlic bread. No worries as she loved it. My son did enjoy his pizza even though it was missing the bacon. So the manager did have empathy and did a great job in the end. I didn't catch her name to give though. I work in the food industry and have been in management too and understand things happen, but to even send my sandwich out like that blows my mind that wasn't caught. The fries were good and seasoned well. Added a pic of my not so ultimate BLT. Our serve Matthea was...

Probably the worst dining experience I’ve had yet. I base my review on prior work experience in bars and restaurants in the Metro Saint Louis Area prior to going into my current trade and the fact I’ve dined all over the United States and in various other countries as I travel more than the average person. Service delivery model is poor as the customer sitting at their table has to place their order with bartender (no server) while standing in line as opposed to placing an order in a line with kitchen or a person who just handles food orders. They have a food runner who cannot help with breakdowns such as orders being incorrectly placed. I was informed by food runner to take it up with same bartender leaving, me the customer, to do a job of getting out of my seat and sorting out an improperly placed order. This upstairs bartender wanted to argue facts with me about my order, how I placed it, and chose not accept that she made a human error which resulted in upset customers. Bartender put no real effort into offering a solution on how to fix the problem.

A sanitary problem worth mentioning is a table behind us was not bussed for well over an hour. Eventually customers were putting empty food baskets over there as time went on as a trash pile.

I must make mention I just came home from a long business trip about 1,000 miles away from home and decided to catch up with family here. Since I spend 11 months out of the year away from home because of my chosen career path, I feel I had some of my time at home was wasted by dining at this establishment. This is time that I will never get back.

My wife, brother, myself and a couple of in-laws will not be returning here and I will be sure to tell everyone to not come here during my times I happen to be home to help them sidestep the hassle of dining here.

Downtown Main Street Belleville businesses come and go with most closing for good. If this place does not change its service delivery model, I see Copper Fire being one of the many establishments that will not be here to stay especially with how the economy is going.

Suggested changes based on dining experience :

Do not have a busy bartender also take food orders when the establishment has no servers. Maybe have the customer place order with a dedicated person who handles food orders or with the kitchen. Examples of success stories would be Cutters in Belleville or Joes Kansas City BBQ (probably the most successful restaurant in Kansas City Metro Area).

Bartender would probably need retrained.

Please bus your tables.

Maybe get rid of kitchen and stick to a bar setup.

Dining experience took place from my experience on 2/4/2022 upstairs around...

In Belleville today and wanted lunch so I popped into Copper Fire to take care of my rumbling tummy... biggest mistake i have ever made in my entire life! My cohort and i arrive and the first thing that I noticed was the confusing decor. What is this place? Is it a dungeon? A warehouse? A bootleg Hooters? It was baffling! The walls are dookie brown, the windows, which could provide ample (much needed) light to the place, are covered and there is a barn door hanging above the entrance next to numerous tv screens... strange. Approaching the hostess, I notice that the menus are placed on a bicycle(!?) and, while it is pretty cool from an artsy point of view, i don't think that it says upscale dining... the hostess was VERY nice - the only highlight of this 'experience'. She was attentive and extremely polite. My dining companion, who is very well versed in culinary excellence, picked Adult Grilled Cheese sandwiches and salad for our lunch on this fine day - simple and hard to mess up but, low and behold, Copper Fire missed the mark on the sandwich by a mile. First, it was NOT grilled cheese. It was Texas toast that lacked the buttery goodness that makes grilled cheese a grilled cheese! I expect my hands to need wiping off during eating a grilled cheese and look forward to the buttery flavor but, it wasn't there. And grilled it was not. It was like the chef threw some cheese on Texas Toast and stuck it under a broiler... bad choice. The sandwich was more corse than #16 sandpaper and lacked flavor. The bacon on it was burnt to a black and was unbearable. The tomato was fresh tho. The sauce that comes with the sandwich is appallingly offensive and was the nastiest offering I have seen paired with a sandwich. It was bitter, a gross color, smelled funky and tasted like nothing I have ever or will ever want to consume again. The salad was good. Fresh tomatoes with romaine and parmesan and an appropriate amount of dressing. I should of just stuck with the salad and not tortured myself or my cohort with the atrocity that was that lackluster, horrid mess that is being unjustly called a grilled cheese. The hostess asked my companion if everything was ok and the look on her face said it all. She asked if she could bring a new sauce for the sandwiches and my cohort was just ready to end this lunch trip now, disappointed and unhappy with this meal. I think Copper Fire is trying too hard to find its identity and needs to focus on the direction it wants to take going forward. A simplistic menu with straightforward offerings would suit this place well. I hope it improves before...