The Original — Restaurant in Denver

Let me first start off by saying that I get that it was Easter Sunday and the place was booked with reservations. I tried to make a reservation about a week in advance and it was booked up. That being said, when I arrived at around 11 am, there were no less than 25 open tables. Was not one table available before a reservation started?

Thinking that maybe something was available, I went up to a hostess and was told that my party of 3 (My dad, my son and I) could sit at the bar and order food (I asked about food before checking it out to make sure that seating was not just for drinks). No problem I thought, there are a few open chairs.

Once we get to the bar I ask a lady sitting next to two open chairs if I could pull a chair next to her so that my Dad, my son and I could sit next to each other. Being that there was plenty of room, she said "sure." I move the chair and am then told, without explanation, by the bartender/wait staff, that "You can't just move chairs around the bar." No reason given.

I say "ok, I am sorry" and move the chair back. For some context, one of the chairs that I moved was one of two unused chairs, each chair on a side of the drink prep station where only a single person could sit, even if they wanted to sit next to drinks being prepared and wait staff taking said drinks to customers at tables and at the bar.

As my son and dad are still sitting down, and I am standing behind them trying to figure out if we will wait until 3 successive chairs open up, I am told that "Unless you are ordering to go, you cannot stand around the bar." There was nobody else around the bar other than people already sitting there. It is not as if I was even blocking anyone from having access to the bar. Again, no explanation given and I was standing there for about 30 seconds after I had moved the chair back to its original location.

Even if I was lied to and told something like "For safety reasons, we cannot have you moving chairs or standing by the bar," I would have understood. I was not told this, and instead, I was rudely dealt with. When thinking about it again, I could even argue that someone sitting next to a drink prep station, where wait staff is presumably getting drinks to bring to customers sitting, is probably more of a safety issue than me pulling up a chair in an open space around the bar.

Now, I get that maybe it was thought that my party wasn't going to be ordering a ton of drinks and that maybe it was the hope that two other customers would sit by the bar and rack up a higher tab. That being said, is it really best business practice to turn away a party of 3, that would, worst case scenario, order $60 or so worth of food and drinks? With prices for labor and rent and the like increasing by the day, I am not sure that places should be turning away paying customers.

And lastly, the kicker. My wife asks my son each Monday morning what the best and worst part of his weekend was. My son's favorite part of the weekend was the Rockies game. The worst part? This is the first time an adult was ever that mean to him. Kids have been mean to him but never an adult. My 6 year old wasn't even the target of this entire situation and he was not a fan of the interaction.

This is not a place I would go out of my way to recommend. Skimming through other comments, it seems as though my type of experience is not necessarily the first of its kind.

• No answer from this place is not surprising to me at all (4.17.23)

*No response...

I had high expectations for an upscale diner concept that has been tried out by Sage group in the food driven culture of Portland. I wanted to like this place and I really wanted that comfort food to be over the top.

We skipped drinks even though the happy hour looked like a good offer.

Duckfat Matzo Ball soup was a good solid base stock but the kitchen forgot how to add salt. The matzo ball was solid and reminded me of a good experience in the Jewish enclaves of Long Island. There was very little explanation of where the duckfat was added. It tasted like brown chicken stock to me but nothing stood out as having that rounded out duck fat flavor.

The salad that comes with “grilled artichokes” came with what tasted like straight from the jar Costco artichoke hearts. If they grilled it they didn’t do it long enough for any physical change to the food.

The trout had the most limp and tasteless skin you don’t want to see on a piece of fish. Not sure if it was sautéed but would highly suggest encouraging the kitchen staff to baste the skin a bit more to encourage better flavor from steelhead trout. Maybe add some herbs or acid into the basting liquid???

The aoli that came with the fish was basically egg and oil. They didn’t even bother to add salt or vinegar. I hate seeing a good homemade condiment go to waste. I feel like this was an oversight from the kitchen and probably not the plan.

The sides like the potatoes salad was poorly chopped. A bell pepper halved does not equate to a proper food prep.

My biggest complaint is is the cronut sliders. I’m not a guy who normally splurges on something like that so if I pull the trigger based on a restaurant concept I’m going in with high expectations. They came out greasy and more like a patty melt than a hamburger bun which totally ruins the concept of the croissant influence. Why would you smash those beautiful pastry layers into a nasty disk. Doesn’t make sense. The cheese glaze might as well have been cheese wiz and the “wagyu” label served little purpose but to amplify the cost.

The Reuben was solid but hey go to any diner and get that.

Service was pretty solid. Had some kinks to still work out but hey who doesn’t right now.

I really pity any team members that have to open a project in the pandemic and maybe I will swing by again. But, not what I...

Honestly I would rate this place a 3 but the impeccable service raised it to a 4. Came here for a birthday brunch with a group of friends and tried many different options from the menu. Most of which had the OG seal of approval for being among the best. Truthfully there was nothing that stood out to me. The flavors just weren’t there everything was quite bland. The Donut Sliders are a rip off for how small they are, and you only get two for the price of $12. I wouldn’t call it an entree nor an appetizer. Maybe more of a side. They were also lukewarm and slightly stale. Seeing at how much they were hyped up in other reviews I had really high hopes and it was a let down. The cronuts were lukewarm as well and completely falling apart. There were only two perfectly rounded pieces on the entire plate the rest had disintegrated. The Avocado Toast was piled high and drowning in so much kale it was hard to taste anything else. The Salmon Benedict was decent but the hollandaise could have had more flavor. The BLAST Turkey Club was alright but it was too much bread. Could have done with out the extra layer of bread in the middle. However, it does come with a hefty amount of fries on the side which had a good seasoning on them. The lemon blueberry pancakes were lacking in lemon and very little blueberry throughout. The french banana bread wasn’t terrible. I liked the fresh bananas on top but it was very condensed and rich, kind of too sweet for me. The best thing I tried was the sausage pancake batter “corn dogs” they were cooked perfectly and I really enjoyed how crispy they were on the outside. The bottomless mimosas were definitely worth it for only $24 and there were times where I hadn’t even finished my glass yet and our waiter would come around and continuously keep filling them up for us. For birthdays they send out a chocolate ice cream sundae with a sparkler shooter candle, which I thought made the overall experience even better. I probably wouldn’t come back for the food maybe just drinks. The service was amazing from beginning to end which I admired quite a lot especially given how busy it was for a...