Local 22 Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Durham

I was looking for some quick grub and me and my bro found this nice place here in Durham. We came in not expecting much (typical restaurant stuff) but we were absolutely blown away by the food and atmosphere. For future reference, I had the lamb burger and fries. The burger I got here was probably the best burger I ever had. Seriously. Other restaurants grease their burgers to the point where it masks the flavor in oil while others just can't get the "freshness" of the ingredients right. Some places burgers are too small! This place had the best burger I ever eaten, all the flavors were clear and consistent and progressive in the approach of adding cucumbers and olives in it (kind of a Greek and American approach). The TWO patties were not greasy, but just right. It was kind of shocking being able to taste each individual flavor in the burger as I was used to just greasy, salted burgers. Five guys, McDonald's, bad daddy's burger bar, some burger place in NY, burger king, young hearts distilling (sliders) have absolutely nothing compared to these burgers. Plus, bonus points for toasting the burger buns (thank you local 22)! Don't get me started on the fries either, crisped to oblivion and salted to perfection. Not greasy and not a small amount of fries on the side either, a very generous and hand-crafted portion. Not even that, my brother had sweet potato fries (I hate sweet potato) but I tried one and I was blown away. I could barely taste the sweet potato! It was so crispy and salted just right, I loved it! The atmosphere was clear and the music was fresh and was neutral to the food. Some places have blaring rock or classical music, really having an impact on the food. Fooling customers about food being too rough and tough or delicate and savory. This place gave a crystal clear point on what the food is, what the place is, and the atmosphere in general. Now I'm no critic, but I seriously get philosophical if I have an experience like this. Kind of shocking not all places operate like this. Desserts were an absolute treat either. Lauren, our waiter, was kind, attentive and definitely on her A game! Kudos to her! You bet your sweet butt I'm coming back here for the burgers, that stuff was IMMACULATE. actually the BEST burger I have EVER...

Myself and one of my friends had a reservation here on Friday 12/2. I’m local to the area but she is not and was traveling from out of state. I’ve been wanting to try this place, I’d heard great things and the menu looked awesome. We did show up 15 minutes late to our reservation so our original table had already been given up but they told us they had a 2 person high top available if we wanted to sit there. We took that table which was in the bar area. It was extremely busy and took awhile to be greeted but we understood due to how full the restaurant was. We ordered drinks and an appetizer with full intentions of also ordering meals. After we received our appetizer (which was VERY good we got the bacon jalapeño Mac & cheese) we were chatting when we noticed a movement down on the ground under the edge of the bar across from us. When we looked over we saw a mouse about 4-5 inches long running up and down the edge of the bar on the floor. Obviously we were shocked and had no idea what to do or say. The mouse disappeared and we had no idea where it went. We sat there for probably 5 minutes contemplating what to do - do we say something? Do we order meals? Do we cash out and leave? Eventually the gentleman who seated us (middle aged white man with a beard) came walking by which I assumed to be a manager or shift lead of some type. I let him know what we saw and that we did not want to cause a scene (I’ve worked restaurants and retail). He was shocked and did say he was sorry and that he would call “their guy” the next day referring to an exterminator I assume. We thought a manager or someone else would possibly come over to speak to us but never did. We also thought the gentleman we told would tell our server but don’t think he did that either. We decided to eat meals elsewhere and cashed out and left after drinks & an app. Obviously these things can happen in any restaurant and 100% do happen every day - I contemplated writing this review all weekend. The 2 stars is due to how the situation was handled :( unfortunately do not think I will be giving this local business a second try. Other than seeing the mouse out in the restaurant area everything was great. It was an awesome atmosphere and the app we did order was hot...

Love this place..we had been going several years pre- pandemic. Since my husband is on a permanent low carb diet we've asked several times about a low carb beer recommendation but was always told they had none. First time back post pandemic this evening I convinced my husband to bring one Michelob ultra (low carb) from home which he did so we could enjoy the delicious food while supporting the restaurant.We told the manager that we brought a low carb beer with us since they don't offer one and he told us that they do have one, which was good to know for the next time. All was good until we got our check and saw that we were charged a $5 cork fee for bringing a beer from home— total bill was $70 which we were glad to pay for food and other drinks. Since we never have brought food/drink into restaurants before and we’re not in the restaurant business we were unfamiliar with this practice. When we asked the same mgr about it and discussed our past low carb beer experience he offered to take it off but we opted to not do that. It wasn't about the money but that this could have been handled so differently by him instead of charging us--by sending us the low carb beer on the house, by saying they'd usually charge a cork fee but sorry we had received incorrect info from them before and he hopes we try it next time, maybe even telling us that he was going to charge us the fee--that would have been better than sneaking it in and hiding behind the poor waitress. I love their food but this was handled with zero class. BTW, we're 60 yrs old--it's not like we look like college students sneaking beer in. EDIT: CLASSY RESPONSE FROM THE...