Galvin’s Delicatessen — Restaurant in Fredericksburg

This review is for River’s End, the speakeasy and dinner spot on the second floor of Galvin’s.

The wife and I checked out River’s End this past weekend, excited about a new and exciting speakeasy in town. Unfortunately, River’s End isn’t really much of a speakeasy, so to speak. It’s more like a regular restaurant that serves dinner and happens to be on the second floor of a deli. The speakeasy vibe pales in comparison to other places we’ve been, and it really felt like an afterthought.

For example:

Grandstaff & Stein in Richmond appears to be a bookstore from the street. You give a password to the employee at the desk, and they will open a moving bookcase to let you into the establishment.

Please Don’t Tell in NYC is an award-winning bar that can only be accessed through a fake wall in a phone booth in the famed Crif Dogs in the East Village.

Moonshiner, a Prohibition-era style speakeasy in Paris, is hidden behind a pizzeria. To gain access, guests must enter their walk-in fridge and then exit through another door located at the back. It’s a pretty cool (as in cold) experience.

Compare those really unique speakeasy experiences with River’s End…where you walk into a door…and then walk through another door.

If you’d like, you can pick up a phone and call the Galvin’s main phone number to provide them with a password, but it didn’t seem like guests needed to be “buzzed in” or would otherwise be denied entrance without doing so. It didn’t feel much like a speakeasy…more like a restaurant with extra steps (and a second door).

All of that could be forgotten with a good drink…but the cocktails at River’s End were rather disappointing. Mixers were lost entirely behind the pungent flavors of booze that was either not well masked or too generously poured. Either way, the drinks were far too boozy and not particularly tasty.

The presence of any booze, at all, in my cocktail was another issue. I ordered a mocktail called the President’s Garden, only to be served a rum-heavy concoction that left me somewhat perplexed. It turns out that the President’s Garden is both a cocktail AND a mocktail. Since I hadn’t even glanced at the cocktail section of the menu, I had missed that.

The waiter, despite noting that similar mix-ups have happened numerous times before, didn’t bother to take the time to clarify. In my case, it wasn’t a big deal. However, I could only imagine how upset someone would be if they were a recovering alcoholic or couldn’t drink for religious reasons.

Then there was the food. My duck breast came out cooked to just around rare, which is far too underdone for my taste. Additionally, it was evident that the duck breast had not been allowed to rest before being sliced and plated, as it had leaked all over everything. Worse, the brussels sprouts on the dish were completely undercooked and rock hard. It just felt badly rushed...like they needed the plate to sell the table and had to hurry it out.

My wife ordered two small dishes: a panzanella salad with confit duck, and a fried green tomato dish. The salad was actually quite good, although there was a massive piece of flabby duck skin and fat that was luckily identified and discarded before being picked up with a forkful of lettuce and bread. The fried green tomatoes were also quite good, although there was a bit too much burrata for the serving of tomatoes provided.

Ultimately, there are places serving similar types of dishes to River’s End in Fredericksburg. Many of them (such as Fahrenheit) are executing them better. There are also numerous places (such as Rebellion and Port) that are making better, more flavorful cocktails.

If there was more of a speakeasy vibe, I would definitely consider the ambiance and atmosphere a key differentiator. But River’s End just feels like a restaurant and bar. And other establishments are doing “restaurant” and “bar” better.

While I’m certainly glad that I got to give River’s End a try, I don’t see myself rushing to go back. However, I will eventually, especially if the food and...

My husband got the corned beef Reuben from the deli, and it was absolutely outstanding! The people behind the counter were very kind and pleasant to talk to as well.

We just went to the river’s end speakeasy (upstairs) This past weekend and I have a couple of thoughts on it:

Atmosphere: 5/5 ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I’m so glad that this space has turned into something nice instead of what it used to be. The AC was out so it was definitely a little uncomfortable, but that is temporary and will be fixed soon. Also, they didn’t have the Passwords up and running yet, which was a little disappointing because that’s kind of the whole point of a speakeasy, but again, that is temporary and will be fixed soon.

Food: 5/5 very good. We had the beef tallow fries with garlic aïoli and they were excellent.

Service: 5/5 Our server was great!

Cocktails: 3/5 this was honestly the most disappointing part of the experience, and considering a speakeasy is centered around cocktails and drinks, I was definitely a little bummed. I ordered the president’s garden and the Princess Anne and they were just ok. Very strong. They could’ve been balanced a little bit better. On the other hand, a friend of mine got Charlotte‘s flower and my husband got the old-fashioned and both of those were delicious. All in all, for how long it took the cocktails to get made, they were hit or miss. I’m hoping they will improve as they settle in more though!

Overall, I would definitely check this place out. It’s not cheap, but it’s also not the most expensive...

Review of their “speakeasy,” River’s End. You’d be better off, and have faster service, better food, and better drinks ($11 glass of wine for a grocery store $11 bottle of wine, and cheap Mexican restaurant quality cocktails- sorry cheap Mexican places, you do kill it with the food), by driving the 45 minutes to the speakeasy in Richmond. We (party of two) made reservations. But when we arrived, the call-in speakeasy feature didn’t work, and we never got a password, just had to walk in, killed the magic. We waited 15 before spotting a server and flagged him down to let him know we were still waiting for service. We ordered drinks and an app, but 35 minutes later, he had never come back so we flagged someone down, asked for the check (waited a long time for that too) and left hungry and wanting more drinks. While we were there, two other tables got up and left due to the absent waiter. Environment wise, despite many open tables, it was so loud and unpleasant. If there was music, you couldn’t hear it over common table chatter. The acoustics are terrible. They really missed the mark here, service wise, environment wise, and drink wise (you’re a speakeasy, have good drinks at least) and I’d assume food wise, but we never got to order more than one app. What a shame, go...