The Upper Crust — Restaurant in Gettysburg

In town for a week long work event. Stopped in Sunday evening after arriving in town a bit later than anticipated. I sat at the bar. Bartender was nice and mostly attentive. I ordered Korean wings, extra crispy. They came within 5-7mins and my first bite was soggy and lacked flavor. I took another bite to see if I could make it through the order. I couldn’t. I asked bartender if I could please swap for a pizza. He replied, “I will try.” I was taken a bit back but ignored his statement because he ultimately allowed me to swap the wings. Meal ended well, I tipped him a solid 20%. Monday, a colleague and I had some time to kill so I suggested we go back because I had a good experience the night before. We sat at the bar and had the same bartender I had Sunday. He recognized me and thanked me for returning and bringing a friend. Again, decent experience that ended with me tipping 20%. Tuesday evening my family finally join me in Gettysburg so I again suggest Upper Crust because I figured my kids could play the games and I knew they would eat pizza. Amanda was our server and she was AMAZING!!! Super kind and attentive. This time my husband left over 20% tip because he was so impressed with her service. Stopped again today for a late lunch…I know, 4 days in a row was probably pushing it. We asked to be seated in the back-my first time sitting in the back. Rachel was our server. She seemed attentive and kind. Until she wasn’t. She literally disappeared after she dropped my hummus off. I had two gnats in my Blue Moon and I had to finally go to the bar to tell her. She was kind enough to give me a fresh beer, but she legit NEVER came back to our table to check on us. Full disclosure, I was the only one eating today as my family had lunch while I was in a work meeting. I told her the kids would order ice cream, but that I wanted to wait a bit until I was almost finished with my meal so we could try to time us all finishing around the same time. I ended up going back to the bar to order the ice cream. About 10 mins later she dropped it off and again went behind the bar never to return to our table to check on us. I went back to the bar AGAIN to order another scoop of ice cream and ask for the check. After another 5-10 min without her returning with our check or the ice cream scoop I ordered, I went back to the bar. She looks up and sees me, rushed to the POS and prints my check. As she hands it to me she asks, “what was the other thing you wanted?” I told her nothing and went back to the table to get my husband’s cc. I had to ask a manager if I could “please pay my check” after standing at the bar with check n cc in hand for almost 5 mins. Manager seemed miffed that I had bothered him. I had not noticed he was on the phone when I initially approached him, but he could have had a better reaction to a customer approaching him. Totally wrecked all three of my previous good experiences. Probably will never go back after spending hundreds of dollars over last 4...

Okay, where to begin...

On the positive side, the drink menu is very extensive; they have some decent seasonal beers. You can drink enjoyably in preparation for what is to come. The layout of the restaurant is enjoyable and original. This is where the positive side ends.

The food menu was limited and the food itself was gross. Our appetizer plates were dirty. The server was informed and brought us some new ones. We ordered an appetizer of fries to share; these seemed like the kind of thin fries you'd get from a fast food restaurant, covered with seasoning that looks like Old Bay -- except that Old Bay would've added at least some flavor.

For the main course we ordered three pizzas (Margherita, Gumbo, Brisket). The cheese was undercooked and rubbery across the board. The brisket pizza was slathered with barbecue sauce (image attached), I suspect to mask the blandness of the white sauce; I've had beef jerky more tender than the brisket meat itself.

The sausage on the gumbo was very chewy and on closer inspection, appeared pink and undercooked. Upon realizing this, we requested our check and a manager. A manager arrived; he did not introduce himself by name. The manager insisted that the sausage on the gumbo pizza was not undercooked, and only appeared pink because it was a fatty cut of meat. He also insisted that all meats are temperature checked. (Image attached with a piece turned over, you decide.)

Now I've come to expect managers to defend their establishment in the face of complaints, but this guy treated us like we were just trying to get out of our bill. He asserted that the server checked on us and we reported no problems (which would have been untrue, since the server acknowledged that our appetizer plates were dirty and brought us new ones), and suggested to our party that we should have reported the problems with the pizza sooner. However, since the sausage appeared cooked on it's up-facing side, we could not have known about the problem with the gumbo pizza before trying to eat it. In the end, the manager comp'd the gumbo pizza -- but not before that interaction ruined...

My family loves going to Upper Crust. While I have had better pizza elsewhere (not locally), it is still very good. They have a decent selection of local beers and a good cocktail menu. The restaurant itself is such a cool, looking place with a very unique vibe. It’s the perfect place to go if you’re with someone you don’t know very well, as you can break the ice with a game of pool or shuffleboard while waiting for your meal. They also have basketball, air, hockey, and ski ball. I hope I’m not making it sound like Chuck E. Cheese, because it is nothing like that at all. It is completely adult oriented, however, my kids still have fun there! The pizza ovens are this beautiful teal mosaic tile and the whole interior is painted green. When it’s nice outside, they leave the front wall completely open.

I do have two complaints, but neither of these are dealbreakers. First, I’ve never found the staff to be particularly attentive. Sometimes, you wait at the table for 20 minutes before anyone even brings your glass of water. The food can take a very long time as well. However, being that you can get up and hang out in the game area or eat outside on the sidewalk, or sit at the front open window and enjoy a drink, I don’t find this to be a deal breaker: my bigger complaint is about the women’s bathroom. Oh my goodness, it’s awful. It isn’t ADA accessible at all. Remember whether there are two or three stalls, but anyway, there is one slightly larger one and then one or two smaller ones. In the smaller ones, there are literally so small that you cannot get in and out of the stall without touching the toilet and the walls and rubbing up against everything. The door swings open to within 1 inch of the front of the toilet.

I will say I am NOT a fan of their sister restaurant next door. It’s adjacent to a BBQ place and you can order from there while at Upper Crust. My husband did that once and it was absolutely disgusting. However, we’ve never had a problem...