Spikes Keg O Nails — Restaurant in Grayling

After traveling down from the upper central UP, my son and I came into your establishment for dinner. It was a 40 minute wait for inside dining or we could be immediately seated outside. It was a lovely evening so we decided to sit outside. The building is charming, there is a wonderful view of the Au Sable and the most talented musician sang her little heart out. It was a very pleasant atmosphere until our waitress arrived...we ordered our drinks, two waters and a coffee, and appetizers. Our server brought our drinks. Coffee was ice cold. We placed our order, my son ordered the Smash Burger with no onions as he HAS Crohn's Disease. Three separate times our waitress walked by our table and I asked her for more coffee. She ignored all three requests. Fourth request and she FINALLY brings another cup of coffee. Again, ice cold. I walked up to the bar and asked if she could put it in the microwave as it was cold. She gave me a list of excuses before she huffed and stated, "Well, I guess I could take it inside." Our food comes, my son's burger is LOADED with onions. My sandwich is cold, macaroni and cheese is cold (Kraft? Tasteless. + $6 upcharge.). My son tries scraping off the onions, then realizes that under the second burger is ANOTHER pile of onions. I walked up to the bar and asked our waitress if she could make him another burger as he ordered it without the grilled onions. She stomped over to our table grabbed his plate, stomped back and whipped it into the trash and started bathmouthing us to the other waitress. Very LOUDLY! I took one bite of my sandwich and one bite of the mac and cheese and then just sat with my son as he ate. The "Cluck Cluck," yes, that's what it's called, was terrible. Another waitress came over and asked if something was wrong with my food. I explained that it was not good and it was cold when it arrived. Our waitress had not been back to ask. She was kind and apologetic. Then, our waitress stomps over and exclaims, "You DO NOT need to be talking to her about this, the burger has already been taken off." I didnt order a burger. While throwing the bill onto the table. I couldn't help but laugh at her childish behavior. The second waitress fixed our bill and apologized again and again. For someone that has worked in the food industry for 36 years and owning two businesses, I have never been treated or talked to so rudely by wait staff or an employee. I personally will never revisit this establishment or recommend it to another traveler. Wait the 40 mins and just eat at Paddle Hard. The food was subpar at best and the wait staff...

Service: 3/5, Quality: 3/5, Value: 2/5

Pretty good bar food. Short version - Average service, good food but you get a little less than what you should. There is a single Black Bean burger as a vegetarian option.

Longer version- Service was average. It is about what you'd expect from a restaurant. Nothing great, nothing bad. The only vegetarian entree I saw was the Black Bean Burger. They fry all food in the same fryer as fish (as of July 2017) so take note if that is a concern for you.

Quality - The food was good and about what you'd expect from bar food. I had the spikeburger on a pretzel bun with bacon and american cheese. I found it quite tasty. Unfortunately i ordered a medium burger and was given a well done burger. I.e. there was not a drop of pink left in the patty and it was dried up. This was disappointing because I feel that the spikeburger had potential for much better taste had it been cooked properly. Being overcooked I had to rate it as an average burger. Again, about what you'd expect from bar food. On a personal note, I am appalled whenever I find that they let a line cook on the grills who doesn't know the difference between medium and well done. To be clear, I did not raise the wellness of my burger to the waitstaff's attention during my stay. I ate my whole burger and left a note on the receipt. I don't feel it's my responsibility to send back a burger and wait another 20 minutes while someone learns how to cook a burger.

Value - I rated down because I found the cost for food to be quite high. The base price of a plain burger is $7.95 for 1/3# is ridiculous when combined with an overcooked piece of cow. Add another $1 for bacon and $0.50 for cheese you're looking at a damn expensive bacon cheese burger and if you want a pretzel bun you better protect your ass because that will cost you another $1.50. Want fries instead of chips? that's $2. Yeah, the menu pricing is ridiculous and when matched with the quality of the food, I'm not fully convinced it is worth it. Maybe if they learn how to cook a...

As a fellow food establishment owner, I couldn't wait to leave a review tonight! I absolutely loved everything about this restaurant/bar. The atmosphere was iconic. From the names carved into all the booths and bathroom stalls, to the layers and layers of epoxy on all of the tables, you could tell this place held some awesome stories! The hostess was organized and professional - even tho the place was hopin! Our waitress was prompt and brought us drinks right away, she was honest about the menu - told us everything was delicious- except the Cesar salad sucked. I LOVE when the servers are honest! I got a side salad with ranch and a turkey Reuben sandwich. The salad was super cold, crispy, all veggies were fresh and the ranch was on point! The Ruben was perfectly grilled, with the perfect amount of slaw/dressing and tender turkey. The menu was simple, American flare, nothing fancy, but it was absolutely delicious! Definitely hit the spot after camping the past few days. The cherry on top - for me- was the fact that they played Incubus on the speakers. The music, the vibe, the staff, the food - the overall ambience was FanFreakingTastic!! Definitely recommend a trip to Grayling for this place...