Hickory Tavern — Restaurant in Holly Springs

My wife and I visited Hickory Tavern for the first time last night. I was a bit surprised that a sports bar was empty on a Saturday night during college football season. We were seated right away by a host, but waited nearly 15 minutes for a waiter/waitress to attend to us. We noticed that out of the entire restaurant, there were only two waitresses working all 8 tables that had guests. Along with two waitresses, there was one bartender, and then about 4 guys (waiters?) who were just...standing there. Not working, not checking on guests. They were just standing near a table, on their phones, and occasionally looking at us and other guests. As we were about to say "screw it" and leave, a waitress came over to apologize for the long wait, say there was some "confusion" in the kitchen, and got out drink order. Then, one of those guys that had just been standing there not working appeared with an order of "complimentary" BBQ nachos and gave them to us. We ate those while watching football. Waitress came back 5 minutes later with our waters, and got our food order. After she wrote it down, she warned us that the kitchen is "slow." We noticed our drinks had been sitting at the bar for about 10 minutes before our waitress noticed and brought them to us. Our food came out at a reasonable time, and it was okay. Our waitress didn't check on us while eating our food. We noticed that she wasn't at any other table either. We finished our food, continued to watch football, and waited another solid 10 minutes before our waitress asked if we wanted our check. We said yes, and she responded "I'll get that as soon as I can." Which we would've understood if she was busy attending other tables...but she wasn't. She just went back to the kitchen and disappeared for another 5-10 minutes. During that time, we noticed a party of 4 had come in and had the same issue as us -- waited 15 minutes for a waitress to even get their drink order. As they were about to say "screw it" that one guy (I'm starting to wonder if he was the manager?) came by and gave them "complimentary" beers to make sure they stayed.

We completely understand a restaurant being short-staffed! But maybe management should look into the fact that it's a bad look when you only have two waitresses (who just vanish for 10-15 minutes at a time) three hosts/hostesses, and then four people just...standing there not doing anything the entire night. I see some of the other recent reviews from people saying food and service is GREAT. Maybe we just caught you on a bad night? We might give it a...

The Regional Manager reached out to us and convinced us to give this place another shot. Holy cow what a difference! Even though they were busy, we were seated within a few minutes. Our waitress, Desi, was amazing...sweet, personable, attentive, efficient. Our food was also very good. Oh, and we got wings to go for our son, who is pretty picky about this particular item, and they were a hit. He said they were fantastic. So glad we gave Hickory Tavern another chance. We will definitely be back since there were several dishes that looked delicious as they were coming out of the kicthen.

After reading Summer Wilson's review, I felt compelled to write about our experience a year ago.

We walked in and were not acknowledged even thought they were not that busy. Finally someone saw us and waved us on to pick a table. We sat their for 10 minutes and continued to be ignored. I walked up to the bar and asked if we could get a server. A few minuted later a young girl walked up, obviously not very excited to see us, and took our drink orders. Ten minutes later still no drinks. Went to the bar again to see what was up. Bartender made out drinks immediately and I brought them to the table. Waited another 10 minutes and our waitress seems to have vanished. I finally went to the bar again when we were done with our drinks and told the bartender we wanted food, since we were both starving by then, but were done waiting. I asked for the drink bill, which he declined to make us pay for and we left. Really sad because we know a lot of people who go there and recommended us trying it. We have...

The redeeming grace was that our waitresses have been quite nice and tried to be helpful every time. However, this experience included, the past three times I've had food from this location I was disappointed. The first time (to-go) both my mother and I received older, greyed, broccoli with our burgers that we'd order with some pink and received well done. The second time (dine-in) the Chicken Parmesan we'd ordered was under-sauced and the chicken itself dry. This time, today (dine-in), there were wait times while tables were empty, we didn't receive silverware until after our food had been brought out, and all of our plates were dirty. The plates had clearly been washed, but residue was left on them and their surfaces were rough to the touch. My mother's dish (Low Country Shrimp and Grits) was not presented like the QR menu picture, or well for that fact - rough cut onions of all different sizes. My hamburger was again overcooked from what I'd ordered, and the bun had something strange stuck on the bottom (seemed like a bit of cauliflower? but came off easily). I know that it's a difficult time (quasi-post pandemic) and staffing is difficult, so I didn't make a fuss because there wasn't anything that could've been done to have satisfied me. I don't think I'll be going back to this location again though, since it's become clear that inconsistent service is the norm - and that's not worth the price point. It's unfortunate since the first visit (per-pandemic) was great and completely...