Back Porch Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Jacksonville

We arrived on 5/10/2014 around 5pm. When we entered, a hostess person (I guess that is what she was as she never bothered to introduce herself) anyway, this girl came up all flustered and said that maybe we should just sit over by the window or something because they were expecting some large groups and she didn’t know how long it would be before we had to leave. You read that right – that is how it went down as soon as we stepped foot in the door. We are well-dressed senior adults with the obvious means to order and pay for anything we would like to eat. We have never been turned away or treated so badly before. Well, read on; it gets worse.

Then, Jayme/Jamie (a female I believe to be one of the owners) came up and said that maybe we should just sit in the bar since maybe we would not be so rushed in there. RUSHED???? We came for dinner – and we had not even yet been seated. We should have left right then. We were feeling that, gee, our business must be some sort of inconvenience but agreed to try the bar. we were seated at a 4-seater table but barely enough room between us and the next family at the adjacent 4-seater to even more our elbows. The other family immediately looked uncomfortable with strangers pretty much sitting in their laps.

We moved to a different 4- seater over by the wall. When the waitress brought our water, she said “well, you can sit there if you want but you will probably be asked to move when our groups arrive”. Please note that there were no “reserved” signs on any tables. Therefore, one could ordinarily assume any seat was open.

At that point, pretty much in shock and wondering if we were on candid camera, we just got up and sort of stumbled out of the restaurant in a daze of disbelief. I sat in the car for a minute and decided to go back in and confront the manager. That person turned out to be Jayme/Jamie. She started all this “so sorry” business to which I replied I wanted an explanation to why she allowed this as she had been an on-looker and participant to the entire event. She said that “well, we have a lot of group reservations tonight and we…..” I interrupted to say that if they could not accommodate a particular influx, they should not have accepted the reservations OR they should have closed to the general public; One or the other.

I told her we would never be back. To which she rudely stated “sorry this one incident changed your mind about us”. One incident? Was a little more than an “incident”. We were paying customers and not some kind of inconvenience and we were not asking for anything other than a standard acceptable level of service and some food. That is what they do, right?

Sidebar: Their BBQ menu is WAAAYY over-priced. The rest is not so bad. We had eaten there once before on a week evening. Burgers were okay. Fries were from a frozen bag. Just an average place with above-average prices and totally unacceptable service. Don’t waste your time or money. They do not appreciate your business. That is what we did. We went down the street and spent our money elsewhere and were treated with dignity...

First, I only give 1 or 5 stars - either I had a good experience and would go again or I didn't and won't. It was not what it was hyped up to be, unfortunately. It was super busy so we waited around half an hour at least for a table of 2. I think the problem here is I was told this was a "bbq" place and now that I think about it, it is more of a bar and grill as the name suggests that has bbq on the menu, as well as other things. Unless there is a whole other section that I didn't see, the bar was much bigger than the restaurant section.

First time there impression:

The good: Thick slices of brisket that were tender and not much fat. Portion size was more than I expected and it included some pieces with bark on it. We had good service, nice waitresses who also kept our drinks topped off. The atmosphere was cool...kinda had a southern feel with big dining room and everyone dining so close together. The prices were actually pretty good...I have paid more at a food truck and got less food.

The bad: The main "bad" thing is the actual BBQ sauce. We go to A LOT of bbq around the country and this was by far the worst sauce we have ever encountered. Too much tomato taste (it looked more like spaghetti sauce really) and too much heat - and you have no option, it comes smothered over your brisket. On top of that, there are no options or any other bbq sauces on the table. If you are particularly sensitive to any heat in the BBQ sauce then you may have an issue with this sauce. I don't like heat, at all, but it wasn't to the point I couldn't taste the food so I dealt with it. The bread would be incredible if it was warm. It came to the table cold and firm. It was so hot in there though the butter was melted inside the little wrappers so it spread easily just using the wrapper. The sweet potato fries weren't done in the middle and were kind of rubbery inside. Also, the only option for the baked beans was spicy...newsflash, bbq does not need to be spicy to be good. Heat is just a cover for lack of flavor.

I could get over the bread and fries not being up to par. However, the secret sauce to a bbq place is THE SAUCE. And for me, the baked beans, which I ended up not getting because I don't like heat. I just saw on the website it was voted best bbq last 10 years in a row... I think the atmosphere, which makes it look like a really old building in a mining town (even though it was built in the 60's) is what is carrying this place, honestly.

If they had options for BBQ sauce and beans, a return trip would be...

Worst service I have ever been through. Food was ordered for take out at a later time was made immediately then put out on an open transaction counter where the food I ordered was smashed and left to cool down for the rest of the hour. When I asked about it in person I was lied to and told the food was out for only a few minutes no more than 7 but when I came home to check my order my food was smashed, the pasta sauces were cold and solidified. Then I called back to get assistance from management and was told by the same server there was basically no management and I would have to deal with her. She then proceeded to lie to her manager about the interaction causing me to now become frustrated. Finally another server or manager, who knows at this point gets on the phone and tells me to go ahead and bring the already opened food back to the restaurant to be “inspected.” Bring food that was touched and opened outside of their controlled environment. Only after that was I offered a remake of my order that I had already waited an hour for with family already arriving. Not understanding that there was no time to wait for them to make more food the server raises her voice to repeat her scripted lines again causing me to raise mine and finally giving up on the horrible service to order pizza. There goes over $130 and the worst aggravation I’ve ever had with a restaurant who’s response is to lie to patrons instead of taking accountability and making it right…..update….Waitress charged another $25 tip to my card where I had to stop payment through the bank and make a police report with Jacksonville PD. Owner Blu stated she would reimburse all the charges though did NOT follow through. She was also very aggressive through phone calls enough that I put on the speaker phone with other patrons around to listen to her cuss at me, threatening me, and attempts to gaslight and power struggle by calling me crazy and insane claiming she would call a friend at the police station to have me arrested just for her trouble. Oh so great use of my...