Aretha Frankensteins — Restaurant in Knoxville

We joined the wait list as we drove there (a 40 minute drive). As we pulled in, we got a text "Your table is ready, come on in." We went inside to let the hostess know we were all there. She (faded red dyed hair and wrinkled clothes - looked like she rolled out of bed threw on a dirty uniform and went to work) told us that she had us checked in. We were confused as the text didn't say "Check in with host". We showed her the text. She rolled her has and rudely said "No, you check in first and when a table is open we will seat you". I looked around and saw several tables open and was very confused but none the less we went outside to wait. About 10 min. later we got a text and headed in side. She took us to our table, slapped the menus down and walked away. I took my kids to the bathroom to wash their hands. The bathroom definitely needed some attention. The sink was a mess and paper towels all over the floor near the door. We came back out, put our orders in and waited. My son needed to potty. While I was in the restroom with him some food was delivered. A stack of pancakes with bacon and blueberry topping on the side. As well as a burrito with sour cream on the side. The food runner came back and told my husband the pancakes were for a different table and ran them back to the kitchen. He returned 30 seconds later with presumably the same plate and gave it to the guy sitting next to us. His wife didn't have her food yet.A few minutes later the rest of our food was delivered. Then right afterwards they brought the woman her food. The thought of putting food in front of someone and then taking it to someone else is unacceptable and certainly what happened. The guy seemed to know it too and was having some words with the server about it. A manager never came to his table. We didn't have any silverware so we had to sit and wait until it was brought over. They only brought 4 but we needed 5. They rushed off too fast to say anything. My mother waved to the hostess with the frizzy red hair standing 5 feet away and politely asked for another fork. The hostess then rudely waved her hand in a dismissive manner then stomped off to get a fork, which she dropped on the table and walked away without a word. Our server came by to ask about the food. We had to ask for drink refills and then I asked her to inform the manager that the hostess was being incredibly rude and nasty. I saw her walk over to him and speak to him. Minutes later he went in to the back and never came out again. We finished, paid and we're walking out when the hostess called out (as we were halfway out the door) to "have a wonderful day". The words were fine but she had such a condescending and rude tone. I turned back around and told her she was unprofessional and rude. She then accused us of being rude for questioning her seating policy and being nasty from the start. She said she gave what she got. But we were never rude or nasty...well not until I came back in at least. She then said "bless your heart" which any southern girl knows what that means. So I said a few choice words after that. We will not be back for several reasons but the two main reasons being the rude and nasty hostess as well as the incompetent manager who never seems to be doing anything other than standing behind the wall and just watching the dining hall. We have been over a dozen times and have never seen him do anything other than stand there. He doesn't check on the patrons, lend a hand to the employees or hold nasty hostesses accountable for the way they treat customers. I'm sure the horrible girl will read this and think she won but hopefully an owner will step in and make this right bc the manager certainly didn't do anything. I don't believe a customer is always right but I do believe in customer service and having the right hospitality attitude. I believe in treating people how they treat you... but letting your entitlement or chip on your shoulder make you think that giving someone a nasty attitude is your right is exactly what is wrong with customer...

We've been to the original Chattanooga location multiple times (although it's probably been 2018 since we've been there). Super happy happy happy to have it close to home now!

ATMOSPHERE: More places to sit inside FTW!, though much more tame and "respectable" than the Chattanooga location. It 100% still has the "flavor" of the Aretha's we fell in love with. The bathroom decor was on par! The skeleton and the skateboard? Heck yeah! Cereal boxes and death masks and fun punk stuff all around? YAS! Awesome gothic chandeliers, too!

PANCAKES: SMALLER in diameter but still delicious. I don't know if the Chattanooga location has changed the size of their pancakes since they had to temporarily shut down for covid but do NOT be expecting the pancakes here to be the size of your dinner plate! Are they still shockingly and amazingly thick and delicious? YES! The blueberry melange is super yummy, too!

OMELETTE: I was kind of disappointed. I had the Italian omelette. They literally made a plain omelette, cooked it all the way through, then made the filling in (presumably) a separate pan and then dumped it into the plain omelette and kind of flapped it over the top like some kind of egg taco. It was not a cohesive thing with the filling held together nor incorporated with the egg in any way. You had bits of omelette that you had to try to gather up with the filling.

BISCUITS: Big and light and fluffy. Get a biscuit!

GRITS: Loved them. Great flavor with some spice to them! (I added butter because... grits! See warning at end of review about the butter)

COCKTAILS: They. Are. SMALL!!!!! Seriously soooo small for the price!! Did I say they were of diminutive size?

BEER: Sadly SUCH a variety on draft! Chattanooga's had something like 6 taps and you could get a hard cider with your brunch! Da heck? They had like 2 there, an IPA and something from Schultz Brau. As much as craft beer is a draw right now, draft should be given more precedent, in my opinion. Yes...they have lots of local stuff available....in cans/bottles. NOT what I want when going out, though. I'll drink those at home.

TIME: Our server was super nice but I think she had too many tables she was working. It was hard to catch her attention when we needed a water refill or more butter. Look up the menu before you go. Know what you want and it will save you lots of time.

*Random warning: the butter (blend) cup things are stupid small (probably only a teaspoon)! First thing you should up on being seated is check the mug at your table (it's not all butter) and ask for more butter!!! If you like butter on your pancakes, too, you might want to ask for 2 mugs of butter things. While they are stingy on readily-provided butter they DO have a great squeeze bottle of delicious apple butter...

Decided to wait to visit until all the hype had settled. I’ve been hearing about this place so I was eager to try it out. I took my kids early on Mother’s Day to treat myself. Joined the waitlist app ahead of time because I know how this company works. Scrambled Jake’s is the same way. Parking was a mess. Got sat pretty quickly. Place was pretty cool on the inside. I disliked that there wasn’t a kids menu. I allowed my kids to order what they wanted, and I just got an extra plate to share because I already knew they wouldn’t eat everything. A couple of bites into our food, and they had to use the restroom. I left our phones on the table along with the barely uneaten food to take them to the bathroom. Waited in the line, and came back to see the host standing there waiting for us, and our food all dumped onto a plate and stacked. That was super disappointing!! My daughter didn’t even get to try her waffle and my other daughter’s pancakes were barely touched. Working in the restaurant industry myself, I don’t see how anyone could look at that and assume someone was finished. My coffee was still full. The hostess apologized, the server apologized, and the gm came over and said he comped half of my bill….

I’m sorry, what?! I could understand if we are half the food but that just left a bad taste in my mouth! He went on to say he saw us go to the restroom and told the bussers to leave it, but one came back from break and must’ve started bussing the table. We were in the restroom for maybe 3 minutes.. all of that happened in 3 minutes? It’s ironic considering I was sitting there and looking at how slow the turnover rate is for the tables. There were probably 6-7 empty tables inside that needed to be cleaned and it took them quite a while to turn it over which results in a longer wait time for everyone. But my table was cleaned off pretty quickly. Oh well.

I took my kids to Dunkin’ Donuts and had a great Mother’s Day even though. I...