Brickside Bar & Grille Fairmont — Restaurant in Pleasant Valley

Ample parking. Would have driven right by it had the GPS not gave me the devil as I nearly drove by. Happy to stop on a Sunday- You can tell this is a small business and is someone's dream coming to fruition. ♡ the interior feels like it's trying to be 2020 but being held back by 1990s idealism with trim work.

The place was clean and tidy, had a few locals who knew each other by name and a chill vibe. Chill quality. Chilly air conditioning. No, really... we shivered the entire time there, haha!

I ordered a beef brisket sandwich with house made chips. I received a phenomenal roll, grilled with oil or butter on the cut side and dry pulled pot roast thT felt like Thursday's leftovers being served up sandwich side on Sunday afternoon for dinner. There was little to no meat, zero unctuous juicy or fat content and I'm dubious that this was ever brisket. If so, it died, rolled over in its grave and came back to life to try again. The amount of meat -to-roll ratio was... slim. The house made chips were pretty okay! They were thick cut and home fried with a little salt. Pretty good!

My travel partner got a chicken and baked potato combo who advised that the chicken also was dry and unseasoned. The baked potato: I asked him if he thought that it was actually baked, or microwaved. We were undecided at first.... until we each took a bite. (Mind you, it was literally a potato cut in half. No butter, no nice service... just a split spud. He asked for butter in hopes to breathe any life back into it.) Alas, it's dry and crusty layers had been steamed beyond recognition and left a once-burnt, now soggy bitter layer to its Friday's cook time, still being served on Sunday. R. I. P.

Would I come again? If I needed a social atmosphere for drinks, yes. I'd ask to speak to the chef and find out what is actually fresh in the kitchen first, then order THAT if I were coming back for food.

The servers and bar help were friendly in person, but seemed more interested in getting the place closed down for the night to get out. Trust me, every food service feels that way at the end of a shift... but it takes very little effort to keep that conversation 100% off of the sales floor, and away from customers.

To the owners: You've got a real good thing going here, but a swap of un-invested employees will grow your business...

Let me start this off by saying I’m a server and the server Emma was great! She handled the entire situation great. Don’t go in for crab night. The crabs were over steamed and not peeling at all. Ordering another round of the endless crabs took forever. The butter that came with them tasted like popcorn which as you can imagine was disgusting. If you’re going to advertise all you can eat crab night as a special you should probably do it right. We took a group of ten out for a birthday dinner and eight out of the ten people were seriously disappointed. We got fried pickles and fried mushrooms as appetizers both were BEYOND burnt. The hush puppies that came with the crab meals were burnt balls of grease. The taste was indescribable. Change your grease maybe. I ordered the bbq chicken and sent it back. It was what looked like two frozen chicken breast patties with some bbq thrown on top. The chicken was tough and I didn’t even bother after the first bite. I ordered shrimp Alfredo as a replacement. The shrimp in my Alfredo wasn’t peeled…. Who in the world wants to dig through a pasta Alfredo dish to peel their own shrimp ?! I will say the Alfredo sauce was good. Side note I’d take the gratuity off of your bills if you’re going to serve food...

Took my girl and son here for our anniversary dinner yesterday. Waitress and bartender were both nice and friendly. About the only redeeming points of this meal.

As for the food, I worked there years ago and can honestly say Defrance would have lost his shit if he saw how our table was handled by the cooks.

Two major complaints, firstly, my girl ordered a turkey wrap. Never in all my years as a cook would I have put wilted lettuce (to the point it was a brown paste) in food id serve. She did not finish her meal. It was disgusting, to be frank. Sadly, still not the more prominent complaint.

Second, and a rather major issue, I ordered an Italian hoagie. The hoagie itself was fine. The toothpick shoved completely inside the bread to the point it wasn't visible, that I nearly choked on and did stab me in my mouth was not so fine.

Worst $100 I've...