The Shed — Restaurant in Rangeley

My girlfriend and I are extremely easy to please, and we visited The Shed yesterday as thru-hikers on the Appalachian Trail - which means we would have been more easy to please than ever. I mean, a few weeks ago a $7 sandwich and a bag of chips with a soda at the general store in Monson seriously tasted like one of the best meals in my life. I’m literally not even joking. The fact is, we came in here after 100 miles in the wilderness just looking for something better than granola bars, and we were seriously disappointed. I can’t believe I’m saying that but it’s true.

We ordered two full slabs of ribs with cornbread and beans (we were starving!). The meal came out after a very long wait actually (I had time to return to the hotel to get our jackets, and was surprised our food still hadn’t come), and though it actually looked great when it first arrived, that’s where the disappointment began. The ribs were completely FATTY!

I trusted the nice appearance and took my first unsuspecting bite and it was disgusting, I think all I got was gushy fat with a little BBQ and dry rub on it. I cut the “meat” between ribs off and investigated - the top layer with the dry rub and BBQ? Forget about it, it’s just gushy fat. Flip it over - the membrane is still on first of all (I’ve smoked ribs before and every single site tells you to take this off!), and once you scrape that off guess what? More gushy fat! But here’s the worst part - without these two layers of fat you’d expect that at least you’d now have a good chunk of meat, right? Wrong! Even when you just get down to the muscle fibers it was super fatty and disgusting!

I put a great deal of work into these ribs trying to get a few edible bites here and there (the same for my girlfriend), and we eventually gave up and called for the check. 12 hours later and my stomach is still queasy from these disgusting ribs. I can’t imagine how bad they would have tasted had I not come out of 100 miles of wilderness starving for a hot meal!

And just to be complete, I may as well add that the cornbread was completely stale. I’ve eaten stale cornbread at places and just sucked it up, but this was so dry and tasteless that there was no question it was old - I informed the server of this (and here I’ve never complained at a restaurant in my life!), she said she’d bring a “fresh” one out but by the time we gave up on the ribs it still wasn’t out, so we called for the check. And I have to tell you, I couldn’t believe that we were still charged for it!

Summary: disgusting ribs, bad service, do not eat here unless you want mouthful after mouthful of...

I'm a tourist. The patrons were lovely and welcomed me immediately. Some men respectfully said I was pretty. Unfortunately this seemed to infuriate the bartender lady, who snapped at me with immediate hostility, demanding to know if I had an ID (I'm 28, turning 29 shortly), then started directing a stream of unprovoked aggressive comments towards me, lasting the entire time I was there. She took my ID and accused it of being fake, and said her husband would need to look at it. He verified it was real but she continued the aggressive behavior anyway. She demanded to know if I had "even had gin before" when I ordered a gin and tonic. She said the names of the gins very quickly and seemed to be treating them like a test, which was bizarre. Later when we were laughing she came back and said aggressively "Is there a reason you're laughing?!" and said that our laughter makes her think that my ID is fake AGAIN. It was like she was looking for any opportunity for a fight. After a stream of other hostile remarks, I felt almost scared, and we decided to leave. Throughout the strange test that she gave me about the names of the gin, I tried to hand her my credit card, because I intended on closing the tab immediately. Throughout this exchange, she repeatedly refused to take it, and for a while it layed on the bartop. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had not already paid, since I already attempted to but failed. She chased after us and yelled. Of course, I immediately turned around and paid for my drink, while she sprayed comments at me accusing me of being a thief. She was the one who made me so uncomfortable that I tried to exit while clearly feeling shaken! I paid in full while apologizing for my mistake, but of course this had no effect. Terrible, frightening experience. I will...

The menu is odd to me. BBQ and your typical items but then the other half of the menu is Mexican food.

The pulled pork dinner was huge and very tasty. It comes with 2 sides. We had the baked beans and Mac and cheese. The pork was juicy. The Mac and cheese was super creamy- just like homemade.

The taco salad was large and filled with items. When you ask for the beef it is ground beef which really made no sense to me. I would have expected steak tips.

The Enchilada pie was fit for 2-3 meals. I loved the concept of this meal. Shell on bottom and one on top. The middle contained pounds of meat, beans sauce and topped with cheese. It looked like a Mexican lasagna. Very yummy.

The prices were reasonable. The staff was friendly. The menu is small. The only issue (which seems be typical here in rangeley) is slow kitchen. I was told 20 minutes for pick up and it was just over 30 minutes. Guess I'm just a city girl...