Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse — Restaurant in Scottsdale

First and foremost, I love barbecue. In all actuality, barbecue - specifically ribs - is my favorite. Thus, when I was in the area and saw that Bootleggers served barbecue, I knew that I had to try it. Upon entering, the place was dead, but I guess that was understandable being that it was 1pm on a Thursday afternoon. Shortly after being seated, water was presented. We then ordered one Wise Guy cocktail and an Aperol spritz for myself, as well as sparkling water for the two of us. The server came over and presented us with one club soda. Okay, fine. We can just share. Then came the cocktails. Let me tell you: I took one sip of this "Aperol Spritz," and I cringed. Not only was it flat, but it tasted like Aperol and Tonic water. It was disgusting, so we sent it back with an order of a Bee's Knees as a replacement. After telling our server - no lie - five separate times, it still took 15-20 minutes. We then shared a beet salad, which tasted delicious, so we were hoping that this theme would follow through despite the service received. I finally received my Bee's Knees, which was tasty.

When the entree arrived, I was immediately deflated. We ordered the sharable Barbecue platter for two (which we asked initially how many ribs came with it, as I came specifically for the ribs. In response, our server stated that it would be a half rack, so we added an extra rack for a complete rack.) The platter arrived, and there were two ribs only! At first, I was disappointed, but I quickly found out that I was not at a loss. I bit into the ribs, and they almost seemed to bite back. They were fatty, chewy and disgusting. I usually eat a full rack on my own, but I only ate two. Then moving onto the brisket - dry and needed salt. The same can be said for the turkey, and the pulled pork (my other Barbecue love). The goat cheese potatoes were gloopy. I even said to my date: "When Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares equates the potatoes to glue, I never understood until now." Broccolini was Broccolini, and the beans were lacking flavor. I was so disappointed that I stopped eating, leaving the majority of the $150 worth of food uneaten. We then sat, and sat waiting for our server to come back to us so we could close out. We waited at least 20-25 minutes, only yo notice that our server was too busy chatting with the bartender. My date then stood up, went over to the server so that we could close out. We, then, were closed out, and he finally asked if we needed boxes despite the plates being stacked with napkins on top. We said that we did not need boxes, but he did not bother to ask what was wrong or why there was so much uneaten food. Then, to add insult to injury, the aperol spritz was still on the bill. I would have been better off at...

Would have loved to have tried, as my family and I like going to places reviewed by Guy Fieri, but alas, we don't deal well with rudeness. Came on a weekday, early afternoon, and were a bit surprised when they mentioned a 30 minute wait. Hostess was kind, and explained it was not due to space, but because kitchen was backed up and she didn't want us waiting 45 minutes for our food. No worries, we said, we were on vacation from San Diego, and had plenty of time, so figured we'd just wait. We were thirsty, and the wife and I wanted a beer, so asked the hostess if we could pull up a chair at the bar seating and get some drinks. She told us sure, and said we could order from the bar, and sit at the tables adjacent to the bar (we had our 7yo son with us). We proceeded to wait for the bartender, who, although kept looking towards us, the new customers in his bar, continued working on whatever he was doing, seemingly trying to ignore us. After close to 5 min, he approached us and asked what we needed. His demeanor screamed that he was incredibly annoyed at the fact that I was asking for 3 waters AND beers on top of it. I got through the water and one of the beer orders, and, like I was asking for something extremely complicated, he stopped me with "you know a server can help you out there?" I tried to explain that the hostess had told me to order from him, and he (I believe the hostess said his name was Tony) came back with "OK, fine, whaddya want?" After what restaurants have had to deal with lately, stuff that I haven't agreed with, and my family have tried to help with by patronizing restaurants as much as possible, I would think NEW customers would be incredibly important to the owners of Bootleggers. "Tony " is not helping in this regard, and you guys could do better in the service department. As somebody who runs a service business, I can tell you that this is an employee I would definitely "share with the competition." BTW, we headed over to cold beers and cheeseburgers, and were treated MUCH better. Such a bummer, as it looked good, but can't deal with...

I'd wanted to try this spot for a long time. Anytime I'm in old town Scottsdale you can spell them smoking BBQ from anywhere downwind. I finally visited this week while my dad was in town. Sadly it wasn't a great experience. I'm sure they are running a smaller staff with COVID-19 restrictions, which would explain why there wasn't a hostess on shift. But the sign said "Wait to be seated", which we did. We waited a minute or so without seeing an employee and picked up a couple menus to review while we wait. The bartender finally arrived and I assumed he would greet us or seat us, but he just kept interacting with customers at the bar, then dissapeared again. Until this point I hadn't seen another employee and my father had enough time to find and return from the restroom. Finally another employee came and offered us a seat. Up until now I could have forgiven the less than perfect seating experience if the food was amazing. Sadly, like our initial wait to be seated in an empty restaurant, the food let us down just as much. We got a BBQ Sampler for two and doubled-down on the brisket since my dad doesn't eat pork. The larger cuts of brisket were thick and dry. Although some of it was good, the larger cuts made up much of the portion. The turkey was good, probably my favorite on the sampler. Spicy sausage was also very good. The ribs on the other hand, I had to work a little to hard to get them off the bone, I don't need fall-off the bone, but also dont want to have to rely on my front teeth to clean the bone. My biggest disappointment was the coleslaw. It tasted off, lacked flavor and generally didn't smell appealing. Coleslaw is one of my favorite sides for any meal, especially BBQ so you lost a star just for the coleslaw. All in all, the ambiance is great, they have a good selection of local beer. But in my experience the food was hit or miss. I would take the free smell as you walk by and then...