INDUSTRY Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Sparta Township

This was honestly pretty rough. Industry looks great inside and out, but unfortunately that's where the positive story ends for them. They've caught my eye a handful of times on my way to visit my top-tier chum in the Kingdom of Sussex, and one of the reasons is because it seems out of place in the middle of nowhere up there - you'd expect a bougie-looking, gigantic American restaurant/bar like this to be hanging out off of Route 3 in Clifton or something. But it's also giving off some upscale Applebee's vibes, with a dash of mixology. Which I can certainly get behind.

I stopped here last night for a drink and a bite to eat with my aforementioned chum. Despite it being pretty hopping (understandable for a Friday night), it was very easy to find parking nearby. The parking situation overlaps with the nearby Shoprite, and since it IS the Kingdom of Sussex, traffic in general is pretty drama-free when it doesn't indirectly involve sinkholes and whatnot. The interior is VAST, to an insane degree. There is a lot of space, very high ceilings and the only room that seemed to be a normal size was their classy party room to the side. The two young women at the front were very friendly and personable and directed me to both the bar area and the bathroom (the latter with no prompting) which is a huge plus in my book. What goes in must come out. Top marks for the hostess area.

We were fortunate to secure two spots at the bar just as a small group was leaving and promptly ordered drinks. I went with the Smoke & Ember, which was, I'm sorry to say, easily the worst drink I've had in a while. I had a bad feeling when I asked if they could use Angel's Envy bourbon instead of the listed Elijah Craig, and I was told they couldn't because the Elijah Craig was "on tap." Not a good sign at all; the cocktail isn't actually made to order. Far worse though was the "smoke" and "embers" portion of the drink, and it was the dictionary definition of style over substance. They absolutely CHARRED an orange slice garnish and put this weird filter/lid on top I guess to provide a superficial smoky optic? I don't know, but it looked like a shower drain protector which isn't the greatest vibe as you're trying to drink something from underneath it. Anyway. This might be the first time I attempted to take a sip of a drink and had to STOP before doing so because the smell was so overwhelming it was making my eyes water. They literally could have just taken a shovel, scooped ashes out of a firepit, thrown them in my face and said, "Now drink this bourbon cocktail." Same effect. I'd get that off the menu immediately before someone gets injured.

The food options didn't present a physical danger but were pretty mediocre. We got the charcuterie/cheese board, which was fine. It was very pro forma as you can see from the attached, and at least a good portion, but honestly not something I'd get again. There weren't enough diverse flavors so every sample/bite was kind of the same theme, if that makes sense. The cookie skillet was also average to slightly below average - the cookie was overcooked and required some effort to chip away at, and it wasn't particularly warm so the ice cream wasn't melting aggressively and helping moisten the hard cookie surface.

The service was rough, flat out. We dealt with both the bartender and two waitresses, who were all busy and extremely overwhelmed (they WERE nice to us despite the hectic situation, so good on them there). It's a VERY long bar and the coverage just wasn't there for it. It took literally 15 minutes to get a dessert menu (though I give credit for the waitress remembering to bring it after all that time without additional prompting) and other than our initial drinks, everything just took forever. I had delightful company but we were probably there at least an extra half hour longer than necessary.

There's a Wal-Mart in Newton. My recommendation would be to go there, purchase a fire pit, get a nice flame going, and make your own cocktail to...

My husband and I went here yesterday for lunch. We originally wanted to go to Mohawk House where we had our rehearsal dinner for our wedding but they have so many events scheduled right now that they aren’t taking people for dine in. We figured that this would be a good opportunity to try Mohawk’s new restaurant, Industry. Ambiance was very cool and service was good. They have a rather large outdoor area and the weather was beautiful to where I may have sat out there if it was offered but it seemed that they didn’t want people outside. Not sure why that was. We first got a tomato and mozzarella salad which was good. Here is where things went south. We were craving steak so we ordered the $125 porterhouse. I wanted to get a nice glass of wine to pair with the steak but the only wines available were from a tap. I tried their Cabernet Sauvignon and it was worse than Barefoot or Crane brand wine. It was so sweet and bad tasting that I only had a few sips. I asked if they had any bottles we could purchase and they had none available. Then our 45 day aged porterhouse comes out and they had slathered that beautiful piece of meat in cheap gravy. The meat was perfectly cooked and tasted good but we had to scrape off all this gravy from the meat. The gravy made the meat way too salty. I asked our server if all the steak options are supposed to have gravy on them and he said they are supposed to. Nowhere on the menu does it say that these lovely, Pat LeFrieda, Prime steaks should have gravy poured all over them. And that’s because it shouldn’t. If anything, gravy or sauce should be put on the side. Overall our meal was okay. But this place is really missing the mark. If you’re going to offer amazing choices in steak, you need to offer some wine choices that compare. To only have wine on tap is a huge missed opportunity. And please, for the love of all that is good, do not poor gravy on Pat...

Having read the reviews, we were cautious but decided to try it. We were greeted by a courteous but obviously inexperienced host, and were seated promptly. Our waiter was friendly and knew the menu well, but we were shocked when told that some entrees really “weren’t true entrees due to their small size”. We ordered drinks. My cocktail was good while the wine was just ok. We both wanted the pork chop and again were shocked by the waiter’s advice not to order it as there had been too many complaints about the chop being almost raw when cutting it near the bone. After re-deliberating over the menu, I chose the special, a braised short rib and my other half ordered a hanger steak. We started with a Tomato, mozzarella and basil salid that was delicious, except there was no basil, rather garnished with arugula, not an ingredient that was listed. Our entrees were out quickly. My short rib was tasty, but a horrible cut with almost 60% fat, totally inedible. The hanger steak was cooked extremely rare and difficult to cut. Mashed potatoes were soupy and vegetables undercooked. We ordered dessert, simple vanilla ice cream in a reduction sauce that looked like ice cream floating in dish water. As much as we tried to stay optimistic, our disappointment increased only to be further frustrated by a costly check. While it seems that the restaurant has good potential , the management needs to focus on the quality and obvious inexperience of the kitchen staff and make it a point to visit tables minutes after the food is served. There were only a handful of diners in the restaurant and I wouldn’t feel confident about trying this place again. Typical case of high investment dollars and little time invested in...