My husband had to work in Chattanooga, TN on Christmas morning, so I decided to meet him in town and have Christmas dinner with him. I discovered that Porter's Steakhouse would be open on Christmas day so I called earlier in the week and made a reservation for 2:00 pm. A nice guy named Eric made my reservation, then called me back moments later to ask if we could move it from 2:00 to 2:30 pm, which was fine for my schedule. I was impressed with the call back -- sounded like they may have a full house for Christmas day.
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| Porter's On Broad Street |
My husband and I had heard that
Porter's was a great steakhouse. It's located downtown on Broad Street in the business district and weekdays see many local business leaders lunching and dining there.
We arrived early, at 2:00 with plans to share a drink at the bar until our table was ready. When we arrived, the restaurant was nearly empty, with only 3 or 4 tables occupied. We walked into the lobby and the waiter behind the bar greeted us and asked us to wait until he finished up. We told him we had a 2:30 reservation but we were early and he grabbed a couple of menus and said that was no problem, he could go ahead and seat us.
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| Porter's Main Dining Room |
The restaurant was nice and at the tables that were occupied were a family of six, a mid-30s man with his parents, and two other couples.
The bartender/waiter arrived at our table to take our order before we had time to really look at the menu. We ordered Gin Gimlets and crab cakes to start, then settled on rib eye steaks for our main course. The Gimlets arrived in martini glasses and were so strong that I had to request a splash of tonic water and a glass of ice to make it palatable. The bartender/waiter brought me a glass of ice and left me to transfer the martini-glass full of Gimlet to the ice glass, which of course made a mess all over the white tablecloth as I suspected it would. When the waiter came to clear our salad plates, he removed my salad fork from the plate and placed it back on the table. I picked it up and gave it back to him and asked for a clean fork for my dinner. He looked at me as if he was thinking, 'Seriously?!' As we set there waiting for our meal, I noticed that there appeared to be only 3 waiters taking care of the 5 or 6 tables.
The man at the table beside us got up from his chair and asked his father to ask the waiter -- when he came by -- to see the dessert tray. When the man returned 10 minutes later, his father said, "No one has come by to ask us about dessert . . . "
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| A Second Try |
I had ordered my steak medium well (yeah, yeah, I know . . . but I like it that way) and my husband ordered his medium rare. They apparently switched them on us because mine was more rare than my husband's and I had to send it back to the grill. When a different waiter returned the steak to me -- a little on the charred side -- he didn't notice that I had no utensils and I didn't realize it until he had walked away. At this point I'm getting a little frustrated so I decided to see how long it would take for someone to ask me how things were or if I needed a fork and knife. I sat quietly without touching my plate while waiter #1 walked by me twice; waiter #2 (wearing a name tag that read Lacy) walked by me 3 times; and a bus-person walked by clearing the tables around us. Though both waiters glanced in my direction, they didn't offer assistance or ask why I wasn't eating. Finally, I flagged down Lacy and asked for a knife, which he had the bus-person deliver to me.
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| Fatty Remains of Cliff's Steak |
I ate my steak and became increasingly frustrated with every bite. After we both finished our meals, Lacy stopped back by and asked, "Is that a Gimlet? Are they good?" My response: "Not here, they aren't." That prompted him to ask how our meal was. My husband chimed in at that point to let Lacy know what a disappointment our experience had been. Lacy knelt down beside our chairs and glanced at the bar several times. He explained that they had no bartender on duty -- it was the manager making drinks and he wasn't trained to do so. He then told us how the restaurant was to have been closed on Christmas day so most of the staff had made other plans, then at the last minute the restaurant decided to stay open but most of the staff who were scheduled to work didn't show up which left them short handed. Despite the fact that Lacy had no business telling us that information, I appreciated that he
was trying to help me understand their predicament. I told him they should have closed instead of under-performing and leaving customers frustrated and unhappy.
Lacy offered to cover our meal and we declined, saying that it wasn't necessary. He checked with the bartender/waiter/manager and returned to tell us that there would be no charge for our meal. They insisted. With drinks, appetizers and dinner, our bill would have been close to $200 but instead it was lost revenue and potentially lost future business. Only because of Lacy's attention will we give Porter's another try, though definitely not on a holiday. I have to wonder, will Lacy's name tag still ready "Lacy" or will the hostess at the front desk be wearing it?
Porter's Steakhouse, 827 Broad Street, Chattanooga, TN.
Joy Reports Rating: Really?
