Old Faithful

We frequent a restaurant/bar in Lansing that has never let us down.  We have been going there about once a week for the last three years (give or take a visit or two).  This place has never let us down, and they always have delicious food and pretty good service.  The place that I am talking about is The Nuthouse in downtown Lansing.  This is our go to place when we do not want to deal with the possibility of being disappointed.  Our friends know that when they come and see us in Lansing that we will be going there.

                Now, we have had a couple of times where the server was kind of rude but those times are far away now.  I mean it, literally they were years ago and that has not happened since. 

The Nuthouse has a podium as soon as you walk in so that you know you need to wait to be seated; if the place is dead then the bartender will holler to you that you can seat yourself.  I can deal with that.  I really am not that high maintenance. 

                The establishment has a great atmosphere; they are a sports bar with plenty of elbow room to move around.  There are around half a dozen or so flat screen TVs with the most desired games on them.  You can choose between the restaurant side and the bar side (we usually choose the bar side).  They have a game room off of the bar side that has plenty to do.  In the summer they now have seating outside so you can also take that option as well.  There is always some kind of private party going on there, but there is always still plenty of room for you and a large group to comfortably dine or drink there.

                Lets get to the good stuff; the food.  Their food is delicious.  It is a step up from bar food, and they are always making slight changes to the menu to ensure that there is something new on it every few months.  I have literally NEVER had a bad meal there; nor have any of my friends been disappointed in their food at Old Faithful.  My favorite has to be their homemade spinach and artichoke calzone.  It is so delicious that I have ordered it almost every time that we are there.  It is filled with delicious spinach (one of my favorites) creamy mozzarella cheese with slight doses of tomato and red onion.  I am telling you, it is one of the best things that I have had…anywhere.

                I now try to mix it up when I go there.  I would always get that calzone but I figured since I enjoyed that so much then I should try and mix it up to see how all of the other food is.  Well the starters are all delicious; Collin (my fiancé) and I usually get some kind of an appetizer.  We have ordered them all and we have never been let down.  Not just run of the mill appetizers either, they all have a homemade taste to them.   However, recently we ordered the buffalo chicken sliders and we were blown away!  We were expecting them to be good, but they exceeded our expectations.  There were three of them and we also ordered a side of fries for $1.  We split the whole thing and considered that our dinner for the evening.  We were absolutely full and still had some money in our pockets to have a couple more drinks.  So we turned an appetizer into a meal, it never hurts to save a little money.

                Our waitress here was so nice.  She greeted us immediately when we walked in the door and took us to our seat.  She took our drink order and had them to us in no time flat.  When she took our food order she noticed that we had a KENO ticket, so she asked if we wanted her to take it up for us.  This was amazing to me because I have literally NEVER had someone ask to take the KENO ticket up.  In fact most places have a strict rule against it.  So this was quite pleasing to us as well. 

                Obviously I love The Nuthouse; and they deserve our adoration.  They serve quality food and give impeccable service.  I would recommend that if you are in the Lansing area to stop in and try some of their delectable food.  You will not be disappointed!  That is why we call it and it deserves the name “Old Faithful.”

Do They Deserve Our Business: Am I Just Angry?

Do They Deserve Our Business: Am I Just Angry?:    I am creating this blog because I am just plain sick of people in the restaurant industry treating me like an inconvenience to them.  Don...

Am I Just Angry?

   I am creating this blog because I am just plain sick of people in the restaurant industry treating me like an inconvenience to them.  Don't most of these people work on tip wages?  So how is it that almost every place that my fiance and I go to we get treated like we are bothering them?  Aren't people scraping for jobs around here?  How is it that I can go to three different places in a weekend and get horrible treatment at each and every one of them? 
  Now before I continue I just want to add that I have worked in the service industry myself, so I am not just blindly judging people on their work performance, I understand what it takes to work in such a fast paced industry.  I believe that is one of the reasons that I expect to be treated like they want me there.  To be honest at this point I would almost settle for mediocre treatment (even though that is unacceptable as well).
   How do business owners not know how their staff is treating people?  One fine example of this is my most recent trip to a local pub called The Irish Pub.  We went there because we saw an advertisement for $1 off Michigan brews on Thursday nights.  We decided to give it a try.  We have been there in the past and it was okay...we absolutely love the club sandwich, but the rest of the place is forgettable. 
   So as always we walk in and seat ourselves (normal with a bar).  However I must say that I would really appreciate bars/restaurants having a sign saying either "seat yourself" or "please wait to be seated" so I do not look lost as I stand in the doorway awkwardly wondering what to do.  Anyways, we have been there before so we knew that we needed to seat ourselves.  We were trying to decide if we were going to stay there for dinner or if we were just going to have a drink and move down to the next place.  Like always we were one of about ten different people in there.  That is tragic because there are quite a few colleges around town so on a Thursday night the place should be hoppin! 
   To be honest our server was not too rude to us.  She just did not know her beer.  She rattled off about six beers off of the top of her head (mainly Bud, Bud Light, Coors, etc).  So me being a lover of brown ale's and porters I ask what they have for either one of those.  She just stared at me and told me a list of IPA's.  I do not like IPA's so I asked her if they had any browns or porters.  She looked at me and said "I have no idea."  Then just just stood there.  Now, I know that this is not that big of a deal but I have been a server before and I have always worked with the public so I know that what I always do when I do not know something; I find out.  She made no effort of finding out and she just shrugged her shoulders and stared at me.  I normally would have just ordered something that she had named off, but I am so sick of people not helping me and then I have to tip them?  I of course feel guilty even if we get bad service we always tip 20%.  So I stared back at her and said well I will take a brown ale or a porter.  My fiance got a little skirmish at this point and he went up and looked at the board that they have with all of the different brews that they have.  They did have a porter and I ordered that.  We left after this and to be honest we probably will not go back for a while. 
  Like I said that really isn't that big of a deal, but at the same time it also is not a big deal for her to take four steps back and read the list of brews that they have.  I just do not understand.  Maybe that is why a lot of the businesses around here are empty.  If you do not treat your guests as if they were in your home then why would they ever come back?  This is a note to owners and managers: if you would like your business to thrive then your employees need to know that they need to know the menu and if they do not then simply find out.  That is what I was taught while employed at the different restaurants that I worked for. 
   I will eventually go back to let them try and redeem themselves.  I know that I am not special and I do not deserve special treatment in any way shape or form.  I do know that I am not the only person who has been dissatisfied at this location.  I can't be the place was empty.