Sometimes I like a place, even if it tries too hard. And sometimes, I like a place until it tries too hard. That place, in this case, was the World Beat Cafe.
It was a rainy night in December when Brandon and I came to the bar, a new one I had just read about in the paper that day. It was part of a night of three that we had planned, and so we walked in completely fresh and ready for anything.
Inside, there was a little restaurant portion to the right, and the bar on the left, with a couple of small tables and the bar itself, and a little sub-bar with four seats that we ended up sitting at. The bartender called out that he'd be with us in a moment, and we took that moment to look over the drink menu. Now that we go out less often, we get a lot more specialty drinks, which isn't, I suppose, fair to bars we just got wells in, but then again, a lot of the specialty drinks are really, really underwhelming.
In this case, I got a hot cider-like thing, with whipped cream and tasty goodness. And Brandon was talked into a gin martini sort of thing, with midori, that he didn't like much. Or really, at all, although he didn't hate it. I thought it was tasty, but what do I know?
We also had a meatball sort of appetizer, which was decent, and had a rather good dipping sauce.
How did it try too hard? First, the bartender was all suggestions, which I suppose was alright for having come around the bar to the little sub-bar. A little attention is a good thing. But then, he kept coming back to see if we were good with our drinks, and when it was obvious that Brandon wasn't, he kept talking it up anyway. Saying that it was really popular, that he really liked it, etc, etc. Well, that's all to the good, I guess, but if the customer doesn't like it, it doesn't help to talk it up. And I mean he kept checking up. He was out to see us three or four times, to ask how the food was, how the drink was, how everything was.
So I think I'd like it better if it were busy, so that the bartender were busy. Which he wasn't, not nearly enough.
Oh, well. It's decent looking inside, the drinks were pretty good, the happy hour wasn't so much, the food was okay, and the service was over the top. Nice, but not great. Maybe if they tone it down a little, it'll be worth a visit, but not just yet.
Posted by Jason at February 08, 2005 12:01 AMI am glad that you try new spots, and really hope to see you two guys again....It might have been nice to mention that I tried to offer a new drink to replace the martini that your friend did not care for, that the bar itself was full(which is why you had to sit where you did, the mid point of serving any person in the bar). We take great care that everyone enjoy our fun little spot and invite everyone to come in and try a taste of the extraordinary.
Posted by: Tha Bartender on February 14, 2005 04:45 PMHe's quite right, he did offer to replace the drink with something else. The service left nothing to be desired in that regard at all.
And I liked the drink, which had a very interesting, very tasty flavor that just didn't work for Brandon. Because we try to just go with the drink we ordered (there have been exceptions, like the Bloody Mary flavored Vodka and Cranberry I got one night) he didn't replace it.
Thanks for reading.
Posted by: Jason on February 21, 2005 12:17 AM