Stardate 62182.83 - Back In Town

I'm back in NYC after a week in Illinois for business, and it is nice to be back. On Sunday in Illinois it was 70 degrees, and by Tuesday afternoon there was 5 inches of snow on the ground and a layer of ice under it. Trying to drive around and get dinner and get to work and everything was not so fun.

While I was there I took the advice of the hotel manager and tried the 17th Street Bar & Grill. She raved about how good it was, even telling us that "Bill Clinton fell in love with it during his campaign and had it flown to the White House once he was president!" I was a little concerned that no-one who was local to the area had ever suggested it in all the times I've been out there over the past 6 months, but there are a lot of places that are easier to find so I figured that was that.

Actually, it was pretty bad. I had the pulled chicken sandwich, which was served on a tasteless white bun that probably came from CostCo. It was composed of pieces of chicken, not shredded chicken, with very little sauce and very little taste. It also had that cheap appearance that chicken at low-budget Asian restaurants has. I am trying to be somewhat healthy, so I ordered the green beans (they came cooked in bacon with bacon pieces included) and a salad (mostly iceberg lettuce). Our waitress was also the bartender, so the service was a bit slow.

When I mentioned where we had gone to some of the local staff, they uniformly stated that the place was completely over-rated, but for some reason the old-time locals loved it. I did not. I found the entire meal to be average at best, and not worth the hassle of following "local" directions that assumed we knew that "turn on 50" meant "go past 50 and turn left on this other road that used to be 50 before the Interstate came to town".

Thumbs down for 17th Street Bar & Grill.

NYC