broad street bar & grill (athens, ga)

NOW CLOSED

Although I have a few recipe posts ready (2 from Les Halles) I figured I'd get the hard stuff over with. I really enjoy writing these reviews but it's tough for me to write when the restaurant's a let down. Located near the Arch and as the name implies - on Broad Street - a group of us stopped by for lunch at Broad Street Bar & Grill.

If it wasn't for the wide display of alcohol at the bar, you might have thought that you walked into a UGA sports memorabilia store. The bar and grill is filled with Georgia Bulldog artifacts ranging from jerseys, signed photographs to mini-helmets. The sole waitress that was smoking outside when we arrived handed us our silverware, menu and eventually our food with unwashed hands. I know it's a bar & grill and even in restaurants this occurs but to know and visually confirm this unhygienic practice was a turnoff. Let's hope the food and service is good shall we?

The service wasn't that much better as the waitress seemed more interested in going on her smoke break again (or going out to buy more cigs on the clock) as she pushed us for our order. We got around to ordering the chicken fingers, 2 varieties of hamburgers and a Club sandwich after making a hasty glance through the menu. Broad Street Bar & Grill has your typical bar foods: burgers, fries, fried chicken varieties, sandwiches and a few desserts. There's a good range of alcohol offered here too so it's probably packed on gamedays.

The burgers are only offered well done here so don't even bother asking for a juicy, medium/medium-well burger. The other 3 companions in my group were pulling out ridiculous statements like you have to cook a burger well done but for all my readers out there - no, you don't have to cook a burger well done. The famous FLIP Burger Boutique run by molecular gastronomist Richard Blais may not exist if this were the case. Still a non-believer? Shoot an e-mail to Foodie Buddha (a gutsy man who eats his pork medium-rare, hats off to you good sir). You can probably guess from my rant how the burgers turned out. Dry and tough burgers that's not worth the $8. As much as I hate McDonalds, I'd rather go buy 7 dollar menu burgers (taxes people) if I just wanted something to fill me up. The fries were nothing short of disappointing as they were just premade, frozen steak fries with a sprinkle of french fry seasoning. Soggy, bland and crunchless fries - one of the worst food crimes there is.

The Club sandwich is served on French bread which is a change from your usual double-decker. Considering it was bar quality food, it actually wasn't that bad. Well toasted bread filled with budget turkey, melted stringy cheese, 4 strips of crispy bacon, mayo and veggies. There was (again) the case of brown/black, decayed romaine leaves inside but hey, it's bar food in Athens. Enough said. As for the price, the half sandwich was about $5 and a full was $8. Overall, a surprisingly decent sandwich sub considering where I got the food.

The chicken fingers were accompanied by the same atrocious steak fries but the chicken itself seemed okay. I'm a sucker for fried chicken of any kind (guilty pleasure, especially from Popeyes) but again, considering it's from a Athens bar. It wasn't bad. Honey mustard dipping sauce is the standard accompaniment here but it can be swapped out for your bottled BBQ sauce if requested.

Half-way through our meal, we were slapped with our tabs by our extremely kind and attentive waitress. Pretty much a GTFO notice with a solid line at the bottom to pen in her tips. Being the kind gentleman I am (no saracasm here) I still tipped 15% as she didn't deserve my usual 20% gratuity. While Broad Street Bar & Grill may be a popular hang out spot on gamedays, it really isn't worth going to just for food. There are so many better restaurants in downtown Athens that are happy to accommodate you for your hard-earned cash.