New West BC
After hearing rumours of a pub opening up again in the old penitentiary gatehouse for almost a year it has finally happened.
At this point they are still in a soft opening stage, so I will be selective in my criticism.
The food:
Actually I thought it was ok.
We had the Nashville hot chicken bites. Nice and crispy with a batter that ideally could use a little more “heat”, but was still tasty. The chicken was cooked well, nice and moist. Perhaps a bit greasy. But that’s comes with fried foods sometimes doesn’t it?
We also had the chicken wings. No pic. I forgot.
But I thought they were ok as well.
I have personally come to prefer baked wings, not fried. They are healthier. But I get that in a pub they are gonna be fried. And these ones were pretty good. We had the Salt and Pepper. They were well seasoned and had a nice crispy skin.
The Service:
I will give them a break regarding service.
Our server in particular didn’t seem to know much, and she seemed to get lost a couple times. Plus she didn’t know the drinks menu at all. There was only about 7 beers on there I had them memorized in 3 minutes. But it might have been her first night and it is a soft opening so will cut her a lot of slack today. If I’m back in two months and she is the same she is going to hear about it.
As for the other server. Hey guys, this is your warning, try not to stare.
The ambiance:
Okay so this is where I’m gonna be more critical, soft opening or not.
It was too cold to sit on the patio tonight so we sat inside.
I’m going to say the interior is basically downright awful.
I’m guessing they decided to go as cheaply as a possibly to make this work inside.
I mean it’s not dirty or anything, there’s just zero character.
Boring tables and chairs. Cold tile floors. A high ceiling that just amplified the noise from all the activity.
They are limited in some ways that a normal pub wouldn’t be. The windows are set deep into the stone walls. It is a small space and you do you want to maximize it to accommodate as many people as possible.
But certainly the space could have been designed better. Designing a space using the natural design and origin of the building would have made much more sense.
I can think of few places that have a worse ambience.
The real gem here is going to be the patio. From our window we could see the river below us. The patio isat the back of the building so it’ll be quiet. Other than more than occasionall train horn. But on a warm summer night this will be an absolute wonderful spot to sit and enjoy a few cold ones.
Tonight was an ok experience. But not fair to criticize too harshly. I’ll come back and try it again after they’ve had a chance to iron out some of the bugs.
I’ve reconsidered scoring the Notorious Grey Fox at this time. I will reserve a score until they are fully operational.