Darius Mark
Google
Being local we went here on a weeknight with an early reservation. It's still relatively new and lot's of folks, ourselves included, are excited about trying this latest Voltaggio establishment. It's located in the also new Visitation Hotel, formerly an all-girls parochial school. The ambiance is decidedly not tavern like, the Wye Oak was a famous tree in Maryland located on the eastern shore, it croaked in 2002, but I did visit it as a kid - so Wye Oak Tavern it is. We were wondering if this edition would be more like Volt, Thatcher & Rye, or a completely new concept. Mystery solved, it's Thatcher & Rye 2.0. While not tavern-like the place is impressive, large open space, interesting things to look at, it has a grand feeling. There is a bar area that was pretty full when we were being seated, the low buzz of socializing gave the place energy and kept it from feeling too solemn. We can knock out service right away, it's pretty bad. Too casual, not paying attention to details, overall lack of experience and/or training. We ordered sparkling water, poured our glasses, found one of the glasses was dirty and asked for a new glass. We were brought a full glass of flat water? I chugged it and poured my own glass of sparkling.
We started with the oysters which were always good at Thatcher & Rye. Even better now, the cocktail isn't the ketchup horseradish staple of old, but Worcestershire like sauce with umami and interest, the mignonette was the best version that we've ever had. Cold fried chicken liver pate, pate was great, frying it added nothing - perhaps made it worse. The concept was good, shaping it like a little drummie, but the crust dominated when the pate needed to be the star. The baby romaine salad was very nice.
Back to service: the exception to the stream of well-intended, undertrained, staff was our sommelier, Steve. We knew enough to pair the oysters with a glass of Albarino, but Steve went next level pairing a nice sauternes with our pate - it was a perfect match, one that we would not have come up with on our own, but will remember going forward. For our main we decided to share the dry aged ribeye, some fries, and young broccoli. Through a conversation that began with "no California Cab", Steve helped us navigate to an interesting bottle of Gaja's Sito Moresco, a Nebbiolo-based blend from Italy that would not just complement the steak but had enough complexity to stand on its own legs as well. Not even 1/2 way through our salad and pate, we spied our main course trapsing over to the table. Not a big fan of the ordering everything all at once and we'll manage the timing trend as even here, it didn't work. I suppose that it is good that this was noticed en route, the food wasn't presented, therefore we didn't have to return it. When it did arrive, the steak was very nice, the fries as well (ala Thatcher & Rye), but the broccoli was a bit of a showstopper. Chimichurri and some spice made this one of the highlights of our meal. We wrapped up with coffee and shared a pistachio crusted something or other that I cannot recall.
We were presented with our check, plopped down the card, and when the copy to sign arrived it was for different amount. I cannot recall this ever happening to me before and certainly not without some explanation. When asked, our server simply replied that she had neglected to include our bottle of sparkling water on the first check, so she added it to this one. In my world, that bottle of water had just become free, heck I had to discard one glass because it was dirty, but I guess some details are being paid attention to.
We'll certainly be back. Most of the food was quite good, the wine selection is solid, Steve does an incredible job. I would always trade good food for good service, but I doubt their goal here is to be a four-star restaurant and five stars require both.
