From the Blissful Glutton:
[Atlanta's] Porter Beer Bar will be offering its food menu at half price during the entire month of March.
Well ... not exactly. As even dear old BG admits, those special prices are available just three and a half hours a day, five days a week. So, while "half price food for a month" sounds great ... the reality is that, if you're interested, you'll have to make your way down to Little Five Points for a quick weekday lunch.
Not that you'd want to.
I know, I know: the Porter Beer Bar is a darling of the Atlanta food reviewing community, and critic after critic rhapsodizes ad nauseam about this so-called "gourmet gastropub."
But when our informal dinner club descended on the place one evening two weeks ago, we were sorely disappointed. The beer special -- Terrapin's India Style Brown Ale -- was soapy and bitter. The often-celebrated hush puppies were deep-fried to death. And the dishes we ordered were saturated -- literally limp! -- with yellow-orange grease.
The food was so bad, in fact, our friend J. revoked her husband's license to choose the "Restaurant of the Week" and, on the spot, scheduled out our next five forays without allowing him a single syllable of input.
Reviews had described the joint as packed; when we were there, servers almost outnumbered the diners.
You'd think that would guarantee good service; it didn't. When we wanted refills, additional beers, and even the check, we actually had to go looking for our server, who tended to huddle with the others at the front of the restaurant.
Bad food. Bad service. And now, a month-long half-price food special? That's not chili cheese fries you're smelling -- it's desperation.
If The Porter is open on this date next year, I'll personally buy the BG a bottle of Terrapin's India Style Brown Ale.
