First visit: week of opening
Chris and I checked out the new Shiloh’s Bar & Bistro for dinner on a Friday night, after they’d only been open a few days. I asked the hostess if I could speak to the owner, since I wanted to thank him for our interview, but he was (understandably) too busy to come up front just then. I was pleased to see the place was bustling and loud and almost crowded.
We did not order an appetizer, but apparently with dinner entrees you receive a pre-meal order of small slices of seasoned bread with some kind of pastel-orange, cream-cheesed-based spread. I was tempted to finish off the plate.
Chris’s order: Crispy Shrimp Salad. My impression: ew. But only because I don’t eat shrimp. He liked it.
Alison’s order: the Chicken Shiloh. This dish involved both bacon and Gouda. Enough said. (Rice and vegetables also excellently prepared.)
Second visit: with two girlfriends, who we’ll call Emily and Kim. Friday night, Sept. 3
Appetizers: crab cakes, heavily breaded, accompanied by some kind of creamy sauce. Very good. We have a mini-spat in which each of us pretends to not mind if the other takes the last half of one, which means we all obviously want it.
Drinks:
Ravenswood Lodi red wine. (Alison. Happy.)
Honey Brown beer. (Kim. Happy.)
Water. (Emily. Pregnant. Pissed at Kim and Alison.)
Alison’s order: Chicken Roulade. Dry. I didn’t really like it. (My friends explained it was made the way it was supposed to be.)
Emily’s order: Filet mignon.
Kim’s order: The Ella Fitzgerald. (Bowtie pasta with some kind of creamy sauce and feta cheese.) It was delicious. I know this because I ate off her plate.
Service: Excellent on both visits. However, this is what happened when Emily gave her order to the young waitress.
“I’ll have the filet.”
The waitress froze, pen poised over pad. “The…filet …of…?”
Overall impression:
That second visit, it was almost an hour to get our food. But we were happy to catch up. And it was busy. And even though I didn’t really like my Chicken Roulade, I will definitely go back and try new things. (And, if I should ever find myself ordering “the filet,” will be specific.)
The menu is fancy enough that there are several items I don’t really recognize (hence the Roulade), yet casual enough to feel like you can wear jeans and nobody looks at you sideways. It might seem a bit pricey in a town where one of the few choices is, say, Buffalo Wild Wings, but the thoughtfulness of the menu, the quality and the service seem worth it. It’s a fantastic, much-needed addition to Macomb, and it was great to see the place hopping.
P.S. It’s my 500th post, y’all. (Not counting the earliest incarnation of my blogging self, which was in the early 00s and which was under a kind of pseudonym. (No, not Gossip Girl, but boy do I wish I could cause the same kind of destruction!) Thanks again to those of you who read and subscribe, and especially to those who comment, either online or in person.
To the first reader of this 500th post, you may redeem the key to your new car, and brush the confetti off your shoulders, at the customer service desk. Prize not redeemable for cash.
Tags: blogging, Dining Deprivation, food, MacombSquare, meta, social media
Congrats on 500 postings!
(Now where is that service desk???)