MAY 24TH, 2012 - THE STATION, BRYSON CITY, NC

I guess you all are wondering what happened to the Hemlock Inn. Well, when we tried to make a reservation today for tonight, we were informed we needed to make them 24 hours in advance. When I informed the young man the website did not require supper reservations, he told me it did. When he looked at the website, he agreed, it did not state reservations were needed, but indeed they were. So, we were not able to go this week, but someone will draw it again. Next time, we will know 24 hours in advance to make reservations.

Well, Greg and I were late to dinner as we "had a clear case of miscommunication".  But not to worry.. Lisa was having a beer and we hadn't missed a thing. The Station is a fairly new restaurant in Bryson, located across from the train depot in the renovated Copes Chevrolet two story building. I am not sure what is upstairs. There are a little string of  boutiques and The Station in the lower level. The restaurant has been operating for a few years.

BRYSON CITY DEPOT

The restaurant does have an outdoor dinning area with a few tables and umbrellas. The outside was very crowded and at first I had a hard time finding the door. I have only eaten at The Station once before. That was about a year or so ago. I do not know who owned it or if they are the same owners as now.I have to admit, my going into the restaurant tonight was colored by my first and only experience a year or so ago. What I distinctly remember is being served on Styrofoam plates with plastic cutlery, which did not last the entire meal. We did not receive any explanation for the serving pieces and left wondering if that was a permanent thing. I also remember the food not being that good. In fact, it was pretty unmemorable.
But! this was a new day and we were here to see how our experience would be this time.

The restaurant is not very big and is like a long rectangle. It is very crowded with tables and chairs. It is also decorated in some sort of cheap looking flea market items sitting on shelves that (I think) are supposed to give it a vintage feel. There are also floor to ceiling, wall to wall framed photographs which we were informed by our wait person, were taken by a friend of the owners. They apparently are not for sale. They make the room feel very claustrophobic and cluttered  with a cheap motel decor feel. There is also a large TV at one end of the room. I hate, hate, hate TV's in a restaurant. I think they are appropriate for sports bars. If I wanted to watch TV while I ate supper, I would just do that at home and eat off my folding tray. But, when I go out to supper, I like to talk to my company, visit and even possibly make new friends out of the people at the next table. I like to enjoy my supper in peace and relaxation without a TV blaring behind, beside or in front of me. For some reason, everyone's eyes gravitate towards the TV.. kinda like having a huge IPhone in front of you.
We sat for awhile before anyone came to ask our drink order. The wait person seemed very distracted and discombobulated. As a result there were several mishaps with our drinks and exactly what was available on the menu. Seems there were several things they were out of, which we were not informed of up front. After finding out the several items I was going to choose were unavailable (after the previous ones were not available), I had to step back and punt. In order to just order something I just ordered a Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger.
Lisa and Pam had ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes before we arrived. Something I have learned about Pam.. she do love her some Fried Green Tomatoes.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

 These were not too thick, but did have a thick breading on them. They were served with a horseradish sauce which was tasty. The FGT were in fact green and were OK.

After we placed our order.. we endured a VERY long wait. To the tune of about an hour... yes an hour before our food arrived. There were two other tables in the restaurant besides us and table of 8 outside on  the porch. Everyone had their food, had eaten and some had even left before ours came.

Lisa ordered the Sizzling  Blackened Chicken.  Lisa's came with a sweet baked potato and a salad

LISA'S SALAD

SIZZLING BLACKENED CHICKEN

BAKED SWEET POTATO

Pam ordered the Chicken Quesadilla. Hers looked good. Cant speak to taste.

CHICKEN QUESADILLA

Greg ordered the Shrimp Scampi .Greg's pasta was literally floating in what was supposedly Alfredo sauce. There was a large pool of runny white sauce in his bowl, so that when he took a bite he had to shake the pasta off so he wouldn't slop the sauce all over him. His dish had large shrimp on it which was very good. I am not sure what this dish was, but it was not Shrimp Scampi. He was also supposed to get a salad which came with his meal. He also did not ask about it for fear of adding another hour or so to our experience there.

SHRIMP SCAMPI

 My burger came with fries, but since I have food issues surrounding fries, I wanted something else. It seems my options included mashed potatoes, or baked potatoes. I chose a baked potato. The potato was fairly OK. It was served with butter. I did not get asked if I wanted sour cream or anything else and I was afraid to ask for anything else for fear my potato would be cold as a wedge by the time I got it. The hamburger meat itself was OK. The bun was terribly dry and I ended up taking my burger off and just eating it by itself.

BACON CHEDDAR CHEESEBURGER

It continued to take a long time to get refills, dishes cleared, etc. Overall, the experience was not a pleasant one. The food was very overpriced, was not a consistent high quality and took three  lifetimes to arrive. The prices were all over $15.00 a plate. To be fair, I am not sure if this was the first waitressing job our person had had or she was just having an off day, but throughout the meal, she appeared distracted, flighty or something. If the food had of been really good and worth the price, we could have overlooked the terrible service and long wait. But to have bad  service, long wait, high prices, and terrible food does not make us happy campers.



Now that I am reflecting back on our conversation. it too appeared to have a disjointed pattern, with folks not following the conversation  flow and leaving off in mid sentence or mid conversation to do something else.. like watch TV. The night was a little weird.

ONE OF THE PHOTOS. THIS ONE WAS AT OUR TABLE. WE  WERE INFORMED AFTERWARDS  THAT TAKING PHOTOS OF THE PHOTOS WAS NOT ALLOWED. BUT HE WAS SUCH A CUTE LITTLE FELLA.

But we did get our fake porn names solidified. I found a site where you use two methods to develop your porn name. (1) Take your middle name and the name of your first pet. (2) Take your first pets name and the name of the street you grew up on. We used that as a basis, but we did exercise artistic license too. So here goes.... now introducing......

Lisa - Misty Tunnel, Greg - Casar Wetdreamcatcher, Susan - Kitty Beaver, Pam - Tinkerbell Peters.
Reckon we'll  make it to Hollywood with those names? Don't hold your breath!

And, we also finished sharing our turning points. I actually had two. The first was my decision to not attend Chowan College based on the location, first look at the college campus and the dorms. That meant I was not going into graphic arts as planned. I ended up attending Warren Wilson College instead. So not only did I end up at a totally different college than planned, I also ended up having to pick a major that I had not planned on either. WWC did not have a graphic arts major.
The second was my first marriage to a very abusive man. It changed who I was as a person and who I thought I was.
Lisa's was the decision to not attend college to pursue veterinary school based on the refusal of her guidance counselor to provide her with a reference letter. So Lisa also had to choose a college and career path that was not her first choice.
Pam... did Pam get out of telling us hers? How slick....I told you it was a weird evening.

Out next weeks question was to develop an alter ego name. We can't tell you the results of that as its confidential. If we told you,  then we would have to kill you.

We left that evening feeling less than satisfied on all accounts. Before we left, I did draw the next place and we are headed to Guayabitos Mexican in the shopping center. See you at 6:30.