Meh, don't bother....

[Genny]

Grainbelt Grillhouse in Gilbert

I opened my February Gilbert Lifestyle magazine to find a local place for dinner last night and found a newcomer the Grainbelt Grillhouse listed. You'd think with a simple concept "Midwestern Foods" and USDA choice beef aged "at least" 21 days that this should be a slam dunk. Not so much.

Driving south on Gilbert Road my husband says, "I wonder if its in that cursed location." As a matter of fact, it was. The building at 302 N Gilbert Road must be one of those "cursed" locations having housed several restaurants since its construction in the late 1990s: Mahogany Run (which closed five years ago), Gonzo's, Heartthrob Cafe, Rock City, and now GrainBelt. But it's not stopping owners Michael Savoie and Diana Bavetz from trying their luck!

As a full disclosure here I'm going to be upfront to say that I'm not always the best orderer in the world.

I was pleased to see a single page menu with a feature box of their aged steaks with 4 types of potatoes: "fat mashed" (didn't get a clear description of this, the server said they mashed them so they looked puffy and fat, huh?), Wisconsin Mash with cheddar cheese mixed in, pan scalloped and fries.

From the appetiser list we chose the corn cake croquettes, a caprese salad and a crab pot. The corn cake croquettes were just shy of burned and were light and fluffy inside...they made me think of Bisquick. I'm not saying they used Bisquick, I'm just saying that is what they made me think of. We had 1 1/2 each and just couldn't work up the enthusiasm for any more. The caprese salad (yeah, I know, not even remotely midwestern here) was presented prettily in a ring of red and white alternating slices with a reduction of basalmic making a pretty presentation. I'm not sure if the basil chiffonade was old and dry or frizzled. The fresh mozzarella was good and the tomatoes nicely ripened but lacked seasoning and were a little bland considering it isn't tomato season.

It was at this time that I noticed the busboy. At 5:00 we were the first and only people in the restaurant. The dining room had a banquette of booths down the center with a water feature creating a donut shaped room. A teenage busboy was bored and kept walking around the donut, passing our table and looking back over his shoulder at our table at each pass. OK, I figured he was bored the first couple passes. His stares at our table got more and more obvious at each turn. He had to have circled at least a dozen times through the entire meal which was just freaky. I'd look up and he'd be staring at me. Eww.

Between the appy and dinner a server started preparing the six top that was right next to us. They added a table cloth, lit the candle, re-arranged the silverware, etc. Note, the restaurant is still EMPTY. The server proceeded to light the candles on every table...except ours. Then a group of six very perfumed senior citizens were seated. They were a nice enough group enjoying their evening but I questioned the decision to sit them next to us, especially since they had a different server than we did.

My dinner was some of the crab pot which had green chili, spinach, red pepper garnish and was cheesy. The toasted bread served with this had a margerine-like smear and was not good at all. Along with this I a butter lettuce "wedge" salad with Wisconsin blue cheese, harder than hell bacon and tomato. It came with a raspberry vinaigrette which I don't generally care for, I asked if I could have a basalmic vinaigrette instead but the server said they didn't have any...um....I didn't have it in me to ask what the hell was just on the caprese salad.

My husband had the porterhouse steak with scalloped potatoes. It was flavorful, well seasoned and about 3/4 of an inch thick. A medium-rare steak had a thin pink strip through the center. The potatoes were fine as were the carrot and snow pea side veg.

I was tired of eating perfume and being stalked by a teenage busboy so I was ready to go. Our server was kind enough to rattle off the dessert menu for us but I wasn't interested. All I caught was the first two items she mentioned: strawberry shortcake and New York cheesecake with fresh strawberries....in March????? Oy.

If this place is going to survive they need some serious work, I don't you can blame a failure on the building being cursed. Too bad since I think that Gilbert could support a good steakhouse!