crown and goose reviewed

if you read this blog at all, and i'm sure you do, you know that we've been anticipating the official opening of the crown and goose for a while. thursday night, several contributors marched off to the 'gastropub' to sample its original brew and cuisine.

one thing that can be said for crown goose is that they spared no expense in design and construction. aesthetically, it feels just like your neighborhood pub should: bare brick walls (one of which has a mural of the bar's logo ), generous horseshoe shaped wooden bar, extravagant beer garden. the place even has its logo on every pint glass. what would an authentic british pub be like without branded pint glasses?

the food was very good as well. we had bangers and mash with blue cheese macaroni. both dishes were very tasty. but it was not exactly pub food. though i was anticipating a higher end pub menu, i didn't realize how high brow the c&g had in mind. entrees were $20 and higher. but the menu is also extensive (i.e. french and english cheese plates, mussels, etc.) and they do have smaller plates priced at around $7 or $8. for quality, it was very good. but i'm not making this my neighborhood pub for the food.

the beer was excellent. they have three home brews: a bitter, a stout, and an ipa. unfortunately, all they had on tap for nearly the whole evening was the stout--which was delicious. it being opening night, it seemed that c&g was still working out quite a few kinks. the service was really bad. there's no doubt that the servers were trying their best to meet demand, but the place was just overrrun. and they were having issue with the kegs, thus no bitter or ipa (they finally got the bitter up later, i enjoyed it as well). they have an extensive list of domestic and imports on tap (these also ran dry during the evening) and unique specialty drink list. i was not disappointed by the beer i drank.

overall, i really liked the place and generally enjoyed myself there. but i should note a few things i didn't like, some of which i already stated.
1. the service. it was was horrible. i know it was opening night and they need to get used to themselves. but, we waited over half an hour for a beer. so you might give the place a month to settle in. i'm sure they'll be up to snuff in a few weeks.
2. the price. i should have know better when a place calls itself a 'gastropub.' and generally, i'd say its worth the price tag for the food you're getting. unfortunately, this makes the place a little exclusive. and if there is anything a pub should be, it is NOT EXCLUSIVE. they do run a special around 6:30pm (subtract a dollar from the $4 you'll spend on a draft), which makes the place still a decent place for a pint.
3. exclusivity in the old city. this is pretty much an extension of my previous point. enjoy the redundancy. as i was preparing to write this post, i got online to see what other people were saying about the gastropub. mostly they believe that the c&g is exactly what the old city needs. if it can put itself on the map with fine dining, the old city could became knoxville's entertainment district. let me be unambigous, i'd like to steer clear of any sort of critique based on 'i don't like it because it's new and nice' and i'm not against this place because it is different than many old city establishments. i like that this place is in the old city. i really like that the owner, jeffery nash, put up a significant amount of his own money and effort to make the place look amazing and have a fantastic menu--he really did a great job. i like that it brings a diversity of establishments to the area. i don't like the idea that this will somehow be a springboard to the make the old city an ok place to hang out. my distaste is more with the clientèle at the c&g than with the place itself. one person told me, "wow, this place is great. this is exactly what the old city needs to get people to finally start coming down here." i know that this will paint me as a stuffy and trite old city rat, but the area has been pulling in people for awhile. admittedly, many are young or still in school. what the above commenter should have said was, "this will pull in a crowd of people more like me." great. like i said, any kind of diversity is welcome.

one of the things i like about the old city is its uniqueness. some places are just outright weird. i believe the c&g adds its own character to the mix. however, i hope it doesn't become the development that brings in a new, more streamlined old city. if, in a few years we need to make signs that say: "keep the old city weird," i'll lend my support.

go to the crown and goose. enjoy yourself. i give it 7.5 wigs.
[sorry stan, the wigometer only has whole wig ratings, so i rounded down. ck]