District 2, More Like District 9

We have been to District 2 on two separate occasions, and both times, the food and service has been abysmal at best. This space has been a revolving door of restaurants and bars for several years as nothing ever seems to find success on the corner of Wisconsin and Macomb, and frankly, I don’t see its latest occupant bucking that trend.

This past Sunday, we decided to get brunch in the Cathedral Heights area and had originally planned on eating at Café Deluxe. Unfortunately, even thought it was beautiful and sunny day, they weren’t seating people outside. Because our friends had a dog, we were specifically looking for outdoor seating.

Nearby was District 2, so the group decided to eat there as there was no wait as well as tables available outside. Now Rachel and I were immediately pessimistic about the selection since the first time we went, we had an unpleasant experience, but since there weren’t too many options for brunch around that area, we just hoped for the best.

Granted, when we went the first time it was mostly for drinks and bar food, but since we had to go to a concert right after, we decided to get a quick dinner as well. We chose the black bean veggie burger, and after waiting a ridiculous amount of time for it, what arrived was some sort of black, pasty substance smeared on an overly-buttered bun. I couldn’t even finish it. On the flipside, the sweet potato fries and fried pickles were pretty good, and we had fun celebrating a friend’s birthday and new job.

Back to Sunday… since the place had recently opened, we gave the venue the benefit of the doubt thinking that they had ironed the kinks out and that the food and service would be much improved from our last visit.

Boy, were we wrong.

When the waiter took our drink order, most people ordered Bloody Mary’s while Rachel and I just got coffee. When they brought out the drinks, the waiter realized that he made an extra Bloody Mary and proceeded to ask if anyone wanted it. Rachel took it, saying, “I just hope he doesn’t charge me for this.” More on that later…

When he brought out the coffees, we were missing spoons in our roll up, but didn’t bother asking for some since they seemed swamped, so we used our forks to stir instead.

I ordered The All American Breakfast. Nothing fancy, just your typical eggs, home fries, bacon, and toast platter. Hard to mess up, right? The eggs were extremely runny, the home fries were undercooked, and the bacon was just meh. It made the Original House of Pancakes look like The Source.

Now, Rachel can be a picky eater as she likes to ask for things slightly different from the menu. But restaurants should be used to these types of requests.

She ordered the Eggs Benedict, but asked for it to be served without the sauce, with Canadian bacon on the side, and the eggs poached well. When it came, the eggs were cold, the yolks were runny, and the slabs of bacon were, low and behold, right there on the English muffin tops. It just wasn’t worth sending back since it took so long to come.

As for the service? It was adequate at first, but our waiter gradually disappeared as the meal progressed up to the point where the table was in dire need of clearing.  As a former waiter, it is one of the biggest faux pas in the book to leave a table full of dirty dishes for such an extended period of time. The waiter apologized as they were understaffed, but the restaurant should know better nonetheless.

When the bill finally came, we realized he did in fact charge for that extra Bloody Mary, but for five dollars, they weren’t overly expensive to begin with. It was just the principal in that we shouldn’t have been charged at all.

This place has so many strikes against it that we will not be returning. Between the underwhelming food and mediocre service, there are a plethora of better options out there in the neighborhood. If only Cafe Deluxe had realized it was one of the very few warm days left this year instead of leaving us out in the “cold.”