St. Francis on Camelback

I really love this restaurant. Not only the food, I am talking equally about the building. When I saw it being redone from an attempted office building I was very curious. Someone had great vision and made it all come together. It is a modern yet rustic feel making a very fun and different kind of place. The smell really takes me back to my restaurant days. In my book -the best smell in the world! A sort of smokey, wood burning, garlic-ey great smell. And I love the airy, open feel. I think its a genius yet simple feat for any restaurant to take advantage of our amazing winter weather evenings. When you are sitting inside it feels like you are outside because of the giant bar door/window that opens up an entire side of the building right at the bar, so that it is accessible also from the outside. The reclaimed wood that decorates the walls, the floor, and the ceiling combined make it just a great place to hang out. On many a night you will find that nights game, Julia Child, or whatever they are playing that night flashed up on the wall in huge projection.

Now lets talk about the food.

I ordered the wood fired flat bread which I was very happy with. It was good. The crust was very nice. And the Fig, arugula and cheese on top was perfect.

And then there is the Ahi sandwich. I give this dish 3 thumbs up and 5 stars. You just sink your teeth into this meaty patty that is perfectly seared on both sides but is melt in your mouth tender on the inside. Id say at this moment, this is my favorite eat out dish. Of course its seasonal so unfortunately, or I could look on the bright side and say fortunately I will have to try another tasty seasonal dish on my next visit.


Reviews
I have been reading a lot of reviews about this place online, at urbanspoon, and at other sites. There seems to be a theme leaning toward the negative as regards the service. Not just some, but it looks as if most people writing reviews had a bad experience (although those who had a good experience may not have written anything, as it is much more motivating to write about a bad experience-but its there nonetheless). There are only a very few complaints about the food, and those are not even very bad, things like "to expensive for what you get" or "not that great" (of course I disagree with those, but who knows, maybe the Chef was out that day) which are fairly mild and could be due to a bad day. But the service! This is upsetting to me for a few reasons. One of them is that I have been recommending this place to several people, and to you readers. How embarrassing to have someone go because I said it was great and then they are treated terribly. I hope they are doing something to fix this problem, and yes, it is a problem. I myself did not experience bad service. I did get the wrong wine, and charged for the wrong wine, but when I addressed it, she apologized, it was fixed, and they ended up comp-ing the wine altogether. That to me is good service.
I believe in letting managers and servers know on the spot what the problem is. It gives them an opportunity to fix it, and that is what really lets them know how they are doing.