Grey Sweater (soft opening)

I was holding off on writing anything because, again, I only want to have nice things to say. But, if you're interested in reading about my honest journey through the soft opening at Grey Sweater, continue...

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We walk into Grey Sweater and there's nobody greeting anyone. Other than the hors d'oeuvre servers and bartender, I can't even identify who works there. Very mysterious, putting it kindly.

Not being guided in any sort of direction, we wait by the bar, because the best way to lighten up is with a drink containing an open flame. The drinks for the evening are not posted anywhere. The bartender briefly details them and I choose the first one because they were too wordy and I honestly don't even remember what was said after that. We watch in awe as he makes this multi-ingredient beverage---cameras are flashing, it's a very red carpet moment for this b'tender. Then he pulls out this handheld whip cream dispenser and there's clearly a malfunction because it plops into the drinks, splashing the actual beverage out of the glass. It looked like a toileting situation gone seriously wrong.

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Everyone smiles as if telling him to "be brave," but it happened to all 3 of the drinks he made. I then reach for my beverage and just like a late night HGTV sales pitch I get the "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!" I could hardly wait to see what followed the plopping. He grabs a cinnamon stick and proceeds to light it on fire. Anything with fire grabs pretty much anybody's attention, including mine. He then hands us the drinks, with the flame still a'flamin'. I love a good fire trick, but I'm also the ultimate "what if" gal. So WHAT IF this open flame cinnamon stick touches my hair when I take a sip, or WHAT IF the end of the cinnamon stick slides on the rim of the glass right into my eyeball or WHAT IF it grazes my very full cheek? Yeah, this drink could be very cool to see being made (minus the plopping), but I have to say, once the drink has passed from employee to customer, the flame needs to be out. I didn't sign up to be in a circus ring of fire show.

We do the shoulder twist to navigate through the very full restaurant. Nobody is sitting down. They start handing out the hors d'oeuvres and unless you asked what you were eating, there was no explanation. I didn't even get a picture of 2 of the options because we weren't seated and I was having to juggle my open flamed drink and my phone and honestly it was a safety hazard to take my eyes off the flame. One of the options was a square of bread with some sort of marination and a brussel sprout. It was pretty tasty, which most anything with brussel sprouts is. The other option was some sort of drum stick. I'm not a huge eat-off-the-bone type person, but it was okay. We looked everywhere for napkins, asked a couple of servers and finally there was a man sent from God at the bar who heard my cries and gave me his used cocktail napkin--although he said he wasn't sure who it really belonged to. If the new concept involves no napkins, then no. My hands felt like I'd been working with my kindergartners on a craft project. The third option was a raw oyster with citrus pearls, pickled mustard seeds and thai vinaigrette. It was alright, but I really just prefer my oysters the old fashion way.

We're finally like, mmm k, whats going on? So I ask someone who looked like she would know and she didn't, so we left to go play Bingo. No shame in my game.

I'm just not sold on Grey Sweater. Apparently others are more in-the-know about what this "new concept" entails. But it missed some major hospitality points on my rating scale. I can't even say I'll return because the prices are astronomical and I only enjoy paying when I'm 100% sure it'll be worth it. (Fist bump, Red Prime---you're always worth it.)

I'll be very interested to see how others experience goes. I never fully rule out a restaurant after a soft opening, so maybe one day when I have an extra $500 I'll pop in.

I also don't want to sound like such an ungrateful jerk. I always appreciate the invite to experience any restaurant, but it's okay to have suggestions for success.