Fred "Open During Construction" L.'s Profile

I co-run a monthly meet-up in the upstairs area of Capt's. We've been having our meet-ups there for about nine months now, and I have to say that every time I'm there, I'm blown away.

We're not (normally) a very large group, but I always feel like we're treated as royalty. The owner is gracious, caring and easy to get ahold of if we need him. The waitstaff is friendly, and seems to dig that our group is a little outside-of-normal.

It seems like any time I need something, I turn around and there's one of the waitstaff smiling and asking me what they can do to help. It's incredible.

Last night we had a rather large gathering, nearly pushing the upstairs capacity to the limit. While I was nervous about how things were going to go (because last year we had our big meet-up at another local bar, and the service was less than stellar), but once again, I was blown away. The crew had gone above and beyond our expectations, they accommodated our bar requests and were not only kind, but I saw a waiter or two with our "hello, I'm [so-and-so] on Twitter." It was awesome!

On the food: I've only eaten at Capt's maybe six or seven times, but everything that I've had was good-to-great. While they may be known as a seafood place, their burger is incredible. I actually look forward to ordering it now. I've had their fried clams as well, which came in a huge portion and tasted great.

On the location: if it's a nice enough day out and you can get on the upstairs balcony, you're going to be treated to one of my favorite views in Salem. It's a little hard to find if you've never been there, and I wish parking were a bit easier, but those are both minor complaints compared to how well the business is run.

On having events: if you're having a gathering in Salem and need a place to have it, you need to give Capt's a look. The waitstaff is incredibly fun, the owner is understanding, helpful and kind, and really you couldn't ask for anything better.

I should have been weary with the word "artisan" in the tag line.

Walking into Bailey and Sage, we were greeted by a long line along the back wall while paper menus were thrust at us by what may have been the manager. It was so that we could have a "closer look at the menu." This generally means the menus posted on the walls are either in the wrong spots, in a font that's hard to read from a distance, or both. In this case, it was both.

We stood in a line-shaped group of people that turned out not to be the line. We found another cluster of people towards the back of the store and made our way to that. A man shouted to step up if we wanted sandwiches. That was what I wanted.

I gave my order, told him my name, he wrote down the name he thought he heard and gave me a yellow slip. And then I didn't know what to do. There is a cash register at the back with a woman at it, and three at the front. I went to stand in line at the register (because that seemed like a good use of time while waiting).

Apparently we "did it wrong," that was for hot sandwiches and I got a cold one. She rang me up anyway, and then we stood in the mass of chaos, just waiting. We weren't being difficult, we just didn't know where to go. There was no where *to* go. Eventually, the guy yelled out a name that he thought was mine. I got my sandwich and got the heck out of there.

A couple of thoughts:
- When you have a fancy set up with paper signs and arrows taped to things, it tells me you didn't think through the flow of the restaurant and people got confused right away.
- There is nothing "artisan" about putting lettuce and a mix of other non-cooked ingredients into a bowl.
- The chicken salad is $8.50. Al's across the street is $5.50 for a better tasting sandwich. (The experience is admittedly chaotic too, but it works and it's lightning quick.)

I tried it. It felt unorganized, confusing, and the food was meh at best, or as a friend put it, "this tastes bad enough to be healthy, but I don't think that it is."