Drafts at Draught

Charlotte, NC

Third Ward

Hello fellow stuffies!    It's Petchi and Markus and we're headed to a new neighborhood hangout in Third Ward.  Right outside the Panthers practice field, and in the backyard of the stadium, this newly renovated restaurant has re-opened right in time for football season.  

Draught...pronounced draft...is the bar that has replaced Hartigan's Irish Pub.  Hartigan's was the place to be on game day because of its proximity to the stadium.  Not many other I people I knew went there for any other reason.  To be honest, I didn't know anything else about it.  I pass by it everyday but, didn't take any notice to it.  It wasn't until Hartigan's closed and the renovations started that I started wondering what this place could be like.  Construction was on going for months, with the opening right in time for the pre-season games.  Now I could finally see what was going on the inside.  

Draught is open for lunch and dinner and has 40 craft beers available on tap.  Seems like a good reason to come on any day if you ask me.  We decided to stop in for dinner one night.  Before we went, we made a reservation on Open Table just to make sure we wouldn't have to wait long in case it was busy.

As you walk into the restaurant, you'll notice the new patio.  This patio has a great view of the city which will be great for the upcoming cool weather.  The inside has been redone to look modern and retro-industrial.  This mural pretty much sums up the decor.  

The restaurant felt just like that... a restaurant.  It doesn't feel like a bar that serves food; it's a restaurant that has a large selection of beers on tap.  We were seated instantly and was shortly greeted by our waitress.  She asked us for our drink order, but when we asked for the drink specials and recommendations on what was on tap, she flustered slightly before excusing herself to get a beer menu.  Pains of a new restaurant with a new waitstaff?

After we ordered our drinks, we quickly decided that we would start with nachos as an appetizer.  These nachos aren't your typical nachos.  Instead of tortilla chips, they are served on house chips.  The chips were delicious but unfortunately got soggy quickly from all the toppings.  

Markus ordered the whiskey and pineapple chicken. The chicken was marinated in whiskey and roasted pineapple and served with cilantro roasted potatoes and bacon braised Brussels sprouts. The chicken itself was tasty but it was very dry. The potatoes were cooked nicely but were over salted as were the sprouts. It would have been great of the veggies weren't as salty.

I ordered the kitchen sink meatloaf. It really does contain a lot of stuff. It's made with a blend of the house smoked pork butt, duck, and beef and topped with a sweet and sour tomato sauce. It was served with Southern style collard greens and smashed red potatoes. The potatoes were the best part of the meatloaf. The potatoes were very rich, creamy, and fluffy.

Meatloaf to me is not supposed to taste fancy. It seemed to me that they tried to over complicate a simple dish by over spicing it. The blend of spices was tasty but overpowering. If they dialed down the spices about two notches, the meatloaf would be great. It was nice and moist and the tomato sauce was something a little different than your typical ketchup.

The collard greens were your typical greens.  Surprisingly, it was not the saltiest vegetable on the table.

As we were finishing up our meal, we had a nice conversation with our waitress.  She explained how the restaurant was still trying out the food and drink selection.  I guess that would explain the lack of specials just yet.  Markus and I weren't terribly impressed but we weren't going to write this place off just yet since we knew that there was a possibility for improvements.  There is still a lot that could happen...

Overall, How Nuts Are We about Draught?
Food: 3 coconuts. The food was a bit pricey for what it was, but the selection seemed pretty good. We felt like the food itself was trying too hard to be spectacular or different, which could be good, but in this case was a bit of a failure.  Hopefully there will be a balance.    
Service: 4 coconuts. It pretty empty for dinner on a weeknight with no home game so we had great service, but our server wasn't very knowledgeable on any specials or what was available on tap.  
Repeatability: 4 coconuts. The menu is large and could possibly be changing so we will definitely come back to see if there were any improvements.

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