Bentley's

The other night when Susan and I had dinner I failed to mention that we ate at Bentley’s in uptown Charlotte. The restaurant is located on the 27th floor of the Charlotte Plaza building, where the old Tower Club used to be. They’ve been there for about 5 years and did a beautiful job with reinventing the space. The Tower Club was very nice as I remember it, in fact I was offered the Director of Catering position there a long time ago. I didn’t take the job because a) I wasn’t qualified at the time and I knew it, b) the offer letter was faxed to me on a plain piece of paper, not letterhead, and was only one sentence. I took it as a bad omen of things to come, and c) the offer was based on 50% commission - and I was unwilling to take the risk.

But back to Bentley’s - where the best feature of the place is the view from the 27th floor. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn’t need a window seat away. Before we sat down at the bar we went for a quick look-see. I hadn’t been there since it was the Tower Club but their website pictures are lovely so I wanted to take it all in. They really have a gorgeous space, broken up into the main dining room area and then smaller private rooms. As we walked through I was thinking how great their weekend private party business must be. The artwork and furniture is contemporary and sophisticated. It is the perfect venue for an intimate wedding reception.

As for our food selections, we ordered the special appetizer - a trio of ahi tuna, seared scallops and tournados of beef - all three very tasty and nicely presented. Then we each had a salad - Susan’s salad featured a small round of brie in puffed pastry perched on greens, garnished with berries. Mine was composed of my favorite salad elements - gorgonzola and candied pecans with baby greens. We split an entrée of Steak Diane, which was prepared tableside (bar side) for us by a very charming older gentleman who was all to pleased to be flaming and sautéing for us. The steak was served with a dollop of mashed potatoes and some non-descript vegetables.

Generally speaking, in most cases I prefer to sit at the bar at almost any restaurant, especially the nicer ones. For one because you usually have the undivided attention of the bartender the entire time, and at nicer restaurants being a bartender requires advanced social skills - which a lot of basic servers lack. And in nicer restaurants it KILLS ME when servers act all pretentious and snooty -- I mean - who's taking the orders? Me or you? Anyhow, I was quite disappointed in the service we received from the bartender at Bentley's. A few times (more than twice anyway) we actually had to make hand gestures to get his attention, despite the fact that there were only 2 other people at the bar besides us. The restaurant apparently does not have a separate service bar for the dining room so other servers were constantly coming up to have him make drinks. And lastly, it was extremely annoying that we had to ask for everything: can you take our order? Can we have some menus? Can we order our dinner now? Can we get some water? Can we get silverware? Can we get the check? Jeez. Things like that just bug the CRAP out of me.

Afterwards we were offered the dessert menu but passed on it. All in all the food was very good. Not outstanding, not spectacular, but very good. The bill for 2 cockails, 1 glass of wine, 1 appetizer, 2 salads, and 1 entree was $132 plus tip. That's a little steep in my book for a meal that didn't leave me weak in the knees. Glad we had a gift card.

It’s too bad, because if the food and service were as good as the view and the interior, they could easily be the most popular restaurant in town.