Friday, July 16, 2010

Smoky Oak Taproom Review

Went to happy hour with the crew of friends tonight, and we decided to try out a new place -- Smoky Oak Taproom. It's a locally owned BBQ restaurant and bar. It's located off of Camp Road on James Island here in Charleston.

They serve a wide variety of beers - which makes the guys happy. I tried to order a fancy beer off of their menu, but I know nothing about specialty beers. The beer with 'chocolate and meat roast flavor' sounded interesting, but I wasn't brave enough. So I settled for Yuengling because I knew it would be good (and my sister is the Marketing rep for Yuengling in Atlanta, so she would be happy to hear that's what I drank).

Maybe it was their Web site, but I had somewhat high expectations for this place...but it wasn't what I expected. It was located really far down Camp Road off of Folly Rd. on James Island, and was in the back of a strip mall. The inside wasn't anything like we thought it would be from the Web site photos - it was more of a local burger joint that happened to have a bar inside, and it wasn't very big.

There wasn't much of any AC inside either - granted it was very humid here tonight, so I guess I can't fault them too bad. But I do fault them for putting the long table we sat at right below the AC piping - which I'm guessing due to the humidity, dripped water on all of us the entire time. We actually turned it into a drinking game...when the water dripped on the table, if you were the last person to touch your nose, you had to drink....lol.

The service was somewhat lacking as well - I was there about thirty minutes before my drink order got taken... and when the waitress did get my order, there was only five minutes left of the happy hour prices. As it got later, the service picked up...

However, the downsides were overshadowed by the food. I had the spinach and artichoke dip which came with warm pita bread. Mmm. And I was going to stop at that, but I saw a patron at a neighboring table get an order of Mac & Cheese...it looked so good, so of course I ordered a bowl of my own. It was delicious!

I'm glad we decided to try somewhere new tonight - but I'm not sure I'll be going back to Smoky Oak anytime soon. I think they are still fairly new and are still working out the kinks - but there's potential there. I hope they can figure it out since it's locally owned...

We went by King St. Grill on James Island on the way (not really on the way) back to Mt. Pleasant to have one more drink - but they were celebrating their one year anniversary with an all you can drink for $15 special...which would have been great if we had started there, but it was already 9:30pm and I was tired and only wanted one more drink... not ten.

This isn't the best picture (my hair is a victim of humidity), but here's the outfit I wore tonight. New dress from Forever21 - somewhat of a nautical feel. The shapes in the pattern remind me of the triangle nautical flags. And my go to summer shoes - my Old Navy wedges. Love these... they make my legs look so long and they were only $30!

Tomorrow night my old roommates and I are throwing a 'housecooling' cookout/party at our house I just moved out of (they move out of it in two weeks) - we're holding a raffle ($1 a ticket) for 'gently used' items we don't want anymore...lol. We're hoping we'll make some money to pay for the cookout food and the keg. I donated a handful of old picture frames, some never worn stripper heels (purchased for a Halloween costume - I swear!), a George Foreman grill and a fake plant... I'm sure my friends will be scrambling to buy tickets to win those items, lol. :)

4 comments:

Token Yankee said...

Cute dress. There are so many good restuarants in Charleston! I just got overly excited because the town I live in is getting a Kickin Chicken haha!

Charleston Girl said...

Kickin' Chicken is one of my faves!!

Janna said...

Cute cute dress! and I may go see if Old Navy still has those wedges!

And you beer selection sounds like how I normally go! I'd love to be more adventurous but always go back to a few old faithfuls! :)

Anonymous said...

Love the dress!!
You can ask for a sample of one of there draft beers.@ Smoky Oak