About a month ago my wife and I were slipped into one of our go-to watering holes, The Waterfront Hotel to grab a drink and a bite to eat. I was craving the buffalo chicken wrap; she was craving their homemade potato chips. To our surprise, we weren’t able to order either.
Apparently, WTF had changed owners recently, and the new proprietor(s) wished to shake things up a bit, by bringing in an almost entirely new staff, significantly modifying the interior, and rolling out a totally new menu. The old Waterfront Hotel that my friends and I had discovered within weeks of our 21st birthdays, and been in love with ever since, was no more.
After a month or so of grieving, Team Bob Ganoosh decided pay a visit to the new WTF with an open mind and a healthy appetite.
The menu required us to study it in great detail, as none of the traditional items – including those kettle chips or the buffalo chicken wrap – were offered. The new menu has a Tex-Mex meets Low Country theme, and included items such as Frogmore stew, an assortment of tacos, the Cuban sandwich. Pork belly also held a significant presence on the menu.
As an appetizer we ordered the crab queso fundito, which essentially was a traditional Mexican queso dip with crab meat inside. As far as queso dips are concerned, this was one of the better ones we have had. Of course, adding crab meat to a dish never hurts. However, the price point of $14 makes it a bit more expensive than the average nacho dip, and pricier than I prefer for an appetizer.
For our entrees, we ordered the WTF burger, a beef burger topped with mango barbeque pork belly and jalapeño flavored bacon; the pork belly Cuban, a traditional Cuban sandwich; and the black bean burger.
The WTF burger included a healthy portion of beef cooked to perfect doneness – we ordered it rare, and got exactly what we ordered. I have never really seen a burger from a restaurant cooked rare or medium rare – they are usually over-done for safety reasons – but these guys got it right. The pork belly was extremely flavorful and very tender.
The pork belly Cuban is dish in which the pork belly really shines, though. The well-stuffed sandwich is filled with ham, pork belly, and variety of fixins, and was proclaimed by our waiter to be the “best thing on the menu, hands down”. And frankly I must agree, which really speaks to the quality of this sandwich, as I am generally not a fan of pork, at all.
The black bean burger was obviously made in house from freshly-ground black beans and hand formed. The quality of the burger patty was excellent, though we found the spices to be a little bit overwhelming, and the guacamole to be a little bit too plentiful. For someone who likes a bite to their bean burger, this would be perfect; but for us, it was a little bit overpowering.
All in all, we really did enjoy the food we had; however, we are still having a hard time thinking of WTF as a Tex-Mex joint. We also didn’t care for the new look on the first floor, which much more industrial in nature. They also installed high-end sound equipment for live entertainment, which may make the place more marketable as a music venue, but also takes away the “small dark bar where the bartender knows your name and there’s a guy playing the guitar in the corner” quality that we have loved for so long.
And while the service was good, we miss the handful of folks who have worked there for a few years now.
In the end, the only things that have remained the same about this place are the name and the shell of the building (and I guess, the upper floors). And while we definitely do not dislike the new WTF or discourage anyone from going there, it will never be the same as the bar we stumbled into six years ago. RIP, WTF.
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