Sauced - an overall horrible experience

As a resident that lives OTP (outside the Perimeter), I don't have a huge, huge handle on Atlanta restaurants. I'm only familiar with a handful of places - especially since my old man is Vegan, which limits our options even more. So the only time I get to experience Atlanta dining is when I venture out with my friends. Last night, I did just that.
We were trying to figure out what do to kick off our girls night and, naturally, we started at Cameli's. You can't go wrong with pizza!

After a healthy amount of delicious pizza, we were trying to figure out where to go next. I'm not too sure of what's good - except for the usual places I know of, so I usually leave it up to everyone else to tell me what's good around town.

I had heard Sauced come up a few times and the one time I tried to go there with L and C, they were closed so I didn't really think too much of it until L brought it up last night and I said we should maybe check it out. In hindsight, we should've gone somewhere else but how were we supposed to know it would be a terrible experience?

It started out awkwardly. We entered the small space and stood at the Host/Hostess/Dj booth and waited. And waited. And waited. We probably would've gone to the bar if it wasn't so crowded. Finally, a guy with permanent stink face seated us - after joining two table tops together. He muttered something snarky as I passed him but I couldn't tell what he said. I should have know that that was not a good sign.
Our waiter showed up and we were kind enough to tell him that we weren't going to order dinner but we were definitely going to get drinks and dessert - because, after all, the Sauced website says that it's a "Restaurant and Lounge". Big mistake because, apparently, that was his invitation to pretty much ignore us the entire time we were there. Luckily, we were able to get one drink each, their bacon peanut brittle and finally, their lemon ice box pie. I don't know how we were able to get those since we pretty much had to catch our waiter on his way back from servicing other tables. I get it - we weren't eating dinner BUT we would've gotten more drinks if he had just come back to give us refills on our water - which didn't happen. And on top of that, I was getting into a story I was telling and I leaned out a little and got elbowed by our waiter. I was the only one apologizing. Why? I don't know but he never said "sorry" for elbowing me. It was an accident, yes, and I acknowledged that it was an accident but for some reason he didn't really seem too involved because I guess it was my fault. Silly me!

The only things to save the experience were: my drink - The Dixie Cup (a little expensive), the lemon ice box pie - which was rich, creamy and delicious and the incredibly good looking bartender (a handsome young fellow with manicured facial hair, slicked back hair and a noticeable "straight edge" tattoo on his left arm - among many others). The bacon peanut brittle didn't grab me as much as I had hoped. Don't get me wrong - it was still good but it wasn't anything to write home about.

The decor was a little bizarre as well. L said that Creative Loafing had said it was like eating inside a Wes Anderson film. Yeah, I guess I could see that but it felt more like hanging out in Eric Foreman's basement. I would've preferred Kitty and Red's presence more than the actual wait staff.

At one point, we had decided we wanted to leave and we were looking out for our waiter when we spotted him behind the bar, talking to the guy who seated us - who was NOT shy about staring at us, and another waitress who joined in on the staring. But what made it worse was we all had exchanged awkward eye contact, which made me think: Okay, I have acknowledged you staring at us and possibly talking shit so I will raise my almost empty glass of water and see if you will do your job and come over to refill it. Nope. No refill, no opportunity for a second drink or even a second dessert. I know we weren't dinner customers and all but we were still customers. We were willing to give you money! We wanted to but apparently, we weren't worth the time. If I hadn't been so enamored with the bartender, I would have walked up to the bar and asked the bartender to close us out since he was the only one who was actually doing his job. But I couldn't muster up the courage. Instead, we waited for our waiter before he finally gave us our check - which was handwritten so we couldn't get his name. No, he did not introduce himself to us when we sat down.

L was telling me she had never experienced such bad service there, so this was a surprise to her! I was entertaining bringing my step-sister to Sauced the next time she was visiting from New York (since it kind of reminded me of a spot we had gone to in Brooklyn) but I took the offer off the table because of the terrible service. The only way I'd take her is if we were able to sit at the bar with the handsome straight edge tattooed bartender serving us.

I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty sure I will not be returning to Sauced and if people ask me about it, I'll be sure to tell them about my horrible experience. And if they're brave enough to venture through, I'll be sure to have them report back.

Katzi

S.L.Y.A.S.D.I.