My girlfriend, a doctoral student, used to live in Ohio. She often talked about Frankie's, so during a recent trip to visit her parents, she, I, and one of her friends decided to have dinner there. I'm all about supporting local businesses, so I fully intended to order a three-course meal.
There were fewer than ten parties dining in the entire restaurant, but our server was absent for the first 20 minutes that we sat in our booth. She never actually gave her name -- I only saw ""Colleen"" on the receipt.
Colleen didn't refill my water for an hour even though the drink dispenser was just a few steps away from our table. When she did refill it, she DIDN'T BRING IT BACK. Colleen took it to a man sitting with the party behind us. He protested, as did I. Colleen got angry and told him that if he had changed his mind and wanted a new drink, he was welcome to order one.
Since I didn't have a drink, I skipped the wings I had ordered. (My girlfriend said they were subpar.) In the meantime, Colleen brought the wrong salads for my girlfriend and her friend. When they asked for the right food, Colleen brought extra salad dressing.
After an hour and a half, neither my party nor the one behind us had our entrees, so the man behind us tracked down Colleen to cancel their order. Colleen argued with him for several minutes, saying that it was ""almost ready."" He finally took their food to go.
I got my refill when I was halfway through my cold ravioli. For the rest of the meal, Colleen 1) vanished for long periods, and 2) sat at one of the nearby booths, loudly whining to fellow servers and customers about her job. I refilled my party's drinks as she watched.
Needless to say, we skipped dessert. A half-hour after we finished eating, Colleen brought the check.
It's possible that Colleen is the sole bad server at Frankie's. I don't know, and I'm not going back to find out. If you visit Frankie's and your server is an aging brunette, ask for her name. If it's Colleen, ask for another server.
Pros: Food wasn't great, but acceptable.
Cons: Insulting service. Waitress, Colleen, appeared intoxicated.
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