New Tired Hands to open next week.....

$26 for fried chicken, really?

 

Yeah, the prices are a bit out there... especially given that Memphis Taproom's fried chicken is only $16 (and is extremely good).

 

Went to the Fermentaria this past weekend, and here are my general impressions.

Pros:
- For opening night, while it was busy, the space is so wide open that it never felt like you were cramped. By 9:30pm, the majority of the shit show died down, but there was still a healthy amount of people there
- The place has a great layout inside. A small bar area, some open tables, and a dining section. It looks really damn nice inside.
- The beers they had on tap were great, especially the Vaporizer IPA. They also had a grissette that they ran through oak barrels that was really damn good, and I'm not a huge fan of the style
- 5 minute walk from the brew cafe, a decent amount of parking, and close to the Ardmore train station
- 6:30pm on a Friday and the brew cafe wasn't nuts to butts packed.

Cons:
- the food menu is pretty hit or miss. Being that it was opening night, they ran out of about half of the menu by 8pm. We settled on the carnitas tacos, and while they were good, they were a little on the dry side. When we asked for hot sauce, or any sort of condiment, we were told that the cook has a no condiment rule. Gotcha.
- Prices of the food menu were kind of out of control. $26 for a fried chicken plate, $35 for a lamb shank plate. Tacos between $9-12.5 bucks for 2.
- It kind of doesn't make too much sense having 2 similar locations that close to each other. For example, Wicked Weed opened another facility around the corner from their brewery, solely for sours and barrel aging. What's the point of having another TH location so close, besides having enough room to bump out 10,000 barrels a year?

 

I was also there opening night, 5:30 reservation and glad I did- they were already out of two of the 'big' dishes, and after ordering some tacos, we overheard our waiter tell the table next to us (who was seated 30 min later) that they were out of 3 (!!!) of the taco choices...

@Chroma914 's review is a good one, and I'm in agreement on several points:

- Vaporizer was easily the best beer on tap, although I didn't get to try I'm Sad, which intrigued me
- Great space that didn't feel overly packed in the hour-ish that I was there
- Great layout
- logistically great - parking, train station, short walk to Cafe (which we did afterwards for the Einsteinium sour, which was awesome)
- Fish tacos were tasty, but overall I think the menu might see some tweaking, including adding the bread plate to the possibilities?! I didn't take notice how large the large plates actually were- had heard massive, which would more justify the price, but didn't see any being consumed

 

Waited in line at 11am Friday morning for the noon opening. Got a seat right at the bar. Ordered the carnitas tacos and I agree they are very dry. Other than what was said above by @Chroma914 and @Shandycan the only other CON I can add is that for a few of us at the bar they screwed our tabs. Hopefully they learn from Friday and can run the POS smoother/get the right orders in the future.

 

A friend of mine checked the place out on Saturday and stated that the chicken plate looked like a huge rip off. 4 pieces of chicken and a side or two, and he said the pieces just looked small. He also witnessed someone stumbling out of the place at 6pm and vomiting on the side of the building. Ardmore cops are gonna love camping out near here!

 

It was cleaned off by Sunday evening.

 

Is the fried chicken barrel aged for that price?

 

It's not, but it IS beautiful, strange, and delicate, if that makes things better for you.

 

Not 100% sure of the strange part.

 

Chroma, excellent review. I expected the prices to be on the high side but the most incredible thing was you asking for something to be told that there is a no condiment rule. I would have sent it back with the instructions to stick it up the cooks ass.

Also, was the vomiting caused by drinking too much, the food, or the reaction to seeing the bill?

 

Apparently it's a BYOC establishment.

 

My buddy said the girl looked completely wasted, so I'm guessing she was a victim of too many hophands. As for wanting condiments, I can only speak for the carnitas tacos. The meat was tender and good, but the tortillas are corn based, which gives off a dry taste to me. The cheese they used was also a dry cheese, so mix those two together, and you have one dry taco. If they added in something like chipotle mayo, that would be a great counter to the dryness. Alas, I'm no cook.

 

if you walk right out of Fermentaria, just walk straight through the parking lots, it'll take you to the brew cafe.

 

Does that work from the Cafe to the Fermentaria?

 

Went today. We had the brisket taco and the chicken both were excellent. Don't see the fuss about the price of the chicken 5 large pieces and the biscuits and slaw. All the beers were great. The donut was awesome. Place is beautiful. Only complaint was our waitress was a little overbearing asking if we wanted more beers.

 

I can't speak from experience because I haven't been yet, but $7/piece of chicken sounds like a lot to me.

 

$7 a piece would be a lot. That would mean the chicken dish was $35, but it's only $26. It's a shared dish enough for a couple. $13/person for a meal may be a little pricey but not so much to make a fuss about it.

 

How much is a bucket of chicken from KFC?

 

"How much is a bucket of chicken from KFC?"

Totally legit comparison, please continue.