Tag: firkinandfox

To mark the end of Bike To Work Week, a little party was put together at the Firkin and Fox tonight. Some dinner, some drinks, and the drums of Anouaze Beat. And of course bicycles. Lots and lot of bicycles.

We went down for dinner, because the food is always good at the Firkin and Fox, and stayed a bit to listen to the music. Ran into a couple of familiar faces, and finally met for the briefest of moments Jeff Moser of BikeCarson.com.

It was a good party atmosphere, and kind of set the mood for Fridays@Third, the summer concert series that takes place on this street. The first of those concerts is on June 6th, and with the Firkin and Fox finally open Fridays@Third should be better than ever.

The Firkin's patio is the perfect place to hold an event like this. Their patio is filled with tables and chairs for the summer, and tonight it was filled with bodies.

We finally made it to the Firkin and Fox Pub and Restaurant for lunch Thursday. Only four weeks after they opened, not bad. And I have to say it was everything we expected. Nice, friendly staff, good food, and an atmosphere that makes you want to come back again and again.

I think we definitely have a new addition to our downtown dining choices. Which is good, because B'Sghetti's is a great place, but really you can only go there so many times before the waitresses start recognizing you.

I got the Shepherd's Pie, which was quite flavorful, if a little smaller than I expected. It came with a side of brown gravy, which I think you were supposed to pour over the top, but I used to dip fries into. My wife got the Greek Salad, and made it into a wrap. And while it could have used a little more feta cheese, there certainly wasn't anything wrong with it.

A variety of restaurants have come and gone into this ground floor space of the St Charles hotel, and most of them have been forgettable. The Cafe Del Rio is the only one that really stands out in my memory, and even they had to move up to Virginia City to make a success of themselves. But the Firkin and Fox is notable not just because of all the renovations they've done to the place (including freshening the outside of the building, and making it into one of the best-looking buildings in all of downtown), but also because it's a good restaurant that would probably be a success no matter what the location. The Firkin and Fox is usually packed even now, in the winter, when you have to dodge deep icy puddles to get to it. I can only imagine when the summer comes, and Third Street turns into a public market on Tuesdays, how packed and popular this place is going to be. I think the St. Charles has found a new long-term resident, finally, and it's about time it happened too.

Monday was opening day for the new Firkin and Fox pub/restaurant, located on the ground floor of the historic St. Charles Hotel. I haven't had a chance to eat there yet, because my wife's been working late this week. But the reviews are starting to come in among the blogosphere.

The first review comes from a blog I just discovered this week, Langdon Life. Now they may be biased, because they know the owners and they were invited to the pre-opening party, but they really enjoyed their visit.

It's definitely one of the nicest places to eat in Carson City! So if you live here, go check out the newest-oldest place in town.......you won't be disappointed!

The other review came from a comment on this very site you're reading. And it was...less flattering.

Well, we just tried out the newest restaurant/bar in carson. It was their second day open to be fair, but a chain like this should have provided better training. The service was the biggest stumbling block for this place. Every time we ordered a round of drinks it took like forever to get the drinks and I had asked for a side of dressing for salad and I picked away at half the salad before the dressinf arrived! She seemed to be trying. Lisa had a really cute butt, as my BF was commenting....Ok, I agreed too! The food was standard chain bar food ala, TGI Friday's, Benegains etc... maybe the place will get better if they practice more.

Looks like we need a third ruling here. Any volunteers?

Ask for Lisa.

It's been a long time since I've done one of these construction update posts. Probably because I rarely set foot in Carson City during the daylight hours anymore, owing to my stay-at-home dad status with the new baby. But it's winter break now, which means my bleary eyes get to emerge into the sunlight and snap a few pictures.

Bodine's construction, way down south at Clear Creek road, is coming along very nicely. The exterior wall panels are going up, and soon they'll be able to start working on the interior, fitting it out for a spring opening.

Work on the Marriott Courtyard hotel at the Casino Fandango is now entering the final stretch. The exterior work is almost completely finished; just a little rockwork on the ground floor remains. I'm sure interior work has been progressing just as fast, and look for this place to open within a couple of months.

But the real gem of Carson City is turning out to be the St. Charles Hotel. It is undergoing renovation to welcome the Firkin and Fox Pub into the ground floor, and I gotta tell you, it's starting to look Firkin Fantastic. I posted a few construction photos last month, but they've already made so much progress even since then.

A new coat of paint, new signs, new windows, new awnings; everything on the St. Charles has been moved from "old and dated" to "new and fresh". You don't realize how much of a difference can be made with just a little "curb appeal" until you see it in action. The hotel went from a neat old building that was easy to overlook to an absolute showcase for downtown. This is the kind of rejuvenation that many of the other storefronts on Carson Street need; maybe this project will kickstart more renovations throughout downtown.

And F-Day is fast approaching. They've tacked a sign on the door that announces the opening date for the Firkin and Fox Pub; it will be January 7, 2008. That's only about a week and a half from now. The doors will open at 5:00pm

Just for a kicker, here's how the St. Charles looked just two years ago. Actually, it looked like this up until last summer. If they put half as much care into running the restaurant as they did into renovating it, they should have a solid hit on their hands.

There's been a lot of construction activity going on at the St. Charles Hotel lately. They're working to build the Firkin and Fox Pub in the first floor restaurant/bar space. This is the new English pub that I first wrote about back in July. Construction on the restaurant is coming along nicely, but one of the side effects is that the spirit of renovation is spreading to the outside of the building, and the old hotel is being spruced up a little bit too. Mostly through the use of new signs, but it's a little change that make a big difference. Let's look.

The interior of the bar. They're leaving the old brick walls untouched, and putting in a nice dark wood to complement it.

The dining room. The booths here have the same dark wood as the bar.

This new Firkin and Fox sign takes the spot where the old St. Charles sign used to be. But on the right, you can see that they've also put up a corner sign, facing out at 45 degrees. This is good, because it's the perfect angle to see it from Carson Street. And, it advertises both the hotel and the restaurant.

I really like this new sign, advertising the hotel itself. It looks so authentically old that I had to go back in my archives to make sure it wasn't there before.

A smattering of other new signs from around the building.

This seems to the be the year for English Pubs. First there was the news that a new pub, Firkin and Fox, will be opening in the ground floor of the St Charles Hotel. Jim Phalan of High Sierra Food & Beverage sent me this picture of him and his brother hanging a sign off the side of the hotel, and let me know that construction should be starting very soon (if it hasn't already) and the opening date is set for November 1st.

Now, if this was just another bar I'd have no interest in it. As a non-drinker I don't give a firkin' fox about a new bar opening up in town. But everything I've been hearing about this place paints it as a full restaurant too; it's part of a chain that's already been established in Canada, and is now making waves into the US. It reminds me a lot of T.S. McHugh's in Seattle, so we'll probably be sure to check it out when it opens.

And apparently there's another English pub that's opening this weekend, out Long Street just one block off Hwy 50. Nowhere Nevada reports that this new place looks amazing and they really put a lot of work into the decor. It's located at 1881 E. Long St, and it may or may not be called the Feisty Goat.

The Nevada Appeal has an article about a new English pub that is supposed to be going into the ground floor of the St. Charles Hotel this fall. The owners are also trying to spruce up the Third Street neighborhood and get some new shops in there. I've always thought that area around the St. Charles, and the St. Charles itself, has a lot of unused potential, so it's good to see some life coming back to it.