It was a cold and snowy night. The dive was to be chosen by me and Husby so we decided to keep it local, avoiding a slippery and treacherous ride for Ruthie and Ray. We chose the Beartown Bar & Grill, or Beartown Lounge, or whatever it’s called. They don’t have a website but if you Google Beartown you can find some stuff on it.
Those are snowflakes you see glowing against the dark sky, not orbs from beyond the veil.
We walked in and saw on the floor a sign that said, Please wait to be seated. So we did. It didn’t take long for someone to come and greet us and she asked, “where do you want to sit, bar or dining room?” We all kind of looked at each other, then let her know we would sit anywhere she decided to put us. She hesitated. I turned to Husby and said “if we can sit anywhere we want why did the sign on the floor say to wait to be seated?” Well, someone spoke up and said dining room so that’s where she took us.
This is the bar, the place we didn’t sit.
This is the dining room, the place we did sit. It’s like we were put in the room of shame. Weren’t we cool enough to sit with the regulars?
We started out with some cocktails. I must say the drink specials were hard to resist. Buy one get one for $1.50, except for tap beer. Ruthie and I got a couple of wines each, Husby got a couple of Greyhounds, and Ray got a tap beer. The waitress asked if he was sure, because he wouldn’t get the deal with that. Yes, he was sure.
Even though we were set away from the crowd in the bar the service was pretty good. We actually had three people checking in with us throughout our visit. So once we got our cocktails we ordered appetizers.
Ruthie and Ray got chips and salsa. The chips were pretty good. The salsa was more like picante sauce, not chunky, and not really enough was supplied for a whole basket of chips. It was all pretty good though.
Husby and I ordered the cheese quesadillas. It came with the same “salsa” as the chips, and also a couple of tubes of sour cream. Tasty and cheesy.
In case you’re new to the dive night reviews, each couple orders an appetizer and we all share. So far you might think this is going to be a Mexican meal considering the appetizers we chose, but that’s not the case.
I ordered the fish fry special and I totally forgot to take a picture of it so you’ll have to rely on my description. The waitress said “sometimes they give you a choice of cod or pollock but I don’t know if you get a choice tonight. If you had a pick which one would you choose?” I told her it really didn’t matter, and I have no idea what kind of fish I got because I’m not a fish connoisseur. It was white and flakey. However, the batter was pretty greasy and was pretty nondescript as far as flavor is concerned. My dinner came with waffle fries and seasoned sour cream. I also got a side salad which was also pretty nondescript, but salads are always pretty nondescript to me. I ate it all up so it must have been good enough. And now on to the other meals I remembered to photograph.
This is Husby’s French dip sandwich with onion rings. He liked the onion rings because he could bite them without having a string of onion sliding out of the batter. He didn’t have much to say about the sandwich. “It’s okay,” he said.
This is Ruthie’s chicken with waffle fries. The cup of white stuff is seasoned sour cream for the fries. She said the chicken was okay but “it could have a little more seasoning.” The dinner allowed two pieces of chicken and she got her choice of what pieces she wanted. She chose two thighs. She also had a side salad with her dinner.
Ray ordered the meatball sandwich with onion rings. The sandwich looked great with its toasted bun and six meatballs with sauce and cheese. When I asked Ray (whose mother is an excellent Italian cook) how the sandwich was he responded “it’s kind of bland.”
It was very clear that none of us was overly thrilled with our meals. We came to the conclusion that seasoning is not high on chef’s list of priorities. The appetizers were fine, so we decided that if we had been sitting in the bar and were half in the bag with a big case of the munchies the appetizers could satisfy a need for food. Going for dinner? Never going to happen again. I was extremely dissatisfied with the food at the Beartown Bar & Grill, although as I said before the service and drink specials were good.
I can’t close out this post without mentioning that this restaurant used to be called Big Ben years ago and served the best pie in town. Like, the best. The Beartown doesn’t even serve pie. Although if they did they’d probably have canned filling and soggy crust. None of us was happy with our dive experience at the Beartown, but we all agreed we’ve been pretty lucky over the past few years with the other dives we’ve tried and we deserve to come across a clinker once in a while. Beartown is definitely that clinker.
Ruthie says, “Not.”
Auntie B's Wax 
I love your Dive Night descriptions!
Thanks, Cindy. I just call ’em like I see ’em.
Not sure I’d call it a complete clinker, as the food was at least hot, and non of us got sick from eating any of it. Hey, that’s a plus as there have been a couple of places we’ve gone to in the past where the food was cold, and the condition of our stomaches after consuming it was questionable. 🙂 But all in all I’d generaly have to agree with your review. Pretty sure we won’t even take advantage of their delivery service in the future.
We threw the take-out/delivery menu away when we got home. It totally was a clinker, which is what I call a place where I’d never go to again. I’m glad no one got sick though! Thanks for your comment!
This is the first dive night I’ve read about, Sara. Sorry your meal wasn’t the greatest. I am hankering for a glass of wine–my first in three weeks since doing this detox thing. Tomorrow night we’ll go out. Hope it’s not a dive. Fingers crossed.
Oh Kathy, the thing about dives is that they can have GREAT food! This one didn’t. I hope you’re evening out goes well with the detox you’ve been going through. I lift a glass of wine to you and toast your persistence with the detox! (You’re stronger than I am!)
Looks like a great dive. And that sign is a hoot! Hope you had a wonderful time! 🙂
We had a wonderful time as we always do with Ruthie and Ray. Another Dive Night is coming up soon and I can only hope the food is better than this one.
I would have to say Bear Town is one of my favorite places to go in town. The food is always good, and like you said the drink specials are the best around. Calling it a clinker is a disservice to a family restaurant. Bear Town has been around for 15 years, so they must be doing something right. I think your review is incredibly incorrect.
I’m glad you enjoy the Bear Town Grill. I’m sure there are plenty more like you for them to have stayed in business for so long. My review is just one person’s opinion, although it was agreed upon by my dinner mates.
We’re lucky to have so many different places for all sorts of different people to enjoy. Keep giving them the business!
I too love Bear Town. Their breakfast on the weekend blow any other place I have ever been to. Family restaurants are declining and knocking them will only hurt them. The people who own this place are incredible people.
Wow, that’s wonderful! I’m sure the owners are very nice. I must have gone on the regular chef’s night off and his substitute is probably diagnosed with Aversion to Seasoned Food Disorder. Plus, I don’t think I’d call it a “family” restaurant with a bar that size.
Please don’t misunderstand. I didn’t hate the food at the Bear Town, it was just incredibly unremarkable…to me.
OK, the glowing reviews above are clearly written by staff/owners of the Beartown. And with the resurgence of “eat local” attitudes, their whine about the decline of locally owned restaurants is laughable. You can’t pee like a puppy if you want to run with the pack.
Charlotte, I completely agree that there is no decline in locally-owned restaurants, and the eat local attitudes demand a lot of attention from restaurant owners. Because a restaurant/bar stays in business is not necessarily an indicator of superior food, or even mediocre food, especially if they have a good bar crowd.
I’ll not criticize those who frequent the Bear Town, but for my money I can get much more interesting atmosphere and better food elsewhere.
So leaving a positve comment or defending an establishment makes it an automatic post from the owners? I think the owners have better things to do than reply to a website that has no berring on their success. Your accusations of this being from the owners are truely laughable. My beef is that people who give reviews should stick with the positives and not the negatives. Post positive comments about positive experiences all you want. But to post negatives about a single experience is something not right. Going to a place and having multiple poor experiences may warrant negative feedback, but one single experience makes it unjust. If you have nothing good to say, say nothing at all.