Dad's Kitchen

I live and work (in a customer service related job) in Land Park and am always trying to find ways to support small business in my neighborhood.  I loaded up my family and went to Dad's last Saturday night for dinner.  When we walked in I asked the hostess if it was family friendly and she said, "sure, especially if you sit on the patio, we have pig benches that the kids love!".  Turns out that's not the case.  There were no small items on the menu to offer my children so I asked my server (who was standoffish and rude) if they had a children's menu.  She said they could "do grilled chicken cutlets, peanut butter and jelly" and something else.  I don't want special food prepared for them, I want them to be able to order off the menu but get a smaller portion like so many of the restaurants we go to.  So, I ordered a small macaroni and cheese and a PB&J and my husband and I both ordered burgers and beers.  We were seated on the patio at a table that started out to be shady but the sun was shifting.  After adjusting the umbrella as much as we could, I walked in to find our absent server and asked her politely if we could move over to one of the shady tables on the patio.  She gave me a curt, "yeah".  As we moved ourselves (with no help from the staff) I moved a chair from an empty table.   That turned out not to be cool with the owner.  He immediately came out and made a big deal of having to move chairs from somewhere else (read the other table next to us) to accommodate a larger party who was coming out to sit on the patio.  When I said (again POLITELY), "I'm sorry, we just wanted to move out of the heat" he turned to me and said, "well what do you expect from a Sacramento Summer?"  (Note, I have lived here my entire 44 years, I know exactly what to expect from Summer here, but when there are 5 empty tables in an eating establishment in the shade and my family is sitting in the direct sunlight, is it a cr ime to want to move?).  The corner tables were full of what appeared to be staff on their day off.  Our server spent most of her time over there talking to them.  When our food was delivered, a brusque woman came out and said, "this is going to be hot" and set down a large bowl of macaroni and cheese that had been in the oven in front of my 2 year old (that really doesn't need much more comment).  Our burgers were delivered without the toppings we asked for.  It was just wierd.  We are big food people.  We want our children to grow up in restaurants learning how to behave by being treated like the PEOPLE they are (my son is nearly 5 and is perfectly capable of ordering is own meal).  How are they going to learn how to order if a server doesn't ask them what they would like to eat?  I am affectionately called a "chain restaurant snob" by my husband.  I don't think I should have to endure dinner at Macaroni Grille or the Olive Garden because I have children.  They are being taught about food (where it comes from, how it is prepared ) and small business (how hard it is to have a restaurant, how difficult a job in service is) and they can't learn that by playing restaurant at home.  They need to be out in the public.  Sad that a place with such an affectionate name turned out to be such a downer.  But maybe they don't want to cater to the families of the neighborhood and want their demographic to be the college/coffee shop crowd.  I don't know, but we won't go back. 

Recently I had lunch planned with some picky eaters and wondered where to take them that had a little of everything, but in no particular ethnic culinary niche. Dad's is always a good choice for sandwiches and soup, a crowd pleaser for those with traditional and tasty American cuisine in mind. However, we were looking for a place to linger a little longer than the original Dad's encourages. We tried the newer establishment, Dad's Kitchen and were pleasantly surprised to see that the restaurant has a nicely shaded patio behind it. The fries were a good portion and tasty, although the chili and cheese topping was more of just crumbled cheese and not spicy like we had hoped. The salads were fresh and had a good helping of toppings outside the requisite greens. The burger was reported to be good as well. Overall, it was a tasty lunch enjoyed by all.