Outpost Bar & Grill

Went to the Outpost Bar & Grill in Deer River, MN Friday night. I've kinda wanted to go there since they opened. It's a big log building and looks nice from the outside. Haven't heard a lot about it, either good or bad. So finally the opportunity presented itself (Friday the 13th).

Got there right about 6 PM. Maybe 15-20 people sitting at the tables, which were all bunched up to one side. Apparently, a band was supposed to play later, so they squished all the tables into one half the room. Another 4 or 5 people were sitting at the bar. One bartender and two waitresses appeared to be working. We sat down. Took nearly 10 minutes before a waitress appeared with menus and asked if we wanted drinks. She left after taking about half our drink order and none of our hors d'oeuvres orders. 15 minutes later she reappeared with the half drink order. and wanted to take our order, which we gave her, along with the rest of our drinks and our appetizers. 25 minutes later the dinner and appetizers and drinks showed up, missing about half the salads. After the rest of the meal showed up we saw the waitress one more time when she dropped off the bill.

I had a 1/2 lb burger. It was OK, but would have been better hot. I didn't have soup or salad, but those that had the soup (potato-ham) took one taste and set it aside. My fries were cold. They don't serve Coca-Cola, so I had a Dr. Pepper, which was very much watered.

The ambiance was OK, a bit noisy for my taste, although not as bad as Applebee's. The interior is decorated in an outdoorsy style, with moose and deer and elk and walleye and muskie and pike mounts all over (don't know if real or fake). The tables and chairs were made of actual varnished slabs of wood, no Formica here. The chairs were rather uncomfortable; the seat bottoms had been finished flat and there were no cushions. I suppose since it's a bar they plan on the patrons getting numb enough not to care. The "outhouses" were labeled "Does" and "Bucks".

If they served Coca-Cola it might have qualified as an OK bar, but they are a Pepsi house. We didn't leave a tip, and I'm not planning on returning. A very disappointing evening.