"As soon as we stepped into the bowling alley, we were hit by an unpleasant odor. Having bowled there a few times over the years, we were pretty hungry and made our way to Shorters. There was only one other customer ahead of us, and the young lady who took our order was friendly. Mr. Shorter entered shortly after and began chatting with a male friend who was watching TV. They engaged in conversation while assembling a portable sink Mr. Shorter had brought in. At one point, he acknowledged my husband with a semi-nod, but I found it strange that he didn’t greet any of the customers dining there.
We ordered hot links, three sides (potato salad, fries, mustard greens), two Shasta sodas, and a tri-tip sandwich, totaling about $40. After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I noticed no one in the kitchen was wearing hair coverings while handling food. The footrest area at the bar needed cleaning, and I had to ask the cashier to rinse off the top of my soda can, which was dirty.
When our food arrived, it was delivered by a young woman with a bushy ponytail. The hot links were drenched in BBQ sauce, lacking grill marks, and they were warm but not hot. The potato salad did help enhance their flavor, but they weren’t spicy as the cashier had mentioned. The fries were two-toned, hard, stale, and looked like they were the last of the batch — only one fry was soft and warm. My tri-tip sandwich had a good amount of meat, but it wasn’t hot, and the bun had a pinkish liquid soaked into one corner, which made me concerned that the meat wasn’t cooked properly. Two bites into it, I wasn’t impressed, and it didn’t smell fresh. I ended up scraping the meat off the bun into my husband’s link container in an attempt to salvage it.
As a Southern woman who knows good soul food and can cook, I must say the greens were not memorable at all! We genuinely wanted to support this local business and speak with Mr. Shorter about our dissatisfaction, but we were unsure how he would take it. The only time he acknowledged us was as we were leaving.
I dislike writing negative reviews, but this reflects our experience and the truth. I wish the business all the best, but they need to make some significant improvements before we consider returning."
