I was out furniture shopping the other day with my family. If you have kids, you probably already know the dangers of furniture shopping with children. They will start by trying to bounce from couch to couch like it was a big indoor playground, followed by sheer exhaustion and then crankiness ensues.

In order to prevent the meltdown that was about to occur after our first stop, I decided to try and get dinner in them to keep them going. I recalled of a new restaurant Al had told me about that opened about a month ago, the Old Chicago, home of 110 beers, and I was in the area. (this one, located on Wolf Road in Albany, NY)

We were told that it would be at least an hour wait for a table, which I didn’t like; but leaving and finding another place without a wait would probably take the same amount of time. However, a server came around to the waiting area with a tray full of samples of a pumpkin and spice ale. (I didn’t catch who made it) It was tasty and this adventure was off to a pretty good start.

The Old Chicago had an iPlay attached to it, where you can play arcade games, skee-ball, mini-bowling and the such to pass the time while waiting for dinner. The kids loved this, of course, but they were getting very hungry and the meltdown I was trying to avoid kept poking up its ugly head. I was starting to get frustrated and hungry as well.

A little investigation revealed that there was a ton of tables open in the dining room. This usually means either they are understaffed or the kitchen is backed up. It turned out to be the latter. I would think that after 5 weeks of being open that the kitchen problems would have been resolved, but our waitress told us this happens to them everyday. Not good. Perhaps they need Gordon Ramsey of Kitchen Nightmares to stop by and straighten them out.

Our waitress made a great effort to stop by and apologize for the kitchen. As I reviewed the beer list, I realized that I had just about every microbrew they offered. Many of the 110 were megabrews, both domestic and imported. That’s not to say they didn’t have good choices such as beers from Boulder, Sam Smith, Anchor, Saranac, and Brooklyn. Unfortunately, my wife did not get what she ordered, though the bartender insisted that he was correct. (Last I sampled the Red Hook Late Harvest Ale it was amber, not pitch black) We were too frustrated to give it an argument and she thought it was pretty good anyway – I wonder what it was… possibly the Planet Porter.

The fact that out of 110 beers I was disappointed speaks volumes. I’m sure there were some good ones in there, but finding one seemed like a shot in the dark. There was no description of the beer and our waitress wouldn’t have known the difference between a bock and an IPA.

We chose the pizza buffet to get a sample of their signature pizzas and they were pretty good, above average, but nothing to write home about.

Overall, it was a bad experience. I hope the kids remember the bowling and not the long wait or any of my frustration that I’m sure showed through. I have little desire to try the Old Chicago again unless they can fix their kitchen problem, and even then I’m not so sure.

We never made it to another furniture store as we were out of time. Maybe next weekend, but I think I’ll plan on a drive thru at McDonald’s.

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