The Grille on Riverwalk Phase II

[DolfanBob]

I agree with Red Arrow. It is just weird the way you have to get there. It has been a few years since I have been out there so changes have probably been made.
I just was not to impressed with pulling up to the parking lot and looking at the back of the buildings and not really knowing what stores were there.
At the time I went the parking lot was not big enough to handle the amount of traffic for the Leon Russell concert that night. We ended up parking way North in a gravel and grass kind of area. Living in B.A. I just feel the driving distance is a little to great to offset the benefit of going to the Riverwalk.

[Cats Cats Cats]

My wife and her sister went this weekend.  Their vodka tonic tasted like water and they sent it back and ordered a beer.  They remade the drink and got the beer for her.  THe vodka tonic was still so bad they sent it back (so bad it wasn't worth free).  I guess it took 45 minutes from sending the drink back, getting a remade drink, getting a beer.

[swake]

My wife and her sister went this weekend.  Their vodka tonic tasted like water and they sent it back and ordered a beer.  They remade the drink and got the beer for her.  THe vodka tonic was still so bad they sent it back (so bad it wasn't worth free).  I guess it took 45 minutes from sending the drink back, getting a remade drink, getting a beer.

We went this weekend. It's a huge and kinda odd room. Just one big open space with a stage on one side and games off in the corner. We tried to play some of the games they have, but they don't have that many and someone had rented most of them for his party (they rent by the hour) and no one could use them despite no one playing one them.

It's not a good location. I don't see the point of this place being at the Riverwalk at all. They are completely isolated from the rest of the Riverwalk. It's 500 yards at least across a big construction site from the movie theater. The Riverwalk was jam packed when we went and it was so far you could barely hear the crowds. It's so far that when we left to go somewhere else at Riverwalk we got in the car and drove. Even worse, it mostly ignores the river, has no windows just some cheap wood picnic  tables and cheesy Tiki hut looking things outside that no one was sitting at. It's basically a big kinda dressed up blues themed dive bar/pool hall and I really don't think that's Jenks' or the Riverwalk's demographic at all.

The service was downright terrible. We sat at one table for more than ten minutes and waitresses would walk around us and never come over. So we changed tables closer to the band and it was at least five minutes or so before someone finally came over there. All this despite the place being pretty empty and there being at least 8-10 wait staff just standing around chatting by the bar. Then our drinks took ten minutes.

We did had an appetizer that was pretty good and the band was good but the execution even for a new place was bad and very little thought was given to the layout or seemingly the business in general. If they don't change a lot and quickly I don't think it will last long, and wouldn't even in a perfect location.

[dbacks fan]

I read in another thread that they are going to have an upstairs VIP area. I don't mean to offend anyone but are there that many VIP's in Jenks or the surrounding area?

[Townsend]

I read in another thread that they are going to have an upstairs VIP area. I don't mean to offend anyone but are there that many VIP's in Jenks or the surrounding area?

We've got different standards to define VIP's here.

[BKDotCom]

We drove by over the weekend.
I have to agree with everyone concerning "the Grille's" location..
It may possibly be worse than Diamond Jack's location @ 71st & Yale.
Actually... with the big gap/construction between the Grille and the movie theater.. and the way it's hidden behind the theater...   we definitely have a winner.

[sgrizzle]

We drove by over the weekend.
I have to agree with everyone concerning "the Grille's" location..
It may possibly be worse than Diamond Jack's location @ 71st & Yale.
Actually... with the big gap/construction between the Grille and the movie theater.. and the way it's hidden behind the theater...   we definitely have a winner.

The theater is supposed to have river-facing retail at some point, that is why the entrance faces south.

[Hawkins]

I'm surprised some of you guys are giving it such bad reviews so early.

I was just there (at midnight on a Monday) testing the "We're going to be open from 11:00am to 2:00am 365-days a year" mantra that is on their website.

Only customers in the whole place are 2 guys shooting pool off in the corner. I order a drink and sit on the couch and read a book.  

Yeah, opening a business in Jenks is straight up dangerous.

But the drink was good. The atmosphere is nice. This place could compete in a Dallas market. Its that nice.

However, the 11:00am thing is where they are really going to have to re-examine their strategy. You could have Jesus and the Beatles preaching and doing a concert at the same time at the Riverwalk at 11:00am, and on a school day (September thru May), you could not gather 15 people there (even if Christ's 12 apostles showed up).

Also, I agree on the location comments.

Opening up in the middle of a corn field in Nebraska would net a larger lunch crowd, because then the occasional farmer would stop in for a bite to eat. At the Riverwalk, no one has eaten a Monday-Friday lunch anywhere past Los Cabos. Ever.

SO like I said, this place is actually quite nice, but putting it here is like fighting Afghanistan with a troop surge and nuclear weapons. Will they win?

I'm giving them 30% odds. Why so high? Because those apartments next to them are corporately leased, and bring in new clientele every month, and because the night life may grow exponentially out there, bringing them enough late business that a 5:00pm-2:00am strategy pays off.

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[YoungTulsan]

What kind of drugs are you guys on?  The extra "E" in "Grille" after "grill" signifies upscale, class, and some sort of piece of heated metal which burns raw meat in a superior manner as opposed to a regular plain assed grill.

[Hawkins]

You bring up a classic mistake that pretty much all of the failed Riverwalk businesses have made.

They try to market themselves as "upper class" which means higher prices.

That drink I ordered at The Grille was $10. Have I been back since? No. Like I mentioned earlier, the atmosphere is nice, but for that price, I have many other places around town to choose from.

From Gary's Grill on to this new McDermott Grille, this mistake has been made. If you are going to charge more at the Riverwalk for something than you would at a different location, then you will fail.

Los Cabos serves reasonably priced mexican food. Melting Pot and Marble Slab are set-priced franchises. Gina & Guiseppe's is priced comparably to other Italian places. Fun House did not change their pricing structure when they moved to the Riverwalk.

These businesses are still standing. The others (close to 20 of them now) have failed because Tulsa/South Tulsa/Jenks... whatever, is made up of regular customers.

As delusional as Riverwalk investors want to be, they cannot change the fact that it is not a tourist destination like Orlando, where new customers are brought in every couple of weeks. The McDermott Grille is banking on the corporately leased apartments next to it to bring in new people every few weeks, but this is just one apartment, and they won't get rich off of that.

If you do business here, you serve the same customer base all year long. So charge them $10 for a drink and kiss them good-bye, because you won't see them again.

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BTW, Calistoga appears to have shut down this weekend, bringing the total number of failed Riverwalk businesses to about 20.

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[Cats Cats Cats]

Gina & Guiseppe's is priced comparably to other Italian places. Fun House did not change their pricing structure when they moved to the Riverwalk.

Oh boy I get to tell my story!!

I went there for lunch one day and asked for a pizza + artichoke hearts.  We got half way through the pizza and realized.  Guess what, no artichoke hearts (it is kind of a distinct taste).  I still had about 25% of the pizza and when they brought the bill said, there was no artichoke hearts on the pizza.  Please take off the $1, "I'll be right back".  Come back, "The chef said that they put artichoke hearts on the pizza".  So I flip over the 25% of the cheese and ask her to "find the artichoke hearts" which she did manage to find an onion.  And continued to argue with me.  Finally I said, fine, I will pay the $1.  At which point she told me she would take the $1 off.  I have been back once because my wife insisted since it has been opened.  I don't plan on going there again.

[dbacks fan]

Just my take on River Walk from what I have read here over the last couple of years, and I mean this in general not specific. This area was built around the aquarium and some up and coming resturaunts and bars late in the upswing of the market. Bad timing and as a tourist attraction it was limited. (I won't get into Indian Casinos because I have the same feeling about the ones in Arizona that most of you have in Oklahoma.) I'm not saying that their overall thinking was wrong, just that too many things coincided to make the area difficult to develop. The places that were thought of were good ideas to draw patrons and create return customers, but when you price it above the local watering holes, and the drinks and food are crappy at best from most of the comments I've read, you have doomed yourself. If I want to drink, and price and location is a concern, I would go to the local/nearest bar for a $5.00 premium drink over a place with a $5.00 call drink. The sad thing is for Jenks is you can go to RW and pay a premium for food and drink in an upscale place, or go across the river to a Indian Casino and get more for less. I know that I'm preaching to the chior to most people, and I wish Jenks well, I took my drivers test there in 1978, but it just does not sound like a winning proposition for RW.

[YoungTulsan]

The only thing worse than grill being spelled "grille" is shops being spelled "shoppes".  If one redundant letter is douchey, two is just plain wrong.

[sgrizzle]

The only thing worse than grill being spelled "grille" is shops being spelled "shoppes".  If one redundant letter is douchey, two is just plain wrong.

Doesn't Bixby have the "Pizza Shoppe?"

[DolfanBob]

Doesn't Bixby have the "Pizza Shoppe?"

Try "Towne Centre" we be so kool.