The Depot opens on Memorial Drive
February 18th, 2008 by Cliff Bostock in Restaurants
I live in Grant Park and we welcome any new restaurant to the area. The latest to open is the Depot (904 Memorial Drive). It’s located in an old train depot and appears to be an instant hit, if Saturday night’s full parking lot was any indication. We returned Sunday night.
The restaurant has been opened by the same people who own Vickery’s and several other restaurants. The best feature is an outside window that looks directly into the kitchen. The interior is as bare as the typical train station but has some nice touches, especially with lighting.
The food? Well, it needs improvement. Perhaps the strangest dish I sampled was corn cakes topped with shrimp, arugula and diced tomatoes. The corn cakes were tepid and were smeared with, um, wasabi paste. Please, please get rid of the wasabi.
I’ll have a full report in a few weeks.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
i’m just glad they didn’t try and french-ify an already french name – depeaux? decatur daftness – i’m talking to you. and i’m so happy they didn’t knock down the lovely old building.
February 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
We ate there for lunch on Monday and all enjoyed our food. My husband had “the best burger ever” blacked blue cheese with a red wine jelly type spread. I had the shrimp po’boy and my dad the salmon BLT. However, the sandwiches were served in red plastic baskets, which seemed to casual for the space.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I really liked this place. The atmosphere is very cool inside. It was such a beautiful day on Saturday that we walked the puppy over and had a couple of beers on the patio. We ordered “All Aboard” cheese fries, which were OK, and pan fried oysters which were excellent!! I wish they had a veggie burger though.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
We ate there Saturday night (2/16) and it was busy. Drink prices are astronomical, especially the wine. I know most restaurants price wine so that after 2 glasses sold they are at least breaking even on the bottle, if not making money, but these guys sell one glass for at least the price of the bottle! Mixed drinks were a little steep too.
We had burgers and the catfish; all of the food was good. I had a turkey burger with a tapenade which was good. We had awesomely strange nachos, they had chicken, ham, gravy, cheese, roasted peppers, basically gluttonous-goodness. The place is nice, I’d definitely go back, but yes parking is tough. We parked in a vacant lot down the street, where others were obviously doing the same.
Come warmer weather the outside patio with walk-up window to the bar is set to be very popular.