We went to Conine's Clubhouse Grill Sunday night. It's built from the shell of an old Bennigan's on Sheridan St. in Hollywood, FL. It just opened to the public on Thursday - the official grand opening is sometime in August. We got there around 7:30 with a considerable crowd waiting for tables. The place is just about split down the middle, the left side being the dining room, and the right the bar and tables surrounding the bar. The hostess said we could either wait 40 minutes for a table in the dining room or just walk into the bar area and find a place to sit and eat there. Since there was a empty table right in front of us near the bar, that's where we went.
The place is designed in warm woods and muted lighting but the rooms still seem bright enough. The bar is large and has 7 large (probably) plasma TVs floating over it. In fact, the whole restaurant is full of flat-screen TVs, from large-sized to mediums to tiny ones set up in the 3 booths behind the bar. The bar area is the only place with booths - the main dining room has only tables, along with seperators that can split the dining room into sections but with windows so that everyone can see inside, and a little VIP area in the back accessable through a door with a couch and comfy chairs and a big window so that people can see either way. Our waitress said that Conine came in the night before with a bunch of guys from the ballpark, and the patrons there applauded as they came in. Since the team was probably flying to St. Louis while we were there, that didn't happen for us.
I didn't see much memorabilia around, but there were three jerseys on the wall behind the bar, a Royals and a Orioles jersey flanking a Marlins jersey in the middle.
Our waitress (Laura, I think) was bubbly and attentive, but the food came out slowly, with some miscues like food being sent to the wrong table - we also heard that two fryers weren't working, and since much of the offerings require that implement, I guess the kitchen was reasonably backed up. I didn't mind since the place just opened, and problems like those I expect in that instance.
Didn't imbibe - just had tea and lemonade. We got the fried calamari-and-zucchini appetizer which I thought was pretty good compared to the lousy ones I've had in a lot of places down here. That was 8 bucks. We got the meatloaf dinner ($11) and the honey mustard salmon ($14) - didn't try the 18 oz. ribeye ($32!). The meatloaf was actually pretty tasty, not grisly and very well-seasoned, with gravy and some roughly smashed potatoes and green beans. The salmon was cooked the way I like it, with a bit of a grilled crust but not dried out, lightly sauced, and it came with a sort of potato quiche that wasn't too bad. Dessert was this triple-chocolate cake that didn't knock my socks off but was okay (I think it was $6.50).
All in all, pretty good. I wouldn't mind going back after things get more settled, and try some more things off their reasonably extensive menu.
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