Elephant Bar Redemption

A cheeseburger, fries, and a tall-sized Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It doesn’t seem too overly complicated of an order to remember right, especially with just two people in the party.

Unfortunately, that was what transpired with my previous visit to the Elephant Bar in Citrus Heights, as my beer was the only item that reached the table that night. But seeing as though I am somewhat partial to the place, I decided to give the restaurant a shot at redemption and to correct their order-taking miscue.

This last Thursday night around 9:00 p.m. was the time for the restaurant’s chance as my girlfriend and sister accompanied me to Elephant Bar.

As we arrived at the isolated restaurant in a rather large parking lot, we noticed a considerable number of cars parked surrounding the building. Immediate thoughts crept in for us that being able to get a table might seem unlikely, but as we passed through the gold colored elephant-handled doors, things looked up as the bar had ample seating and was also featuring a happy hour. Yes!

A quick scan of the bar revealed that we would continue an age demographic trend with the majority of people there appearing to be in their 20s to 30s.

We sat at a high-rise table along the perimeter of the bar and literally within two minutes, our brilliantly named server Nick (my name as well) took our orders of appetizers and drinks.

My girlfriend ordered some coconut shrimp skewers and a margarita. My sister had the bruschetta and a glass of sangria wine. And I went with the very vanilla, but consistent cheeseburger, fries, and tall Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

As we waited for our food and drinks, I personally soaked in the atmosphere of where we were seated in the bar. Being a huge sports fanatic, I could appreciate the eight strategically placed flat-screened televisions around the bar; also it was a plus that all of which were tuned into a sports-based program like ESPN, ESPN 2, and The NFL Network.

But, back to the dining experience…

Promptly, within a brisk 10 minutes, our food and drinks had arrived so we dug in.

Seeing as though I am far from a “picky” eater, it really takes mal-prepared meal for me to not enjoy it, but that was not the case here. My cheeseburger was nicely presented. A generously sized greasy beef patty cooked in a medium fashion sat on the toasted bottom bun. Atop the beef was a gooey slice of medium cheddar cheese while lettuce, onions, and two tomato slices separated the rest from the mayo spread on the top bun.

The burger was tasty and contained an abundance of flavor with all the components, while the fries were fairly good and complemented the slider well. My robust and hoppy Sierra Nevada washed it all down, and I was satisfied.

            As for the others’ food, my girlfriend commented that her shrimp tasted fresh and my sister liked the combination of the toasted Italian bread with olive oil and mozzarella cheese.

After our plates and glasses were cleared from the table, our bill was not immediately rushed to us, but instead Nick delivered it at a leisurely pace (about 15 minutes later), which was nice not to feel like we were wanted out quickly.

Our happy hour experience concluded with a signature on the moderately priced receipt, and we were out the door at 10:20 p.m.

The Elephant Bar didn’t give us a sense of any 4-star dining, but it offered a place to unwind at the beginning of the weekend with a little food and drink. It helps too that this time my burger and fries were not so elusive. I think a future tip when ordering is to supplement the verbal cues with pointing on the menu as I did this time around.