Skip to main content

Drum & Quill ~ Pinehurst, North Carolina


40 Chinquapin Rd, Pinehurst, NC 28374

This is a place that I really want to love. But sometimes service gets in the way of what should be a really great joint. The place is named for Bob Drum, a sports journalist from Pittsburgh area largely credited with discovering (if not inventing) Arnold Palmer as a teen golfer. (Note to Editor: this would be the kind of place I would want to call 'Pops' to background). Came here twice - not because it was so good, rather because other places had inconsistent and sketchy hours of operation (see note below on Dugan's). It is also a place largely populated by white males who just finished a round of golf (see notes on the Deuce entry). But all that aside...

Drum & Quill has decent food, slow service, and appears to be too crowded for its staff to handle. As a guy who likes to sit at the bar, order a local beer and something simple to eat, I consider myself a pretty easy customer. My orders were: a couple tacos (as recommended by the bartender) and fish and chips. My drinks were beers. They brought me 4 tacos (instead of one of each as requested) with the late explanation that they cannot do mixed orders, so they just brought - and charged me - for 2 of each kind. Tacos and fish took a long time to serve (not the server's fault, I know - but just stating the fact). Even getting first (or refill) beer seemed to take a long time as the bartenders wandered around with no sense of urgency or friendliness. When it happens once, maybe just a bad night or an individual issue. Twice - with different people working behind the bar - seems like a place that is not well run.

- Rude Dante

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Five Guys Burgers and Fries ~ national chain : Colorado Springs, Colorado

Latest visit: Oct 2023 (Colorado Springs - Interquest) First visit: Jan 2007 (Reston, VA) Locations: 49 states + DC. Only Alaska is missing. There are 30 in Colorado (4 in the Springs). That's +3 from last year. Texas has 68 (our former locale of Southlake is closed, so Hurst would have been the closest). There are 123 in California which is their largest state presence. The original Reston location that I first went to is still going.  In what appears to be a recurring theme, I state each year this will be my last visit to Five Guys. Only to return anyway. This year's excuse is I wanted to try their new location, which very recently opened up close to our house. This is definitely the closest we've ever lived to a Five Guys - even the Reston location was further from my office at the time. And I thought maybe it would make a good choice for a weekday lunch while working from home, thus putting Five Guys back into the rotation. I put that idea to the test here this Saturda...

Denver's Old School Italian Restaurants

I know, I know... I haven't posted anything in 6 months. You were checking back every week, then every month and now I've fallen completely off your radar. Sorry about that. My only lame excuse is that I've been "saving up" for a good one. I've been wanting to write about Denver's Italian restaurants since we returned part-time last year. And you all know how the RJG feels about this style of restaurant . As someone who grew up in Dallas, perhaps I've been more drawn to cities that embrace their history rather than completely demolish it. Only recently has Dallas become more acutely aware of their past. Previously, any buildings not in use have been razed as fast as possible, to make way for the next brand new shopping center - all in the latest architecture naturally. Contrarily you have cities like St. Louis that are 19th and 20th century industrial ghost towns - places frozen in time because for most everyone who could, they just up and left to ...

Taco Casa ~ regional chain : Keller, Texas

Latest visit: Oct 2018 (Keller, TX)  First visit: 1992 (Durant, OK) We snuck into DFW to move the RJG's official Mom to Colorado Springs this past October. This was our only restaurant visit, as we were on a tight schedule. Could this be the last RJG visit in DFW (other than the airport of course)? It could very well be... wow, seems strange. Hard to believe the majority of the below review is now 10.5 years old. --- The RJG likes him some tacos. We mentioned in other posts that while Italian and Thai probably constitute our favorite restaurant experiences, taco places represent our favorite fast food excursion. And we'll boldly admit that it isn't even the authentic Mexican taco / taqueria stand that has been in vogue these last 25 years (though we like those too!). No, we like the good old fashioned American styled, crunchy taco. Taco Bell may be its iconic image, but it's hardly the best representative. Most taco chains are of the regional variety. And we've ...