Pete Tittl: You'll get an earful at the Tilted Kilt — and not from the wife
| Monday, Sep 15 2008 02:50 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 02:08 PM
TILTED KILT PUB & EATERY
2900 Calloway Drive
587-5426
Hours:11 a.m.-midnight every day
Prices:Sandwiches $7.99 to $9.49, hamburgers $7.99 to $8.99, mini-pizzas $6.99 to $8.49. No child’s plate.
Payment:MasterCard, VISA, American Express and Discover accepted. Does not accept personal checks or The Californian’sPress Pass.
Dress:Casual
Amenities:Wheelchair accessible; full bar service; some vegetarian options.
On the Web:
www.tiltedkilt.com
Food:3 stars
Atmosphere:11⁄2 stars
Service:21⁄2 stars
Next week:Desi Cafe
Images
Julie Seaberg, bartender at the Tilted Kilt, helps lunchtime customers Brian Hicks, left, and James Dowell.
Victoria Johns takes an order of beer for lunchtime customers at the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery.
Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery owner Jeremy Helper.
Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery bartender Julie Seaberg mixes drinks.
OK, write me off as a cranky old man, but I’ve had my fill of the use of piped-in music as a way to subconsciously convince people that a place or event is a happening, cool destination.
I know sports events often use music to crank up the crowd and cover over the quiet moments, as if our hyperactive society can’t pause for a few minutes to just think quietly. And such a rant seems particularly odd in the case of Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, a nightspot that wants to amp people up.
At this point, you, the skeptical reader, have a mental image of me screaming at the neighborhood kids, “Get off my lawn!” Or that old saying, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old.”
Probably true in both cases, though my lawn isn’t large enough to attract adolescent maniacs. However, during our visit to Tilted Kilt I was in danger of becoming radically overstimulated already from the seemingly dozens of flat screen TVs tuned to everything from a New York Jets preseason game (all Brett Favre, all the time) to NASCAR races, old movies but not even one screen with the Olympics. A pool table and video games, but no dart boards or dance floor.
I had two companions and could not converse with them. Near me was a table of a dozen men who were shouting at each other in friendly tones. It was not the pitchers of beer talking. It was necessary. Now the noise from a packed bar I can tolerate (nearly every seat and table was full), but I began to understand why so many took refuge at the patios outside, where you could talk at a reasonable volume.
The Tilted Kilt, a franchise, is a fun place otherwise, with 22 draft beers (and one cider), 10 of them microbrews and eight imports, including Harp from Ireland. The Scottish-Irish-pub menu includes individual pizzas, hamburgers, wraps, meatloaf, sandwiches, shepherd’s pie and a lot of appetizers at home in a pub.
We sampled an appetizer of the roasted garlic fries ($4.99), the Philly Invasion Cheese Steak Salad ($9.49), the “One Shot” Johnny pizza ($8.49) and the Buffalo-style wings ($8.99). I don’t know if my ringing ears affected my sensibilities, but the food wasn’t bad.
Let’s start with the fries. Garlic fries are pretty common, but those I’ve sampled at the Rabobank Arena have a raw garlic that is very harsh and not appealing. I can only imagine what I smell like in the 24-hour aftermath. Using roasted garlic butter sauce and Parmesan cheese on the julienne-cut fries is a master stroke, mellow and inviting.
Also good was the steak salad, which had a great mix of greens and probably too much beef for most tastes, but it’s one of those great ideas that you think should be more common. The menu said it would include vine-ripened tomatoes, but those were a subdued presence at best.
My pizza was small (eight inches), but very rich with cheese and meat (sausage, pepperoni and pulverized bacon). The wings were the least impressive, just routine and common in comparison to the rest of the food.
Be prepared to see women showing a lot of midriff and cleavage. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and I guess we’ll get more of this when Hooters opens on Rosedale Highway. The wait staff is all female, which could be why the customers seemed to be at least 75 percent male.
A dessert worth ordering is the Tilted Guilt ($4.99), a lot like what B.J.’s offers: a fresh baked cookie in a tin with ice cream and chocolate sauce on top. The chocolate chip cookie was very dark and soft and warm. We would’ve raved about it to each other, but the noise had reduced us to grunts, nods and glances.
