Rockit Bar & Grill

Reviews 4

BR

Brendan Tripp

I have to admit that Ive never actually gone to Rockit for a meal, but Ive been there many, many times for events. Co-owner Billy Dec is very active in the Social Media sphere (he just got an award at the Social Media Clubs "Social Media Day" event there), and lots of stuff I end up at happens in their upstairs bar. Due to this, I dont think Ive even ever had a chance to eyeball their menu ... so this review is more about Rockit as an event space than as a restaurant (or even as a bar - Im an old married guy who doesnt drink, so my filters for judging "scenes" are based on contexts many decades old). Two key comments to make about Rockit as an event space ... One - it is less than ideal for staging a "business as usual" speaker/panel presentation. The area typically used for this is up by the windows in the front of the room (although Ive seen speakers, such as Scott Stratten, hold forth effectively from the DJ booth on the west wall). There are no particularly good sightlines for that, with most of the crowd (assuming a well-attended event) being at least partially blocked by the centrally-located bar, and those in the back of the room having little chance of seeing the speakers. While this might not sound like a particular impediment, if the subject being discussed from the dais is not "gripping" the crowd, they will quickly lose the room. This happened at Mondays event when the second panel was pretty much drowned out by people chatting amongst themselves throughout the bar. This is something to consider when programming an event there. Two - they will FEED you. I have no idea what their catering/event menu costs, but nearly every event Ive been to there has featured enough food to make a major meal out of and then some. At the SMC event they were passing these "hamburger eggroll" things they make (picture an eggroll, filled with ground beef, sliced diagonally, with ketchup topping), macaroni & cheese, big cheeseburger sliders, and what they call "Grapenuts", which are grapes coated in goat cheese and rolled in chopped pistachios on long pointy skewers. At most of the events Ive been to, these have kept coming and coming and coming until everybody had more than their fill ... which, given the skimpy "passed hors doeuvres" that a lot of places offer, is quite notable. They also have deals on beer and wine, but since I no longer indulge in those, Ive nothing to report on the subject except noting that its at least an option for events (our ticket price at this recent function included two drink coupons for the featured items). Anyway, Ive never had a bad time up at Rockit, so Im guessing the restaurant/bar parts of it (operating outside the context of an event) are similarly enjoyable.

TO

Tom Stam

Are you asking about the restaurant or the bar? I must ask because the restaurant is more than satisfactory! I am not saying it is perfect by any means, but I was satisfied with the restaurant experience every time. Last time I went for dinner I ordered the reuben (what? Tom got the reuben? Hes so stereotypical! Maybe I should have gotten a burger, there is a reason why burgers are the quintessentially American food, and at a place like this you cant go wrong with the burger, right?), but the reuben was just fine. I also noticed, the first time I visited (nearly 2 years ago!) that they had "white bean hummus" on the menu. Excuse me? Hummus is ALWAYS, made from chickpeas, yet you dare refer to that fart-paste as hummus? But I digress... I could happily dine here again, yes the service was somewhat slow/unresponsive last time, but I am patient. My problem is with the nightlife setup. Great restaurant, terrible bar. First off, the music was too loud. I dont care for settings where the music is too loud to talk or even hear over. Maybe I am some kind of "freak" but I prefer to have a comfortable conversation, not a setting where I am surrounded with sweaty feral humans whose ability to communicate verbally has been negated by the music volume. I dont get it, whats the appeal? Unless one is deaf, or otherwise aurally impaired, I dont see the appeal. Were I able to communicate with sign language (and relatively insensitive to painfully loud music of mediocre-at-best quality), I probably would be able to enjoy such an experience. I do not like being disoriented by deafeningly loud music combined with poor lighting, nor do I enjoy being limited to grunts, wild gesticulation, and pheromones like some wild animal, or attempting to communicate telepathically. Maybe I have some degree of Aspergers but I just dont get it. Also, the bar surface was all wet and sticky. Spilled drinks are inevitable, just clean that $hit up! SUMMARY: The restaurant is EXCELLENT! The bar SUCKS! (Unless your idea of a good time consists of MDMA, strobe lights, and NGST-NGST-NGST-NGST music.)

LU

Lush Depths

Met up with 3 of my friends here for dinner & drinks because we wanted to watch the games. We showed up at 6:30 and were promptly seated. We ordered a round of drinks, followed by an appetizer (chickpea hummus) and our meal orders. 30 minutes after our 1st round, we got another round of drinks. It took about 45 minutes for our hummus to arrive, which was concerning but not a big deal. By the time I finished my second beer it was somewhere around 7:35 and the food still hadnt shown up. Our waitress recognized this and brought us another round of beers on the house. My friend told her we were on a somewhat tight schedule in the hopes of speeding things up. A few minutes after that one of the managers came by with a round of shots to compensate us for our patience. I was shocked. It took roughly another 15 minutes before our food showed up, however my order was incorrect. I had to wait another 10-12 minutes for mine to arrive. Fortunately, the good service and free drinks made me not think about my hunger. Our waitress provided the bill to us as I was finishing up my meal, which came out to $92 for four people. We provided our credit cards and she rang us up. When she came back she told us that she had knocked off a few of the items to compensate us - the total was $62! All in all, we essentially got 3 rounds of beers, a meal, and a round of shots for $15 a piece, which is unheard of in River North. I want to thank all the staff who took care of us! This was a very satisfying experience.

A

A Private User

Ive eaten at Rockit numerous times over the past few years, and while I would never use the words "ambitious" or "intelligent" to describe the Rockit staff, the food and drinks usually found their way to the table eventually. Apparently not anymore. I attempted to get brunch there on June 8, 2008. The initial ordering process went fine, but after an hour of not seeing our food or our waitress, I began to realize that this brunch was not meant to be. The waitress finally stopped back at the table after a little over an hour, and seemed utterly perplexed that we hadnt received our food yet. Willing to give her one more shot, my girlfriend ordered more coffee, and we assumed the waitress would at least put a rush on our order in the kitchen. It was not to be. After another 15-20 minutes, not only did we realize the waitress was never coming back with the second coffee, she clearly had no intention of bringing our food. I found another waitress and explained the situation, at which time our waitress hurried over and assured me that she was going to talk to the manager and get this resolved. After another endless wait we realized that there was no manager involved, nor would there ever be. So we left. Not surprisingly, no one noticed. Maybe David Schwimmer was at the bar or something. Do yourself a favor and give this place a pass. There are bars with better food and atmosphere within the same block, and those bars dont act like youre putting them out by being there.