Engine 11

CLOSED FOR BUSINESS. There’s an available sign out front. Someone please buy it and put something cool here for once.

Being around the corner and between Marta and the Fox Theater, we decided this would be a good place to meet up before a recent show.
That was a mistake.
I really wanted to like this place. I live in the area, I like pubs, I love the building and the history. You could not really ask for a better building to turn into a bar than an old wood firehouse!
We got there more than an hour before the show, ordered a round of drinks, and put in our food orders.
and waited…
and waited…
going to hunt down our waitress she told us it would be «right out»
and we waited…
and we waited…
repeat with the waitress «right out»!
and waited…
Finally, as it’s getting close to show time we go find the waitress to tell us to cancel the food. The manager comes over and says they won’t do that. We were told we should have canceled it «earlier». Well we pointed out that the waitress kept assuring us it would be «right out».
After we said we had to go to the show, they offered to keep the food for after.
that’s when part of the order appeared, (I would guess about a third of what we had ordered.)
I didn’t see the pasture out back with the cows, but that’s the only reason I can think of that a burger would take an hour to cook.
After having a leisurely «meet/​drink/​food» pre-​Fox thing turn into an argument, splitting burgers 3ways so everyone could get some nourishment, and a sprint to the theater, I won’t be rushing back.

Cool concept, I loved the detail of the interior but the menu was just ok however, I dont understand the homage to arizona. Its a fire house bar/​restaurant. Why do your menu items have to be named after cities of arizona?
Food was just ok. They do have a decent selection of local brews

To be honest, after seeing all the crowds here, I am pretty disappointed in the food. I would venture to guess that its great location is the main draw (next to the BoA tower and GaTech).
I came here with Frank C. and we both ordered the Bison Burger (11.99) medium rare. He got a side of Mac and Cheese and I got a loaded baked potato. So overall, the burger here was overcooked and not as flavorful as the bison burger at Ted’s Montana Grill.
Bison BTW is extremely healthy for you. It is extremely lean (which means its easier to overcook) and has a lot more minerals and vitamins than beef.
The side of Mac and Cheese was pretty good though, more custardy than I was expecting.

Whether I had another scoutmob voucher, or any other kind of discount, there’s little redeeming value coming back here!!!
Waiting for service with a half empty restaurant bar is inexcusable! Here it was Saturday afternoon, and I practically had to beg Kristin, the barmaid, to take my order. My wife and I ordered beers and burgers, and when I wanted a 2^nd beer to go with my burger, the barmaid was too busy chatting with another fellow employee to get me my beer. I literally got up from my tabletop and asked her for the beer, to which she replied «yeah, just a minute», while she continued to converse with her associate, about nothing, I assure you. Two minutes later she arrived with my lukecool beer.
Our fries were room temperature, the draft beer was not as cold as I expect. Attitudes from the waitstaff, and return??? You gotta be kidding!!!
And, OBTW, if you do use a scoutmob, it’s only on the food, and still they impose an 18% automatic tip on the entire bill anyway. Whether they deserve it, or not!!!
The physical layout of the building and bar are nice, but come for a tour, and then go down the block for real food and service with a smile!!!

I came here on a Saturday when I concert was going on. Apparently they do not own their own parking lot. I had to find parking on the street. There was no one in the place. I was disappointed to have to eat in a uncomfortably quiet restaurant.
The food was good. I had the bison burger with the mozzarella spicy sticks. I forget what the official name of the item is but it was good. I wish the serving sizes was bigger but it got the job done.

We ate here last Friday night with friends and I was pleasantly surprised after seeing the 3-​star average rating.
Although things were pretty slow, especially for a Friday, we received attentive and friendly service. The beer selection is good and the food was tasty; I had the meatloaf sandwich and she had the santa fe (?) spicy chicken sandwich, both with onion rings. And because we paid separately, the manager let both couples use our scout mob coupons!
My only word of warning is MAKE SURE YOU FEED THE PARKING METER! My friend missed his 2-​hour window by 13 minutes and had to pay $ 75 to get the boot removed from his car. There’s a dude lurking in the parking lot waiting for the meters to expire with a portable boot.
Other than that, it was a very enjoyable experience.

While visiting GA for a wedding, we stopped here for the bachelor/​bachelorette dinner. My cousin’s extremely nice co-​worker offered her $ 300 in gift cards so we could celebrate.
The inside décor of the place is adorable. Everywhere you look there is a mixture of cherry wood, leather and red brick. Huge chandeliers hung down from the ceiling offering just the right amount of lighting, like an old-​fashioned saloon jazzed up.
Interested in ordering drinks? They have more to choose from than you can imagine. For our celebration purposes, the bridal party took a shot of choice together, and we each got to pick a different brew. The Gorilla Fart, which the boys tried, actually smelled really awful. The beautiful women cleverly ordered the chocolate cake to pair with the actual chocolate cake and Georgia peach cake. Surprisingly, our drinks were clear liquid. It tasted more like one of those chocolate oranges you find at Christmas time. Each slice has orange liqueur in with the chocolate for an extra sweetness and a tad sour.
The restaurant leaned more towards supplying meat to its customer’s than vegetarian friendly, so I ordered the Blue Cheese Chips appetizer to share with a few others (leaving the bacon off). The blue cheese was slowly melting down the massive pile of chips and was topped with diced tomatoes and scallions. Each homemade chip had that perfect cooked crispness most of us crave when chomping down. The tomatoes helped pull away from the potent blue cheese. Excellent food, drinks and company. I would recommend the restaurant to anyone in the area for a weekend.

I have been here a number of times. I like that it is a long bar and there are always seats at the bar so you don’t have to hassle with getting one. The small TVs at the bar is a bit of a drag, but it also helps keep the integrity of the original firehouse space.
The upstairs private event space is really cool. Seems the Atlanta Firemen actually use the upstairs event space for most of their social parties.
They have like 8 beers on tap. Usually 2 – 3 of them are fairly obscure which is cool. Prices are a tad higher then Midtown given its proximity to Tech and downtown, but overall it is worth it given the service which is great.
They used to have pretty basic bar food. I would only eat the pork/​beef meatloaf. The burgers were of the frozen variety. I am happy to say now they have some of the BEST bar food. They serve Brasstown beef hamburgers which is a really good North Carolina ranch. I have had the burger once and it was great! They also serve a Buckhead Beef NY Strip steak with asparagus and baked potato. I tried this last month and it was awesome.
I know most of the reviews on here give poor reviews for the food, but trust me the menu is upgraded now. Go try that NY strip or the burger, they are both SOLID.

I had driven by this place so many times and it looked so cool, when a Half Off Depot deal came out, a snatched it up. Didn’t take much to convince a friend to go with me. She had also been wanting to try this place. I have to say… thank God I did not spend full price on my meal.
First things first, this is midtown. So there is no free parking for this place. And there was an event going on at the Fox that evening, so the parking lots were pricey. We ended up finding street parking not that far away.
Their menu is not very extensive… you are best off if you want a burger or sandwich. I tried one of their few full plate options– the smothered chicken. It is described as a chicken breast smothered with cheeses and bacon. I was so excited. Then my plate came out. It looked like a tough chicken breast with rubbery cheese (didn’t look melty) and two strips of bacon on top. What??? Not what I pictured in my head. I imagined a nice, warm, moist, seasoned chicken breast with hot, gooey cheese on top and lots of crumbled bacon. What a disappointment. And the flavor did not impress! I didn’t even eat the whole thing. I am very thankful that I ordered a ceasar (I can never spell that darn word) salad to go with. At least that was good.
Service was meh. She was never really around when we actually needed her. And the place was dead! There were a few people at the bar, but no one else was eating. I guess they all got the message I learned that evening.

So I made my NYE celebrations at Engine 11 for an event called the Wiggle Factor, which involved a $ 75 cover for the night with an open bar with premium drinks and breakfast close to 2am or so and a champagne toast. After going here, I will say that this was an excellent choice, not only was the venue excellent (I have a soft spot for restored buildings) and roomy, the bartenders were very generous with their booze and the music was excellent.
In the downstairs area, they were playing funk, hip hop, and top 40 songs, which was pretty fun. But I hung out upstairs with the house music and where there were less lines at the bar. Their upstairs bathroom was very big and clean, however it slowly started to degrade in cleanliness as the patrons were more inebriated, but that is the natural progression of things on NYE. I would have to say that the quality of their alcohol totally made up for the cost. I was drinking Grey Goose with (fill the blank) and it was awesome. However, they ran out of Goose and had to go with Stoli, which is not bad either!
Their breakfast was made up of eggs, lots of bacon, and biscuits… I think they had sausage, but I passed on that since I’m not really a fan. Either way the breakfast was delicious and much warranted. It was a nice touch to end the night. I do remember the biscuits were rather tasty, and the bacon was a little cold and not greasy, but then again I came in late for breakfast… either way, it was a fantastic experience and I would def do it again!

I love the décor here. It has a very classic parlor style. Think velvet red booths, with lots of dark wood and leather. High ceilings and nice lamps.
Every time I’ve been here, the service has been great. The food is ok — it’s basically bar food — burgers, fries, salads. Not great but not bad. The beer selection is pretty good.
There is an upstairs part of this place, but I haven’t been up there since they have changed names.
It’s in a great location, perfect for right before a show at the fox or a tech game. I’m not really getting all the bad reviews for this place.

We dropped in for a few pre-​game drinks. They serve Guinness and they have Keno. We sat at the bar and had good service. The bartenders were smiling and got us our drinks as fast as we could drink them. Seemed to be a lot of yellow jackets (GT fans) buzzing around.
We headed on down to the Georgia Tech game after downing some drinks. The walk down to the stadium wasn’t bad. Good pregame stop. Bathrooms were nice and clean. There is a paid parking lot right next door. Not sure how much to park here. There’s a Marta station within walking distance of this bar.

After interviews at GT, our group was treated to lunch at Engine 11. The organizers had reserved the private upstairs room for us. It’s a good space for private events — nicely sized, able to accommodate different seating arrangements, and even has a private bar. The servers did a good job of keeping our drinks filled and meeting our requests.
They started us off with the homemade chips, covered with blue cheese dressing, blue cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and green onion. Those things hit the spot on a yucky day that had me craving comfort food. Jimmy had to remind me to pass them back down the table.
I had the Fireman’s Axe Salad, which is your basic chicken tender salad. I requested that the chicken tenders be tossed in buffalo sauce and blue cheese on the side for dressing. No problems. The greens were crisp and fresh (I’m used to seeing iceberg for this kind of salad), but other than that, it was just what you’d expect of a bar salad.
There is parking in the adjacent lot — it’s pay for your numbered spot at the meter box (credit card accepted). While the rate said $ 5 for weekend, it was $ 10, meaning that the special event rate was in place, probably for the show at the Fox, which is just around the corner. As I walked in, I noticed a sign on the brick that they’ll reimburse you the cost of parking, up to $ 15 on your bill when you bring in your receipt. We left before the group had dispersed, and I left my parking receipt with the organizer, so I’m not sure if they honored it for the group, but it seems to be a good deal to me, particularly since $ 10 parking on a random Saturday would be a major deterrent for me.
#Yelp365 — ⁶⁴⁄₃₆₅

I don’t know what some people’s standards are for burgers, but I would say this is the WORST BURGER I have ever had. Really, if you are going to call yourself a restaurant, pony up for real hamburger meat that you actually have to form into a patty yourself. It takes 5 minutes. This burger was clearly of the frozen, pre-​formed variety, and not even one of good quality. The toppings were good, I believe it had spinach artichoke dip and cheese and maybe even bacon, but the taste of that nasty burger was so overpoweringly awful it ruined the whole thing. Oh, and it cost over $ 10!!! Seriously?
Having said that, there are good things about this place, which saved it from a one star review. The blue cheese potato chips were really good, and the beer selection was decent. The building is really cool, a converted firehouse, and the location is really good for GT games. Excellent patio. The service was pretty good too. However, I can’t get the taste of that gross, pre-​cooked burger out of my mouth. If the hamburgers are frozen and reheated, more than likely so is the rest of their food. Unacceptable from an actual sit-​down restaurant.

The chicken dish I had felt like it came out of a frozen bag to be heated up. The chili just looked mediocre at best. At least the beers were well-​poured.
My table’s server was attentive and accurate, but then again, she didn’t really have anything else to do. Shortly after meeting a couple friends here, the bar tender turned up the volume on the jukebox and started blasting the worst sounds I’ve ever heard. No, I’m not some old fart who hates loud music. This was just offensive noise. We asked if it could be turned down, and the response was that a single patron at the bar had «just won Keno and the bartender is trying to keep him happy so he can get some of that money.» Well played bartender. You emptied out the entire restaurant and annoyed the patrons into being unlikely return customers.
So I can give two stars for a good server, well-​poured beers, and the same cool interior as the Spotted Dog, but won’t be back anytime soon.

Engine 11 is a very convenient walk from many office and hotel buildings in the midtown area, and I found it to be a very good place to get away from it all on my lunch hour. That being said, be prepared to spend the entire hour there. Service is snail paced at off peak times, but during lunch and dinner hours, it’s comparable to a sloth moving in molasses.
The atmosphere is pretty good, as the bar-​style establishment resides in an old fire station. Flat panel TVs are scattered throughout the place (I went when there were no sports on once… and watched a thrilling episode of General Hospital), and plenty of seating was to be found. An outside patio is also available for dining when the weather is pleasant.
I only saw the place crammed once, for lunch, on a weekend before a GT game. However, the rest of my visits were fairly empty, including weekend nights and baseball playoffs.
Let’s get to the good stuff: the food. Expect $ 20 – 30 for an entrée and a (non-​alcoholic) drink, but the portions are generous. A great starter is the Blue Cheese Chips, and they are to die for. Bacon, diced tomatoes, and scallions. mmmmm. As for entrees, my favorite choice is the Fireman’s Axe Salad, and it’s filling for even me, a renowned carnivore. If anything, the lettuce is overwhelming in amount, but if that’s your problem, then don’t eat it all!
Beers are a-​plenty here, with the local Sweetwater 420 being a weapon of choice. Between that, Stella, and Yuengling, I never ventured into the bottled selections.
Overall, a fine place to dine, but definitely be prepared for a long wait for your food. I would rate this 3.5 stars, but since I can’t do halves, I’m rounding up based on the food.

BAKED POTATO SOUP.
Seriously, order it. It’s probably the most delicious thing on the menu. Another menu item of note are the juicy and humongous wings. The menu also has hilarious descriptions for your entertainment. You can even order a bowl of Captain Crunch Cereal. Win.
They don’t seem to get a whole lot of business; we’ve been on Monday nights for trivia the past two weeks and this week we were 6 of the maybe 10 customers in the restaurant. It’s disappointing they don’t have more customers since the feel of the place is good and their menu is complete with standard American fare.
They have a nice patio, unfortunately it doesn’t overlook anything particularly awesome (North Ave, anyone?). Also, they have a fantastic event space upstairs.
I think they’d do a lot better if the parking lot directly next to the restaurant was owned by Engine 11. On weeknights is a $ 5 charge to park. It’s comped by the restaurant if you buy over $ 20 of food, but I really don’t think that’s a good sell for most people.
If you haven’t been, it’s worth a try.

Upon our arrival I was a little peeved because the pay lot next door had a $ 10 fee due to some sort of special event in the area. They don’t own a lot, but they do have valet after 5pm.
BUT, when we walked in right around opening time I asked the bartender if there was a cheaper place to park (since i didn’t pay the $ 10 yet) and the owner (I assume) came over and said he’d comp an appetizer or round of beers if we just paid the $ 10. I was impressed, paid the lot, and came back in to eat.
Very few people were in, but it was noon-​thirty on a rainy sunday and they just opened. This was sweet because we sat right in front of the TV and watched the Falcons game.
We ordered the sweet and spicy wings which tasted FANTASTIC and HUGE. Say what you want about juiced-​up chickens, but they make for yummy food. 11 wings for $ 9. Not a bad price at all.
I had the St. Peter’s Chicken sandwich and it was a tasty beast! The chicken breast was hefty (probably from the same breed as the freak-​sized wings) and had great cheesy bacony flavor. Yeah it was over $ 10 but worth it.
My lady-​friend had the burger which she said was dry, but she loved, and so did I, the baked potato soup.
Decent service, and potentially a bitch to park, but the owner’s coolness totally earned Engine 11 the 4^th star.

This. place. was. great.
I have NO idea what the other peeps were talking about in some of the other reviews.
Firstly, the place is gorgeous — deep, dark wood carvings that cover nearly the entire inside. Secondly — IT’S A FIRE STATION! Closed down around ’96 and got turned in to a PUB. So frickin’ cool. The fireman’s pole is now the brass foot rail that goes around the bar, and the hole they slid down through is now a looking glass from the 2^nd floor bar down to the 1^st floor of the bar. A number of the lamps are actually old-​school brass fire extinguishers. And another cool thing is the tie to history — at various places they have big black and white photos of the firemen who previously lived there over the years, pictured in action shots on the job fighting fires.
The staff was great — Brian and Amanda seem to be all over the place keeping everyone at the bar top cared for.
The prices were good — my vodka/​cokes were, well, they were pretty inexpensive…
As for the food — the King’s Hawaiian sliders (both chicken and pork/​beef) were stupid-​good. A HUGE pile of damn with thick-​cut chips.
The place just seemed like a great, authentic place to hang out and watch a game, have some good food, and some good drinks. Wasn’t overcrowded, no real douchebags that I could see, and not very smoky.
cool enough I bought the darn t-​shirt.