Tracht’s

Tracht’s is no more. Apparently Suzanne Tracht’s contract w/​the Renaissance hotel was up and it was not renewed. However, the restaurant is still here (now called Renaissance Bar & Grill) and is using some of her recipes (w/​her approval).

7÷22÷09 update:
Okay, I’m done. The oysters were bad this time. I’m hoping I don’t get sick. I can’t believe they even served them. HH price is $ 5.50, which means regular price is $ 11 – for 4 deep fried oysters? The HH menu is simply too small, and the HH liquor way too limited, to go back for HH anytime soon.
The other items were still good. But I’m probably not going to eat a regular meal there bc the menu just bores me for now. Except I’m curious about their coq au vin, since I make a pretty good one.
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This is a review of the happy hour menu only.
I didn’t realize Tracht’s is in a hotel, so it’s a good thing they have a very large and tasteful sign you can see from the street. It’s an open space in the hotel lobby area, with a large outside patio seating space and a fire pit.
The hh menu is very small, limited to selections of bar food, but at half the price. Also half price well drinks and limited selection of domestic beers. I was shocked – shocked that Tracht’s serves the likes of budweiser. Actually I can’t remember exactly which crappy american beers they serve.
The food was very good, high quality. And at the HH price, an excellent deal. In that hood of downtown long beach, you can walk down the block and pay twice as much for far far inferior versions of what’s served at Tracht’s. So, I really appreciate that Tracht’s is offering some of their level of food at great HH prices.
Also, it pissed me off to have eaten at Aud Dubliners for my first long beach HH/​dinner (even tho they have great beers). Going to tracht’s for my 2^nd lb hh was like night and day, a very welcome change.
Everyone at Tracht’s was very friendly.

I will start my review by talking about what really is most important: THE FOOD! The food here is amazing! The menu is filled with the kind of comfort food you’d find on the table of a perfect 50’s era housewife, only a thousand times better. The braised pork belly melts in your mouth and leaves you with a delicious dipping sauce to go with your bread. The steaks, the pot roast, AND THE SIDES are all wonderful! They serve the kind of food that makes you sad when you take the last bite. (Only it’s big portions, save room) I love too many things on the menu to list them all. Choosing what to eat will be your toughest choice.
I’m not much of a wine drinker but they have a huge wine list that has impressed more than one dinner guest. They have great cocktails. The holy water is refreshing and perfect for a sip by the fire pit on a summer night. Did I mention they have the ever hard to find Framboise Lambic?!
To those who have reviewed negatively on service, GET OVER YOURSELVES. You are not the only person in the room. If you are spending your whole night paying attention to who isn’t paying attention to you, my recommendation is better company, not a different restaurant.

Rarely do I express negativity in my reviews. Especially in reviews for Long Beach establishments. I usually have very positive experiences with businesses and provide kudos accordingly.
I will now review a portion of this restaurant. Given my inability to receive actual service by any other individual except for the bartender, I will limit my comments to my experience at the bar.
I’m sorry Tracht’s, was I dressed inappropriately? Did I not properly approach a vacant table after seeing no host to assist? Were two additional guests at 9:30 on a Friday night with seven other customers just too much to handle? I’m curious… genuinely so.
Was it my status as something other than a brittle septuagenarian, a boring, altruistic foodie, or a transfixed, per-​diem laden conventioneer that warranted no menu, no greeting, or assistance of any kind?
Perhaps, as mentioned prior, I just frequented your bar (which obviously caters to some dining past 9:30 p.m.) at an inopportune hour. Maybe it was time to close and I understand this wholly. If it was time to close, I would have loved to have been informed. I would have kindly walked out without issue.
What vexes me the most though, Tracht’s, is that a very arbitrary group of baby-​boomers dressed in that baby-​boomer uniform (which will not be explained) was provided service almost instantaneously upon arrival. They were speaking to an actual server, they were presented with food options, and were delivered beverages in a timely manner. They seemed important.
Myself, on the other hand, had to order drinks from the bartender. Although catering to three people in the area (at my time of arrival), he was unable to complete my drink order in less that six minutes. I was informed that my «special beverage» would take some time and be delivered by a server who may also be able to interest me in some fantastic food options.
Those options were limited because I finally delivered my own beverage five minutes later (as that table next to me guffawed ironically while listening to their server present options for late-​evening dining).
Tracht’s, I know you have minuscule competition. You cater to a crowd that knows little to nothing about my actual hometown. I cannot change that.

You do know that I can find near perfect bar food, great drinks, and awesome service at genuine establishments mere miles from your mediocrity.
The next time I frequent the V, I will happily order a beverage and appreciate the personality.
The next time I frequent the Pike, I will happily consume near transcendent food minus the aforementioned septuagenarians and boring baby boomers.
The next time I frequent at last, I will happily partake in consumption of comfort food, minus the modernism.
And I know that none of this will bother you at all. That’s fine.
There are times when I love the LBC.
There are times when I loathe Long Beach.

I just had to update my review because this far exceeded my last visit, this time, came for my BDay, wish I got the waitresses name cuz she rawked! Ordered tons of grub, ready?
— purple yams with crème fraîche
— pork sliders
— deviled eggs, crab
— fried oysters
— filet of beef
— lemongrass chicken
— banana pudding
Their happy hour menu 5−7pm is ½ off most appetizers and drinks. Gourmet food for a great price, their well drinks are well-​known brands, like smirnoff. They made my bday really special, great seat and great service!

Hated the entire experience! It’s a no brainer. Out of all the restaurants in LB, why would you go here?
I was excited at the prospect of coming to dinner here. They had a great UYE here a few months ago… and everyone left super comments about the place. I guess that’s what free drinks and food duzz to ya.
Here is my take:
Two other tables in the place at 7:15. It was an omen. I should have listened to that little voice in my head.
The drinks were watery. They were using ice that had been sitting in the well since 4 o’clock. I had three vodka rocks and never felt a slight buzz. The other guests thought the same.
One poor, overworked waitress… whose name must have been Bambi. Came to our table on occasion. The service was sparce, as was the atmosphere. Oh yeah… the atmosphere. The moment I walked in I said to myself… but,…ummmm… this is in the lobby, and the kitchen is 100 feet across the entire lobby. This ain’t going to work. Horrible arrangment.
The food coming from said kitchen, across the lobby, was cold. It might have tasted ok at a warmer temperature. I would have told Bambi… but, I never saw her again… Until she dropped off the bill. Quite frankly, I was glad to get it… and I paid the 400 dollar bill and escaped thru the back door.
I am always puzzled how managment may think they are running a successful restaurant, when it is this bad.

I’m with John P. on this one. The décor was simple, and after a while you forget you’re in a hotel restaurant. We went for the DineLA Promo as well.
I started off with the prosciutto, burrata cheese, and red mustard frill. The almond pesto lacked a certain something. It wasn’t bad… But it didn’t make me want to cream my pants either. We gave the celery root soup to my daughter. I think we should have ordered a bowl for ourselves, it was pretty tasty.
For our main entrée I had the lamb with Au gratin potatoes, and my bf had the steak with garlic fries. The wait in between each course was a good little while. I think we went through 4 (small) loaves of bread just waiting. By the time the food came, I think I ate it in 5 bites, literally. The food was good, but the portions were pretty small. I shared mine with my daughter. The steak came with garlic aoli and garlic french fries. Definitely should have went with the steak.
For dessert I had the apple bread pudding and my bf had the pudding sampler. The pudding was rich and had such a good flavor. Like John, I too felt the bread pudding lacked something. Maybe taste? I would have liked a little scoop of vanilla ice cream over the whipped cream. Or maybe some caramel. I teased after the meal saying I was going to walk to The Muse up the street.
It was a good experience. Maybe without my daughter we’d go again for happy hour or something. But I really can’t see dining here again for a while.

The longer I’m waiting to write this review… the lower the rating is dropping! I came here for DineLA Restaurant Week. I am now for sure convinced DineLA restaurant week is a scam! I’ve been to 4 restaurants, and have only been satisfied with 1 dining experience. 25% is not really good… C’s get degrees, 25% is definitely not a C. You wouldn’t have received a degree with a 25%!! Maybe only lunch is a good deal. The 3 bad experiences were all dinners! Anyways, back to my Tracht’s review…
I came here with my good friend Derek M. We definitely dissect each dish to the bare essence when we try out a restaurant. Let’s start with the good. Service was pretty good. It’s a bit inattentive, when there were probably only 4 tables dining, and about 3 wait staff. However, the food came at a good pace. They kept the waters filled for the most part. They must’ve thought we were some acclaimed critics because the waitress tried to appease us with some 20% off business cards, they sent the manager, then sent the chef to talk to us. They hooked us up with an extra dessert, and even offered drinks on the house. That was an interesting experience, definitely a first!
1^st Course:
Garlic fries were quite impressive (3.7 stars). It’s not heavily garlicky with overly lots of chopped pieces of garlic like you’d get from a baseball game. However the garlic flavor was there, and you could texturize a bit of flour coat before they fried the potatoes. Fried to an excellent crisp. However I felt the frying oil may not have been so fresh. Probably one of the best things we ordered. We also had the proscuitto with cheese. The cheese was seriously amazing! Milky, soft, and moist texture. Combined with the proscuitto makes an excellent balance of the right saltiness of the meat and subtle of the cheese. Combined with the pesto, that gives the contrast to the other side of the dish of greens with a vinagrette. Well thought out plate, I think this was my favorite of the night (4.5)! The celery root and garlic soup was forgettable. It was a damper to my dining experience, and made me biased towards the other dishes. The soup was under-​seasoned, lacked the garlic punch. The bread thing in the middle was a mess! I really didn’t like the soup (0.9).
2^nd Course:
The short ribs were cooked well. It reminds me of a familiar Asian flavor, which kind of caused it to be unspectacular. Feels like something my mom could make. They used kurobuta pork. You definitely know the quality of the ingredients at this restaurant is definitely there! But my question is why would you use such a good piece of meat this way?! It’s like using wagyu beef as pot roast. It doesn’t make sense. However this dish was simple, but tasty. It even made brussels sprouts taste good, bonus points there (3.4, this rating keeps going down the more I think about it). The next dish was the lamb. I’m not a fan of lamb because of the indescribable gaming after-​taste. Unless they mask it, I don’t necessarily like it. Once again, the meat is cooked very well. This dish has many layers and all put together to one dish makes it mesh well and taste pretty good. The bottom is an au gratin that is sliced differently, making it an interesting taste. It’s made well. The spinach is fresh and good. The lamb is simple, so you taste the bare simplicity of the ingredients. I think that’s what the chef is after. This dish lacks a bit of sauce to complement (3.2).
3^rd Course:
The chocolate pudding 2 way was good tasting, strong chocolatey flavor, smooth, yet rich (3.4). The apple bread pudding thing was pretty good as well. Has a good country feel to it. However it didn’t look so appealing (3.5). The cheese and poached pear with crenili was an interesting balance. I’m not sure if my palate is that sophisticated quite yet. It’s a flavor I had never experienced. It balances really well, however I’m not sure if I like it or not. The cheese was pretty good (3.7 for the new uncharted taste experience). Dessert didn’t add to the overall experience nor hurt the rating.
Overall I’d give it a low 3… maybe even a 2.8. I just wasn’t «wowed». Sure the dishes tasted good, but nothing was spectacular enough for me to come back or recommend this place to someone for a special occasion. The only reason I’d come back is to try the signature pot roast. Is it worth it?

I was somehow able to talk myself into delaying my diet just one more day. It was tough, believe me. I kept telling myself that broccoli and chicken would make for a superb dinner at home. But, myself, that stubborn bitch, wouldn’t listen. Myself wanted steak… and wasn’t taking no for an answer. And who am I to argue with myself? So, I printed out my
coupon and assured myself that I’d start that diet tomorrow… before the broccoli in my fridge goes bad.
There are just too many good things to say about Tracht’s, I just don’t know where to start. I suppose I could just tell you the things I hated, and then you can assume I loved everything else.
–I hate the name. How the hell do you pronounce it? Does it rhyme with «yacht»? Does it sound like «tracks»?
–I hate that I wasn’t able to eat an entire tureen of the absolutely superb white bean and bacon soup that I got as an appetizer.
–I hate that Paula was such a good server, she left me nothing to complain about. She was attentive, funny, very knowledgeable about the menu — and even ran to box up some of their tasty broiled onions for us when she realized the busser forgot to put them in our to-​go box. Damn. I love complaining — she left me nothing. I hate that.
–I hate that I couldn’t finish my ribeye steak. Way to make me feel like a whimp, Tracht’s. I consider myself a master steak-​eater. But after the tasty soup, and onion thing, I could only finish half of my tasty, tasty steak. Jerks.
–I hate that I learned about Japanese purple yams with crème fraîche. Great. Like I didn’t already have enough foods to love, they’ve gotta go and introduce me to the absolute heaven that is a baked purple yam with crème fraîche. Ugh.
–I hate that the banana shortbread tart dessert was so freakin’ divine. Thanks a lot for adding the extra calories. Sheesh.
–I hate that parking is so easy. You mean, I just pull into the garage, get validated, and… that’s it? What excuse will I have not to go here now… it always used to be that parking was so difficult in downtown LB. Now I’ve got nothin’. I hate that.
–I hate that the ambiance is so cool. Come on! I already admitted that I like Sizzler, now I’ve gotta admit that one of my fave places in LB is *whisper* a hotel restaurant? *whisper* I’ll have no street cred whatsoever.
–I hate myself. Damn myself for always talking me out of that diet. Well, guess I’ll start tomorrow…

It’s about time that I reviewed this place. My first UYE was here, along with meeting OC and LA community managers in person for the first time.
I’ve actually seen this place open for a while before the UYE, but never really tried it. So actually holding an event here served more than one purpose.
I got here slightly early, so I sat at the bar inside and had an Adiós while watching some TV. I remember thinking to myself that the price for a cocktail was actually pretty pricey. I was glad to hear that the wine and food outside where the event was actually held was going to be on the house.
The service was pretty damn good. I don’t know if that’s because this is a «first impression» type of event that could result in favorable or negative reviews or if that’s how it will always be even after we leave. I hope that the latter is true. The fireplace pit and the patio area was actually
I thought that the deviled eggs were good and so was the brisket. The wine was free-​flowing and kept on coming. At one point, I think I was double-​fisting wine glasses while trying to compose myself during conversations with other Unilocalers.
This was a nice introduction to a new happy hour concept and I would come here again for it.

You can call me ghetto but the best steak I’ve ever had could be found at the Strip Club in San Diego. Yes, that cook-​it-​yourself place in the Gaslamp District.
That is, until I had the 10oz skirt steak at Tracht’s. Perfectly seared on the outside, a lovely shade of pink (i.e., medium) on the inside, and oh so delicious with the green peppercorn sauce that I picked.
Let me back up a little and talk about the appetizer and salad. The bf and I got the black mussel and special salad of the day to share. Both were divine. I wanted to drink whatever that broth was that came with the mussels. Instead I dipped my chewy sourdough bread into the buttery liquid. *sigh* So good. If that had been my meal, I would have been content. The salad consisted of arugula, prosciutto, and some kind of mozzarella that was a bit stringy. Small portion but yummy.
The service was attentive and thoughtful (e.g., the server knew there was a wait for valet so she made sure our car was brought out to the front while we finished our dessert). Tracht’s will even validate valet parking for 2 hours. It’s an easy in and out of the restaurant, a definite plus in crazy downtown LBC on a Friday night.
Yes, the dessert (their signature chocolate pudding) was also delish. If I was a less classy person, I would have picked up the glass bowl and licked the remains.
Dinner was a bit pricey (a little under $ 150 with tip) but well worth it when you want to treat yourself to a nice dinner.

Memorandum
Date: December 1, 2008
To: Our server at Tracht’s
From: Me
Subject: Worst Customer Service. Ever. Seriously.
I don’t know if you remember our party but we were at the restaurant last night for a family birthday dinner. To be honest, I don’t know how you could NOT recall us seeing how the restaurant was empty and there were eleven people in our group. But I guess you really didn’t know or just didn’t care because the kind of service we received, we might as well have not been there at all.
I chose Tracht’s because it came highly recommended, especially in regards to the food. I guess I should have taken those recommendations with a grain of salt since the food is the only thing I can muster saying anything remotely positive about.
In the name of holiday spirit I’d like to point out some things that you might want to work on if you’d like to have customers coming back to your restaurant. Let’s call it «Constructive Criticism.»
When your customers order a bottle of wine, you might want to take a little less than an hour or so to come back to tell them that you actually don’t have it and suggest a different wine that has nothing in common with the original one ordered except price. I’m not sure many people appreciate drinking such a sweet wine to accompany their main dishes.
Thirty minutes or so between serving courses is just a tad bit long in my opinion, especially since we were sitting there staring at our dirty plates forever and no one came to remove the dishes, clean off the tables, or pretty much do anything. Kudos to the water server though. Our waters were ALWAYS replenished. Thanks.
When you don’t take an order down properly and therefore not bring out all dishes that were ordered, it’s not that nice to try to place the blame on the customer. All you have to do is apologize and bring it out or put in a new order. Just because the customer is gracious enough to say it’s OK, they’ll just share, doesn’t mean you can’t at least try and pretend to be sorry.
Just so you know, when it’s a birthday dinner you shouldn’t come out to the table and announce loudly so the whole restaurant can hear, that your cake cutting fee is $ 6/​person and ask whether we still want to have the cake you stored in your refrigerator for us. You know… only because the birthday boy WAS sitting at the table too. It sort of kills the mood and element of surprise. I’m just saying.
Also, I know you might have been a little upset when I pointed out that everything was taking too long, but tossing those dessert spoons onto the table like that? Not cool. I’m only pointing it out since you told me the reason it took you 45 minutes to bring out the desserts, clear our dishes, or do anything a server actually does at a restaurant, is because you were getting those same dessert spoons in the first place. If retrieving them required that much time and effort, throwing them onto the table like that is certainly no way to treat them.
One last thing, some people do not like to be touched by strangers. I am one of those people. I don’t like being touched by people I don’t know and seeing how we only met last night, you would fall into that category. So those little nudges you kept giving me every time you were serving something in my vicinity after our little talk? I wouldn’t do that from now on. You know… just in case someone decided to write about it on the world wide net or something.
Well, I hope this memo helped. You can make of it what you will but I thought it’d be nice to let you know that the dinner we had there yesterday was one that will be remembered for quite some time and we have you to thank for it.
Happy Holidays!

Decent food but nothing extraordinary and was overshadowed by horrendous service and disregard for us as customers.
Cost to worth it ratio: 3
Eve award: slowest service ever
Highlights:
— None
Midlights:
— Pot roast: good flavor and level of tenderness, but not a stand out like I expected
— Mashed potatoes: creamy, smooth
— Beet salad: liked the texture and sheer size of the red beets and the addition of just a few crumbles if cheese.
— Fries: ok flavor but tasted more frozen than fresh and arrived cold.
Lowlights:
— Service: an empty restaurant yet was a 3 hour meal – and this was no full blown fine dining tasting menu experience. We only had the traditional 3 courses of appetizer/​salad, entrée, and dessert. Any drinks took over 15 minutes to get and the pause between courses was excruciatingly long. Even when items were served, it was still another 5 minute wait for everyone to get their order and several orders were missed. Only over an hour later did they inform us our wine choice was not available.
— Ambivalent attitude: whenever we complained, any staff we spoke with completely brushed it off and had seemingly no interest in our customer satisfaction. The overall service was lacking in energy like they just were going through the motions to get through the night so they could go home.
— Cake cutting fee: $ 6/​person which is unnecessarily high especially given that restaurant desserts were ordered in addition, but they had to announce this in front of the entire table (birthday boy included) which lacked a bit of tact. In addition, since the service was lacking, they should have made an attempt to rectify things by waiving this fee.
— Fried oysters: not fresh and tastes retried
I don’t believe any of this group comprised of several foodies and Unilocalers will be returning. Very disappointing, as it was a celebratory meal and we had heard great things about the chef.

When I first heard we were going to a place called Tracht’s, my brain spelled it Tracks or Trax and I immediately let my Judge-​o-​meter kick into high gear and prepared for something lame and cheesy. But upon my arrival I was informed that Tracht’s is actually Tracht’s of Jar chef and owner Suzanne Tracht and my tune quickly changed from a terrible pop song to an upbeat ditty.
I love her work and have always been a fan. For years, Jar was the only place I would go to nosh on steak, but to find out that she has spread her wings and set up shop in the LBC, well, Long Beach is a lucky city.
During my visit here, I had a few glasses (translation: a lot of glasses) of wine and tried the deviled crab eggs and honestly when you put crabs in, on or near anything I am putting in my mouth, then i am a happy girl.
… Wow, that came out really wrong,
Moving on. I also tried the hot wings and I will say, this level of HOT redefines the word HOT. I was practically gulping my wine to put out the spicy mouth flames. In fact, it was so spicy that my lips were burning for a good hour after I ate one. Yikers. But if you like that kind of heat, then go for it. The pot roast sliders are also choice. But then again, Suzanne is a master at meat, so why does this surprise me.
It’s definitely a neat little place to check out if you are in the area or staying at this hotel and their SIP happy hour is a definite deal to be devoured.

I got drunk.
Serving staff AWESOME.
Met William S. (AWESOME)
Ate pot roast sliders.
Drank Shiraz.
Great new SIP Happy Hour.
You should try it.
Great fire pit and great Hotel and great parking.
Fun times due to Community Unilocal Managers.

I showed up early for the UYE and the waitress/​hostess was so sweet she walked me to where I needed to be. Then I went to the bar order a killer long island ice tea to come my anxiety of meeting people. (Liquid Courage) Let me just say this everyone who works at this place had the most wonderful customer service skills.
While on the patio Tracht’s chef walking around introducing himself, and welcoming guests and making sure everyone was comfortable and fed. I thought that was so cool.
I will for sure come back.
And they validate hotel parking to :)

Okay one fair warning: There is a Happy Hour menu. It is awesome. However it features both chicken wings and fried oysters. Should the ginormous fried strips with a side of red sauce come out first — NO, those are not the chicken wings. Yes, they might look like your standard restaurant chicken strip thingamagigs but if you bite into them, guaranteed you’ll get a nice seafood surprise. Just sayin’.
On that note, two big thumbs up for Tracht’s. A group of Unilocalers touched down here Wednesday night to test this place out. We were graciously served some delish white and red wines while sampling pot roast sliders and the rest of the goods they have to offer.
The menu runs until 10pm and is one of those «so cheap and so good how can I pass it up?» type of deals. Plus, all the while you can nosh and sip while toasting your buns around a gorgeous fire pit. The service was also excellent! The servers never even flinched while getting bombarded with requests for more wine, more food, more everything. In fact, they usually caught us first. That’s just the way I like it: wine me and dine me and keep it coming quickly!
The best part is that it’s in the Renaissance Hotel, so say I wine and dine a little too much — well then you can just throw me in a room and call it a night. Anywhoo, mission accomplished, Tracht’s. We all left Happy Hour extremely happy.

When I was in my late teens I used to frequent a dance club in DC (Washington, sir) affectionately named ‘Tracks’ for the Wrong Side Of it was located near. Oh yes, holla! Southeast DC was the epitome of ghetto fabulous. (or just ghetto.) I loved it so. It’s home, son.
Tracht’s of Long Beach is not to be confused with Tracks of DC. For one, it is located on Ocean Ave. which is lined with fourplex abodes, high rise condos, and gorgeous homes that are reminiscent of ‘after shots’ on shows like Flip This (fabulously expensive) House. I love Long Beach. It frikkin OWNS (my soul). For two — it is inside the Renaissance Hotel and there was not a disco ball in sight.
I arrived shortly after 6:30pm for the CMYE hosted by our lovely Westside (repar’zent) CM Veronica R. and OC CM Hazel Q. After a quick circle around the block to figure out the way into the parking garage, I was able to find parking easily on the 5^th floor and as I parked noticed that fellow Unilocaler William S. (and my ybff) had just rolled up and parked on the same level so we said our HIs and began the descent via elevator to the restaurant.
We were greeted very warmly by the host for the restaurant who showed us to the outside patio where the CMYE was takin’ ova. As common at any YE, official or not, the first thing to happen is the making of rounds to meet and greet friends old and new, while making mental notes for future review. (Have I mentioned lately how much the Unilocal Community rocks?)
The outside patio is large and kept warm but a number of heat lamps, some of which were just a little too warm, so I quickly made my way towards the back of the patio. There is plenty of seating… standard table and chair restaurant seating as well as a circular fire pit with comfy lounge seating.
Our particular YE evening consisted of free wine tasting and appetizer sampling. Since it was a chilly evening I decided to go with the Shiraz (syrah). It was niiiiice. I believe it was the Jacob’s Creek, ‘Reserve’ Shiraz from the McClaren Vale wine region of Australia as that was the only shiraz on the menu, but I could be completely wrong.
I didn’t see many appetizers going around… I tried a pot roast slider (?)…twice. From what I understand pot roast is what Tracht’s is kinda known for as far as edible fare is concerned. The «slider» was not what one thinks of when one thinks «slider»… it was basically pot roast on a toast point with caramelized onions and creamed horseradish. The taste was nice but it was definitely messy and a little difficult to eat. I ixnay’ed the onions altogether. Too messy and I’m mingling, mang. I don’t wanna breathe dragon breath hellos on anyone. O_​o
The event, in two words, was Sham WOW. (Ahem, if you were there, then you get it)… I always have an awesome time and Tracht’s was certainly a fantastic location for a Unilocal event. The patio is large, accommodating and inviting and the staff very friendly even as we drank… and drank… and drank… 12 cases of wine.
Good times!

We decided to have a nice romantic dinner last night @ Trachts.
My boyfriend read up on the restaurant in a local magazine and was itching to try it out.
He was also eager to experience Maynard Keenan’s (from Tool) new wine, Chupacabra.
The restaurant itself is located inside the Renaissance Hotel, so you must park inside the hotel and go through the lobby area to reach it.
Upon arrival, I was elated to see a HUGE bar beautifully decorated with every hard liquor known to man.
The backdrop was a free-​standing waterfall that neatly cascaded water behind the bar area. I am sure it wasn’t free-standing…but it appeared to be.
I could envision my bedroom with one of those… maybe throw in a couple fish to swim against the current.
We were seated and presented the wine list.
We decided to start off with a glass of Pinot Noir and ordered the restaurant’s anniversary special.
For $ 30, you received a 3-​course dinner with a variety of appetizers and entrees to choose from.
I opted for the pork belly as a starter and the revered Pot Roast with a side of mashed potatoes as an entrée.
The pork belly was a complete let down. Blubbery, bland and floating in broth with semi raw vegetables.
This was one of those times when I really wished a salt and pepper shaker were within reach. I know it’s a slap in the face to enhance a chef’s dish, but I think our server’s sweaty face had more flavor than this!
Can ya come sweat in my pork belly?!
The Pot Roast was fine… the sauce was hearty and delicious. The pot roast itself was tender and fell apart easily at the touch of my fork.
The mashed potatoes were nice and smooth with a slight hint of garlic and butter.
For dessert, I had the pecan pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. That was a sure hit with my mouth!
After dinner, we opened up the Chupacabra bottle and drank it outside by the fire pit. The wine was exceptional. A sweet, smooth beginning with a subtle peppery finish. I absolutely loved this wine and for the price and a 25 percent discount (Sunday’s only), the bottle was certainly well worth it.
Overall, I don’t think this restaurant showcased a solid anniversary dinner special. I think they should hack the pork belly and introduce something with more texture and flavor. I don’t know anyone who likes to chew on blubber.
Would I return? Perhaps for a bottle of wine… and maybe dessert. I wouldn’t be quick to choose this place for another hot date, that’s for sure.

Was at here to help out HR with the job fair and they gave us $ 30 voucher tickets for lunch… and this is the restaurant on the 1^st floor of the Renaissance Hotel. We only had 3 choices to choose from each: Appetizer, Entrée and Drink… so I got the lettuce wedge with blue cheese… seriously, just a head of lettuce doused with blue cheese dressing and bacon crumbles all over it. Looked complicated since I had to cut it myself (I’m lazy like that), but it was quite delicious and couldn’t put my fork down! Next up was the burger with watercress and garlic aoli — I had it cooked medium well (hey! It’s ground beef, yo!), and it was seriously one of the best burgers I’ve ever had — juicy and full of flavor! The shoe string fries were also one of the best I’ve had too… browned to a crisp sprinkled with parsley and seasonings. I tried the Deviled Eggs and they were perfect!
The service was excellent and super attentive… Everything was great… but the server accidentally brought us the bill instead of just taking the vouchers and I’m just glad this meal was free cuz hot damn… it was expensive!