Let me preface this review with a little back story. I used to work for Fitz's back in 2000 before i attended Mizzou. I loved the food and the root beer. I also loved the atmosphere of the Fitz's in the U-City Loop (i worked at the one that was closed down in Chesterfield... oh and U-City is in Saint Louis, MO for those of you that don't know.). So with that being said i decided Fitz's would be a nice place to go for dinner on Friday with my friends Chris and Sara, my parents, and my boyfriend Nick.
We wound up with a pretty nice little table on the patio. The soft strums of an acoustic guitar flowed through the air. The atmosphere was excellent, with the exception of the loud obnoxious guy who was talking about his political views (not really Fitz's fault). The wait service was very slow maybe due to the full house... but if they had better hostesses then maybe that would resolve the issue. (coming from a retired server i realize that its the hostesses duty to seat the table in a manner that is good both for the server and the customer.. meaning that the customer will be well taken care of and that the server isn't too stressed)
Nick, my parents, and i ordered some of their home made sodas. Nick's first mug of root beer was half empty... or half full depending on how you like to think about things.. needless to say it was gone in maybe two gulps. Our server just couldn't keep up with the massive amounts of beverages we were consuming... oh wait.. we only had maybe 2 refills.
The food... pretty much everyone had the same opinion. It was bland and not that great. Chris ordered some veggie pasta thing... i could smell it across the table from him and this was not in a good way.
Another thing, we didn't get silverware until after our food had been delivered. Complete rookie mistake and not acceptable. My dad had the gumbo which, looked ok to me. He said, "this gumbo is more like a soup". According to wikipedia "The dish named gumbo usually consists of two components, rice and broth, and is usually made in large batches." I know his wasn't served with rice but i suppose that doesn't really matter because some types aren't served with rice.
In the end it seems like Fitz's has lost of charm. I used to love the place and now i find that is just isn't what it used to be.