Once we stood in line amongst hundreds of clamoring nerds trying to check into the Westin for HeroesCon Thursday night, we cleaned ourselves up and met with a few of Mr. FvF's co-workers for dinner. Uptown Charlotte must have suffered some brutal financial blows since last year's con, because a lot of the restaurants everyone remembered were gone. Right across the street was a pizza place called Fuel (which I'll get to in another post), and the only other place we could find was called Mason's uptown. Based on their specials board, the prices didn't seem too hateful - and more importantly, they had a bar.

It felt like a good escape from the swampy heat when we walked it, but once we got seated it suddenly got very warm again. I found it pretty strange that the place was damn near empty and immediately wondered if we'd made a huge mistake. Our server, who was sweet - but appeared completely out to lunch, came over to take our drink order, but quickly informed us that there were no drink specials, no meal specials (really? then what's with the board?), and they were out of burgers and ribs. WTF. Not only did burgers make up nearly 1/4 of the menu, but they were the most reasonably priced. There were a lot of wraps, pizza, and other sandwiches, but as usual - not a lot of options for carb haters who don't eat seafood. Two of the fellas ordered fish and chips, another got a Caesar salad (meal sized), and I opted for the Bull Bites, which were billed as "tender tips of fillet seasoned and grilled to a perfect medium." This was on the appetizers menu and didn't mention coming with anything else, so I also ordered a side Caesar salad.

I should also mention that I ordered a Maker's Mark and diet, which they were also out of. I ordered another drink, which the bartender brought over to me and apologized for the shortage. About halfway through our meal, our server brought me a diet Pepsi - the same diet Pepsi that should have been in my Maker's that they were out of. Ugh.

Sometime before I reached retirement age, our food finally arrived, and I was more than a little chaffed to see what I had paid $10 for.
In case you can't tell from the photo, that would be two skewers, no longer than 5" each, with maybe 6 oz of very overcooked steak between the two of them. Oh, and let's not forget the two cold onion rings and Horseradish sauce. A minimal amount of time and effort could have gone into the plating and prep of this to make it less than a total failure, but we quickly learned why their give-a-shitter seemed to be broken.

When the server brought us our outrageous bill, she made mention that this was their last night open, and we were their last customers. While I still assume that the food and service was no better on a night that they weren't closing the doors, I suppose I can't blame them for not really giving a rip.