I visited a newly opened restaurant the other night. Something I rarely do so soon after the paint has dried. I’ll often wait at least two weeks before trying a new place. in this case, I should have stuck to my habit. now this isn’t a hard and fast rule of mine. Lord knows I have very few hard and fast rules. But the lead time a restaurant needs before I walk through the door is one that is worth sticking to.

Two weeks is usually enough time for most of the embarrassing bugs a new restaurant can have to be worked out of the system. you know its usually things like under trained cooks turning out poorly prepared food or overwhelmed servers forgetting the bare essentials like silverware and napkins. A fortnight is also enough time for managers to stop feeling the need to train by reprimand within earshot of the guests.

But my bad…it seems I should have given Harry’s Food and Cocktails a little more time. Because with the exception of having to experience the horrendous food under trained cooks will force upon a guest, everything else was pretty much on schedule. The moment I walked into Harry’s Food and Cocktails, I felt like I had been there before. it wasn’t exactly the restaurant nightmare every service worker has had at one time or another. But it was pretty close.

Friday night was also the night another Harry was making his seventh and final appearance in a highly awaited book being released at midnight. The kid in me had already made plans to wait by the door for my pre-ordered copy of “The Deathly Hallows” to be delivered by mail the next morning. (Not by owl as it really should be) so I was relaxed and open to let the jaded restaurateur in me become awash in a similar level delicious anxiety while sitting at the bar of Harry’s Food and Cocktails.

You know what it can be like when your seated in a bar or dining room that gives you a certain feeling that you made the right decision. And then when the food and drinks arrive your intuitions are confirmed by a confident friendly staff delivering deliciousness on every plate and in every glass. Well it never fully happened. there were some great things coming out of the kitchen…but it was all upstaged by inept service, too visible, and audible, management and a room that was too simple in design and lacking a level of warmth.

David Shea was hired by owners Dwight Bonewell and Adam Smith to design a room that was to reflect the roots of American dining. in fact, Harry’s is named to honor Bonewell’s late grandfather, Harry Snyder, who was a chef at several legendary St. Paul spots. And with only a little whimsy, a Grain Belt beer bottle chandelier, the room lacks style. Granted it is airier and brighter than the previous occupant Nochee. The fire pit on the patio was replaced by a cozy fireplace in the dining room instead and there were some very nice hanging lamps scattered around. But it very much feels like an unfinished piece of art. I hope more will be added in time to complete the feel of an inviting American restaurant. The David Shea design was all too expected.

The most unsettling aspect of the evening was the disconnect between the menu and the venue. Harry’s was billed in the pre-opening hype as an homage to the American bar and supper club. first of all, when did that style or genre of restaurant leave our planet that it now needs an interpreted homage? And secondly why not just fill the menu with straightforward, well prepared American classics. sure its ok to update a few to modern ingredients and use stylistic modern presentations. After all why hire one of the best cooks in the Twin Cities to command your kitchen and not let him go where his humor leads him. Steven Brown is talented, adventurous and has the right amount of P.T. Barnum in him to mostly pull off what he has printed on the simple Kraft paper menu. But the disconnect comes in the owners/managers ability to train the staff to serve the food with same sense of irreverence it was created. There’s also a problem with how complex some of the dishes feel against such an unfinished decor. The menu has all the right words and names…but not all lived to the promise and few even seemed downright out of place.

French Breakfast Radishes and Sauteed Arugula holding court next to Cole Slaw and Creamed Sweet Corn are just a few examples of that disconnect. The menu has a great selection of burgers served with crunchy ultra thin fries in little fast food style fry bags. Other simple fare like Roast Chicken basted with garlic and herbs and the requisite Fish Fry on Friday night occupy a proper place on the bill. But the Fried Artichokes came too few and swimming in too much “Parmesan Dip” and the House Cured Salmon Salad was bland and seemed better suited to a classier home.

I guess what really got to me was the use of brown Kraft paper for all the menus. it was just too hip. Hipper than a place called Harry’s needs to be.

In his 1954 black comedy, “The Trouble With Harry”, Alfred Hitchcock had a lot of fun trying to keep a dead body buried. it seemed that everyone in that small New England town not only had a reason to kill Harry, but at the same time kept digging him up for a host of hilarious reasons. Harry’s Food and Cocktails won’t be buried anytime soon, I hope. But it still has time to make a few course corrections without having to dig it up first.