That’s a bummer @Chowseeker1999. I had actually cancelled my reservation to APL before the disappointed reviews started coming out because, from looking at the menu, there don’t appear to be enough interesting sides to keep those in my group who aren’t solely into dry-aged beef interested. So I switched to Chi Spacca.
Clearly APL has talent, hopefully he is able to right the ship quickly, because first (and second) impressions can be hard to shake.
I make fun of anyone i’m with who gets super excited about duck fat fries… i swear beer belly survived on everyone screaming duck fat fries!! lol… if cooked at the right temp they’re not even supposed to soak up a lot of grease and the fat is only faintly ducky as is… it’s just a waste of good duck fat (i always have a jar i keep from rendering my duck roasts)… much better to roast potatoes or fry eggs in it… also buckwheat crepes
Sorry to hear about your disappointing meals. You are truly doing the Lord’s work for the rest of us.
In regards to the lack of smokiness on the ribs, looking at your pictures, I’m not surprised. Those ribs are missing the dark bark that’s classic of long smoked meats and almost looks like they were roasted in a conventional oven. Really odd considering that’s his signature dish and I’m sure he’s made it thousands of times before.
So did you order the cold sweet onions? Curious if the presentation is the same as @PorkyBelly .
Hi @PorkyBelly,
Thank you for taking one for the team initially and even with cautioned expectations, it was still disappointing.
“Yes,” they are still selling the Onions as an “ode to peter lugers” and I didn’t see any tomatoes on a plate that passed by.
I remember that monster pic you posted way back in the day! 
It made us drive out and try the pop-up! Thank you. 
Hi @CiaoBob,
Thanks. BTW, you just reminded me: How is Arthur J’s? How does it compare to Chi Spacca, CUT, etc.?
Love these reports. Very helpful. That being said, why do we often have separate threads created when there is already a thread on the restaurant? It diminishes the utility of the forum when many of the great restaurants have two very helpful, but separate, threads.
It’s a real bummer how lackluster this place is, given how great his BBQ has been at the pop-ups…
Never been but heard very good things.
Thanks @tailbacku. Nice observations on the color and bark.
No we couldn’t bring ourselves to order the onions, even at the new price.
'Cuz on full restaurant writeups, personal writing styles get cramped when only adding information to pre-existing threads. To start a new thread is like having a blank canvas to work with. I don’t mind the thread redundancy at all.
Esp when the posters tend to do very thorough reviews and have such distinct writing styles.
I like “Pictorial Essays” and “Thoughts and Pics”.
Chowseeker’s reviews pretty much set the bar for me. I get it and retract my gripe!
I do recall reading or seeing something about this restaurant: the chef/owner was dropping f-bombs left and right and this whole felony knife business was the headline.
I definitely understand not wanting your hand-crafted knives to be stolen. I think with the right wording, it would be not-too tacky to say “please don’t steal them,” or even, “we will seek prosecution,” or something along those lines.
But “pricing it” at 950.01 just so it’s grand theft if you take it is beyond tasteless to me. I’m all for “letting the punishment fit the crime,” and even, “do the crime, do the time.” But there are also a lot people facing trumped up criminal charges, trumped up restitution orders, and (as a restaurateur, he should be well aware) trumped up civil claims as well that can carry astronomical price tags. I think this type of gaming is a plague on our legal system, the cause of a lot of suffering, tragedy and undeserved windfalls, and it just comes off as threatening and nasty besides. Especially coming from a chef/owner who sounds like a pretty intense, unfriendly guy.
I should add that unless a knife like that is actually worth around 950, what he’s doing is meaningless. In determining the value of stolen goods,“…the reasonable and fair market value shall be the test… .”
That said, it sounded like he was bringing in a pretty green team and hoping that they will learn the dishes over time and become excellent at them. If that’s true, this would become a moderately interesting restaurant. From those pictures, I don’t see how it lasts long enough. So maybe it doesn’t plan to rest on the owners laurels long-term, but for now, it appears it needs to.
Interesting rant, because I have been thinking about the knives, and feel we’ve been a wee bit unfair.
The man is obviously a dedicated and focused person; witness his barbecue and the time and effort he spent perfecting it.
He then decides to open a steak house, and so learns to make knives, which are apparently quite nice. I’m guessing the $950 on the menu was a bit of a joke that some publicist decided to run with, and made it more serious than it was supposed to be.
How amazing is it that he learned to make knives? That’s like when Nancy Silverton decided to spend years perfecting a pizza dough once she realized she had already mastered bread.
It’s been a rough opening, and maybe the concept was not thought through, but I think if the owner and Chef Lang make some serious decisions regarding FOH and the menu, they could be very successful. Never underestimate obsession.
I’m with @Bookwich. I’m not put off by the knives. I think that’s a rather interesting novelty. But novelties aside, I need a restaurant to put out from the kitchen. Based on the reviews thus far, I’m not sure the kitchen is putting out enough for me to invest some time and effort in going here. I do hope they get it right.
Thanks for the great review and pics (as usual).
What I’m getting from your review, @PorkyBelly and others is they have managed to reinterpret. It just so happens their interpretation is really, really bad.
I’m all for giving a new place a chance to shake out some kinks. But at these high prices and low QPR, there’s absolutely no excuse for the low level of service and food quality. Why is the clientele expected to subsidize months of training until they get it right?
It’s one thing if it’s a mom and pop shop, I’d cut them all kinds of breaks. But this situation is just utterly ridiculous. And if he’s going to be such an cold obsessive person in executing his vision, he has utterly failed.
Contrast that with Majordomo. I received some insider reports pre-opening that he was an absolute tyrant and perfectionist in the kitchen. He drove the cooking staff hard but in the end, the food is great by all accounts right from the beginning. Same with the service, good QPR, etc Excepting the one incident of the meat being cut with the grain 
So yeah, I think it’s a load of horse sh*t that it’s this bad and patrons like @Chowseeker1999 have dropped so much $ on TWO visits for such horrible experiences.
Let’s be real here y’all - the $950 knife is/was free advertising.
FIFY
You are absolutely right, we shouldn’t pay for the training/testing period.
It feels rushed, doesn’t it? I’m guessing it could have been great given enough time, but maybe the investors were pushing for the open? He may have gotten in bed with the wrong people.
I still like the knives though.
I’ve said something similar after a hard night of drinking.