1776 Steakhouse
We will say this for 1776 Steakhouse: it is opportunistic about posting website accolades when selecting which customer and outside reviews to publish. But beware what you read and rely upon when making a restaurant selection. For instance, 1776’s posted Zagat (popular in NYC in 1990’s-2010) review cannot be fact-checked because Zagat, acquired by Google in 2011, was then spun-off to JP Morgan Chase, and closed years ago, so the review itself is at best 13 years old, and the 1776 Steakhouse website, replete with typos, links the Zagat review to Chase Bank, a curious choice. The Open Table passage linked by 1776 cannot be fully credited because it was submitted by 1776 and published on Open Table – it is not an independent outside review, though the customer reviews which follow are authentic. And cherry-picked customer posts from Yelp and similar third-party review sites have value only to the extent they are balanced against the negative reviews from posting customers – best to post a link to all public reviews, and let the consumer decide. As for testimonials, well, when you start quoting anonymous customer statements from 2018, undecided diners may conclude that all the testimonials are cherry-picked, with more recent diners not willing to comment in a way worth publishing. Or, perhaps, the owners are too lazy to update the website postings. Good restaurants do not need to engage in this form of ‘pull’ advertising because sophisticated diners willing to spend $50+ per steak are not so easily moved, nor persuaded by website testimonials. They instead revert to independent review sources, such as actual customer comments or The Delmarva Foodie Elitist, which are not influenced by friend-of-the-restaurant or cherry-picked reviews, but instead, are the result of visiting, eating, and commenting, without passion, pride, or prejudice with regard to the restaurant itself, just an honest expression of the experience.
Fortunately for 1776 Steakhouse, we look beyond these amateur postings, not allowing them to color or influence our review, but instead comment on the restaurant and experience itself. Let’s start with its strip mall setting at the Midway Plaza, where you will jockey for parking at the adjacent cineplex and other restaurants and retail stores (hopefully, Oppenheimer or Barbie was not playing around the time of your last reservation). 1776 Steakhouse is old school in approach, blending wine red and white paneled walls with dark carpeting that seems designed in 1776, but with white tablecloth and well-spaced tables. Steaks are usually prepared as ordered and are tasty, as are the sides, but are the steaks USDA prime? One of the operators formerly helmed the Rehoboth Beach Country Club, and the 1776 menu and food seems about RBCC in terms of quality and approach. Indeed, you get the feeling you are at a country club wedding when the food arrives, given its presentation and taste, but, unlike a country club invitation, at 1776 Steakhouse, you get billed at the end of the meal.
Query why an institution like 1776 would continue to broadcast on its website that new owners acquired the restaurant in 2007? Was the prior incarnation so bad that local diners’ lingering memory of distaste requires a 17-year reminder that new proprietors are in town? Shouldn’t the ‘new’ food quality and experience extinguish any negative reaction to the old owners’ helming of 1776 Steakhouse almost two decades ago? Tourists flock to 1776 because it offers a good steak meal with easy mall parking and is predictable, and fairly priced. There are numerous other – and better – steak restaurants in Delmarva from which to choose, but sometimes muscle memory leads you right back to that sweet spot of predictable, but acceptable mediocrity. Alas, 1776 Steakhouse is better than that, and there is a reason it has been in business for so long – the food quality and service are worth the visit if you cannot score a reservation at Rehoboth Beach’s better steak joints. At least you know what you are getting before you grab the 9:00 movie showing next door.
