We did a private party in the Oak Room in August. The food was good, but the service was definitely not on par with a high end steakhouse. We had two servers, who were clearly covering other tables while they handled our party, the two were not communicating with one another, the lead server was rough (she could have been working in a diner with that manner) and the 2nd server was clearly inexperienced.
I liked it better when it was a parking lotThe Capital Grille at South Coast Plaza has a huge portrait of Walt Disney in the back dining room, on the east facing wall.
However, the hostess at that Capital Grille always knows to seat me in the corner next to the portrait of John Wayne. I've had many happy meals and cocktails there in that corner with the Duke. And unlike the spineless dweebs in TDA, the Capital Grille had the cojones to leave the filter tip Winston in John Wayne's hand in that portrait.
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But the real story here is the concept that The Capital Grille could take over ESPNZone. This tells me TDA is finally giving up on their Steakhouse 55 concept; a restaurant that did a good job with their interior design and well designed menu, but then let it all fall apart with their poor training of dining room staff, sloppy overall presentation, with a shockingly amateur cocktail bar out front, and a first-impressions hostess corps that has all the charm and beauty of a swap meet parking lot staff. For years Steakhouse 55 has been a lackluster dining experience that is great for the first two minutes as you look at all the swanky-retro pictures on the wall, then it slides down into Stewart Anderson's territory once you realize how badly trained and managed the CM staff is.
There is no way in heck TDA is going to keep Steakhouse 55 in business if there's a real steakhouse like Capital Grille with top notch service standards and sparkling polish and swanky panache' in business 100 yards away. Turn Steakhouse 55 into an extension of Goofy's Kitchen and give the kids more room to do the Macarena as they fight over the trough of Marshmallow Mac N' Cheese.
In short, apparently TDA is willing to admit they can’t cut it at the aging DLH and they’ll turn the Resort’s steakhouse business over to a company who can.
This morning I was talking to two friends who are very well-connected in OC's business/commercial real estate market. They had no specific information about The Capital Grille going in to the ESPNZone building, but the word is out amongst that community that TDA's property management team is actively trying to refill all of the square footage on that end of Downtown Disney with multi-year leases.
TDA is going the big corporate route right now; Darden, Landry's, etc. to try and get this space filled quickly, with at least some of it coming back online by next summer for Star Wars, but the full re-build of that area not complete until late 2019. But the spaces are being offered to deep pocket corporate interests who can put established brands in there as fast as possible. It would take longer and be more piecemeal if they continued the strategy they've been using on the opposite end of Downtown Disney the last few years, by going after small, regional businesses like Salt&Straw, Ballast Point, etc.
Also, there's an angle here that involves GardenWalk, but I'm just going to leave it at that as it's very sensitive to all involved.
Again, while these knowledgeable men had no specific information about The Capital Grille or any other brands going into adjacent buildings, the word is out in the real estate world that TDA is refilling that property with multi-year leases from big corporate interests. The 4th Hotel on or around Downtown Disney is deader than the PeopleMover at this point.
Yes - but not high end steak houses steps from each other.
