Hanny's: Super style, so-so service

Hanny's (Credit: Jill Richards/Metromix)

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I have been putting off writing this story.

Have you ever had a really good friend, and they have this annoying thing they do, and everything would be so much better if they just changed a teeny bit, but you hate to say anything?

This is like that.

So, here goes, Hanny's.

People want so bad to love this place. Me, my friends, strangers at the bar—want to love this place. Because we all love its Scottsdale sister restaurant, AZ88. Because we want downtown to have gorgeous, iconic, ambitious restaurants. Because we're so grateful that owner Karl Kopp worked with designer Janis Leonard to create a modern and compelling space from a trashed former retail building. Because if successful, Hanny's could mark a turning point for downtown. Because it has couches shaped like tongues, a vertigo-inducing elevator-shaft art piece, and great DJs.

So I gave it time. Time to train servers, to refine the menu, to nail down the details at the heart of great restaurants.

But the bottom line is that the design and architecture aren't the only elements about this place that are minimal. The menu is almost confrontational in terms of its limited offerings. But OK, fine, plenty of places have idiosyncratic, narrow-but-tasty menus.

The brief list of signature cocktails is near-identical to the one at AZ88, only they're about half the size and half the price. They've got the Moscow Mule, this one's mintier, the Original Pimm's Cup, and the Side Car, this one's served in a sugar-rimmed glass, too.

They're budget-friendly and, depending on who she is, the designated driver could comfortably have one.

Two standouts are the St. Germain and the Appletini. Yes, the Appletini. It's amazing.

But pretty good food and unobjectionable cocktails do not make a destination restaurant.

Especially when the service is as inconsistent as it is at Hanny's. Even though Kopp brought knowledgeable, charming staffers from his other restaurants, AZ88 and Manhattan's Bar 89, he still does not have the level of service one might expect at those two places.

But, other times, servers have been efficient and professional.

Things are improving these days, but here's a brief summary:

Servers can be slow. After asking around, I've heard of people waiting up 25 minutes just to get the first round of drinks brought to the table. When asked, one of my servers said she couldn't bring our drinks out because she couldn't ring them in because the computers were down. We assured her that we wouldn't let her forget to bill us for them.

Servers can be unreliable. I once ordered a salad with only three ingredients. The kitchen was out of the main one—arugula. This was not mentioned until I pointed out that my salad seemed to be made of romaine.

Servers haven't mastered the art of the make-up gesture. No one tells stories of items taken off the bill to makeup for late food, missing ingredients, wrong orders. Once, a server slopped out about half of a friend's martini, something not that hard to do when the drinks are so small. But she didn't offer to replace the drink, knock off a buck or two, or at least tilt the cocktail tray and pour it back into the glass.

If it sounds like I'm being hard on Hanny's, I am. Because it's a place with three years worth of pre-opening buzz. Because it's run by people who know better. Because it's got so much promise. And because, I will be back. Sooner rather than later.