A fellow Hawthornite wanted to touch base with me this week and discuss neighborhood issues over a burger and beverages somewhere around town. I wanted to try out a place I'd never patronized before, so we settled on Rachel's on 46th and Lyndale. Like Good Sports or Donny Dirk's, Rachel's operated under different names and different ownership and was a problem spot for the neighborhood. In talking to a few patrons, the buzz is that although there are occasional issues that may rise up with any pub, the new owners are doing a pretty good job.
The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the bartender area is HUGE. We're talking Death Star "Look at the size of that thing" big. The bar itself would be rather spacious if the center island were cut in half. Instead, the bar extends almost to the edges of the entire dining area, leaving little room for pool tables and sit-down space. As I was pointing this out to my friend, I looked over at the video games and dart board. "They're too crammed together. Who can play a decent game of darts when anyone at the video games is going to be in their way?" Seconds later, a few diners went over and started playing one of the arcade games, and there was literally no room for darts at that point.
If the bartender center island were cut in half, the place could give the game area a little more room, and maybe even add a pool table. More on the pool table later; my food had arrived...
