Saint Ann Restaurant & Bar

Last Thursday after work, I headed over to Saint Ann Restaurant and Bar (http://www.saintanndallas.com/) to meet a couple of my girlfriends for wine and a much needed catch up session. Somehow, it had been 5 months since we last got together! Crazy how time flies! Anyway, it was a gorgeous, sunny, warm Dallas day, and we chose Saint Ann for their terrific patio. As I turned onto Harwood and saw the cars lined up for the complimentary valet, I knew that everyone else in Dallas had the same idea as us. It was packed! Luckily, though, only 1 rude lady cut me off in the valet line, and the valet group had a great system going so it wasn't long before I was out of my car and at the bar. At the bar, they had a pretty good, reasonably priced wine selection. However, I'm not too picky as long as it's red. :) We probably had to wait a good 30-45 minutes before we were seated because we requested to sit out on the patio (just like everyone else). If we had wanted to sit inside, we could have been sat immediately, and the inside was actually very nice too with lots of open windows. But we came for the patio, and by golly, we were gonna get the patio. :) Once we were seated, we started with the hummus which was pretty tasty. It doesn't stick out in my mind as one of the best hummus's I've had, but we ate it up just the same. For dinner, we split a Neopolitan style pizza with grilled chicken and mushrooms. It was tasty and plenty big for the 3 of us to split, especially since we started with the hummus. I don't really have much to say about the food because it doesn't stick out in my mind as much as the atmosphere does. In fact, I could probably say that about most places that I go. Luke and I were talking about this just the other day. When I go out to dinner, it's usually more about the atmosphere, the people and the drinks (no, I'm not a complete wino!) so as long as something isn't nasty or the service isn't just scream in your face terrible, I'm probably going to like it. Anyway, the layout, the decor and the PATIO at Saint Ann's were fantastic, and it was a great place to catch up with friends. As the night progressed, it turned more into a bar like atmosphere, and I probably wouldn't go back for dinner/late night drinks. It was the typical uptown Dallas scene, which isn't always my cup of tea. To put it more specifically, one of my friends commented how her boyfriend would have hated it because of all the dbags (am I allowed to say that?) running around or something along those lines. We also met a few questionable characters. I won't elaborate too much, but if I were you, I wouldn't vote for http://judgecarloscortez.com/. When he and a group of his friends/co-workers first approached our table, he started off with a completely inappropriate joke to tell a table of strange girls, and it got worse from there. Oh yeah. They also had a bathroom attendant, which is just awkward for everyone involved. I can pump my own soap, grab my own paper towl and I'm not going to give you a dollar to do it for me. Unnecessary. I would definitely go back to Saint Ann's on a sunny afternoon to take advantage of the awesome patio if someone invited me, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice. And that's the truth.