Festooned with butter, sour cream, melted cheddar cheese, green onions, and fake bacon bits, the potato comes with a choice of toppings, including boneless rib, grilled chicken, and chicken tenders. We opted for the grilled chicken, a selection that proved bland. Racks is fashioned out of a space that used to be a Red Robin Restaurant. Plus, the walls hold lots of huge vibrant paintings of flowerpots, kitchen utensils, and suburbanlike still lifes by local artists. Press kit info also makes reference to the aroma of hickory smoke suffusing the restaurant, though we couldn't really smell any smoke until the coleslaw arrived.
Racks does have a few respectable smokeless appetizers though.
The fried cheesy combo, a weird pairing of coated and fried cheddar cheese sticks interspersed with triangles of brie cheese and lettuce leaves around a bowl of ranch dressing, was well-seasoned and tasty. And though it was topped with more ballooning and soggy croutons than melted provolone, the golden onion soup had a broth that was appealingly sweet and rich. The Caesar salad wasn't bad either, with crisp romaine and a healthy dispersal of Parmesan shreds cluttered with a few seasoned croutons all bathed in a modestly pungent dressing. The service was earnest and sincere, but green and clumsy. But wine wouldn't have helped the stuffed mushrooms, an unmitigated appetizer disaster that was almost inedible.