Reservations are needed to sit at the bar?!?!?! We attempted to stop in for a drink on the patio on May 29th and were surprised to find people sitting at the tables, but the entire outdoor portion of the bar empty except for a single person. It turns out that the person sitting at the bar was a waitress who informed us as soon as we sat down that we were not allowed to sit there because she was saving the seats for the people "on the list". I inquired as to what list this was and she told me that we would need to get on the waiting list if we didn't have a reservation. At that point, I expected to hear Rod Serling's voice as I thought I had actually entered the Twilight Zone. I mean, seriously, this is by no means a posh or swanky restaurant. It is a casual restaurant that offers happy hour, at which no one in their right mind would think it necessary to wait on a list to sit at the bar. We got up and went and sat at what I could only describe as a counter or ledge on the side of the patio at which we had sat the previous afternoon while we were having a glass of wine. The red-haired manager promptly walked over and told us that we need to register and put our names on the list and could not sit there. I asked what had happened since we didn't need to be on any list the day before, but he offered no explanation and rudely insisted that we register with the hostess. Needless to say, we left and will not return. The only halfway decent aspect of Renegade is their outdoor patio bar and if that is not usable without an undue hassle, there really is no reason to go there. We had previously had dinner there and I honestly think that we could have gone to Denny's and gotten a better meal. We each ordered a salad and the lobster tacos, which our server raved about and highly recommended. The salad was made with iceberg lettuce and some other nondescript items that had seen fresher days, but the truly puzzling element was the red onion vinaigrette dressing which looked and tasted like nothing more than a combination of red food coloring and some sort of a gelatin. As for the tacos, this is certainly not the type of place where one would expect high quality Maine lobster, so I was expecting some sort of mediocre warm water lobster. That would have been a treat compared to the heavily breaded, greasy globs of what had to be cod or some other type of inexpensive whitefish as there was not even a hint of lobster taste present. The tacos themselves were sopping with a smoky flavored chipotle sauce and had a bit of shredded cabbage thrown in as an afterthought. Needless to say, I didn't even finish half of that dish despite being very hungry when we'd arrived. We had written the place off as a potential dinner destination after that horrific meal, but since we live fairly close by, thought we could still stop in for a drink, but clearly we were wrong on that front too. I truly can't see this place making it through the slow summer months if they continue to drive away business with their bizarre policy of making a reservation or registering on a list to sit at the bar. One can only hope that their demise will be quick and a worthwhile restaurant will move in to take their place.
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negative