Feral Kitchen & Lounge - San Luis Obispo
Joseph Benton Its so much harder to have ATMOSPHERE than food and service. If you invest enough into your food by hiring a great chef and train really great staff then you can have awesome service, but that PLUS atmosphere is a different ballgame.
You wont be surprised when I say that THIS PLACE has atmosphere. It should be listed in the dictionary definition when the describe the meaning of the word.
Dont get me wrong--the service from ALL the staff is great. Every time I have looked toward and interacted with staff, I always get a friendly smile and a welcoming gaze. Thats awesome!
And besides the really amazing mocktails (which are not really that easy to do) and the food we had (we had a couple appetizers as we were short on time), we were really very surprised and blown away. Cats Meow and Figs of Paradise were the alcohol-free drinks we chose and they were both VERY yummy and mine was served in this really cool bamboo-looking ceramic tiki tall glass--neato!! My wife had the Rabbit Food which is this awesome baked carrot dish with spices that make you go mmmmmmm. And I had the Farmers Market Board comprised of several pickled veg surprises and hummus with a few pieces of gf bread. Wonderful!
But the real star of the show is the wonderful decor. The menu boasts a scavenger hunt and encourages you to "stay curious" as you look through every corner and objet dart on walls and above you and beside you. One of my favorite things are the animal portraits and you really have to see them to understand why because they give off this vibe like were in a very interesting Lewis Carroll alternate reality where familiar things are impossibly different and fun!
And on this trip, we sat in the Upstair. Not many places feature such a fun...feature? Anyway, it was a great vantage point to take in all the cool writing on walls, gigantic mirror behind the bar, and so on! I encourage you to give it a shot because its so cozy like the den of your dreams. Love it!

