![]() The wine never arrived had to prompt the server when he brought my meal to the table to fetch my wine. I chose their featured wine (a blend from Colorado) to accompany my meal. ![]() I posed two possibilities and she offered her recommendation of the two: iced tea-cured pork loin with creamed corn and a garnish. My waitress appeared very shortly thereafter and asked if I was ready to order. Very helpful and accommodating, I thought.) The patio presented another very nice dining area: comfortable, casual seating well spaced and enclosed. (The greeter said there was no problem adding the beer tab to my restaurant check and he would inform my waitress according. When I was directed to head back to the restaurant, my beer and I were escorted to the outdoor patio. In addition to seating at the bar, the Annex also has lounge sofa and chair seating and boasts a number of cocktail specialties and food selections. If I have to wait a while to be seated, though, the Annex is a nice space to while away the time. The estimate of a 10-minute wait was ambitious about 20 minutes later I was informed that my table was ready. Be that as it may, I wandered over around 6:30 on a Monday evening and was shunted to the Annex to wait for a table to clear. In hindsight, that sends a message about who matters to this establishment. But then the Tinderbox website does describe their "crew" as "unpredictable." Tinderbox does not take reservations for dining groups smaller than five. While I was very pleased with my meal, I must note my displeasure with the lack of effort and attentiveness of my waitress. Very near the top of the list, unfortunately, now sits Tinderbox Kitchen. Chef Mike Schmitz and his team have crafted a menu that honors the traditions of the Basque through ingredients, spices, flavors, and even presentation.I have raised this issue in other reviews: the shoddy treatment of the solo diner. Here at the Annex, we are interested in telling the story of these unique people who shaped the landscape around us in Flagstaff, Arizona. They brought with them rich pastoral traditions that heavily influenced their culinary trends. ![]() The Basque people of Spain emigrated to the Southwestern United States at the end of the 19th century in search of opportunity and gold. In honor of the upcoming Centennial Anniversary of the construction of the Basque Handball court built by Jesus Garcia and his family of sheep herders, the Annex Cocktail Lounge is doubling down on the history of our magnificent outdoor patio. To say the least, the cocktails have never been better! Today, Nick is one of the owners of THAT Place Projects Hospitality group, (an acronym for Tourist Home, Annex, & Tinderbox, our three current concepts), and he has passed the drink creation onto his incredible team. In 2018, he won "Cocktail of the Year" from Restaurant Hospitality magazine, and the Annex has never looked back. Well, as things tend to do, the Annex began to take on its own identity, and when a young aspiring restauranteur named Nick Williams joined the team in 2013, he set out to turn the Annex into the best Cocktail Lounge in the state. He "Annexed" the abandoned property immediately to the south of the Tinderbox Kitchen, and set out to build a Cocktail Lounge where "he and his father would be comfortable to sit and enjoy a scotch while waiting for their table at the Tinderbox". As usual, Kevin saw this challenge as an opportunity. His restaurant began to thrive almost immediately, to the point that we were turning people away on random Tuesday nights. What can we say though, Kevin is nothing if not tenacious. The neighborhood had been known historically for its brothels, and more recently for its ever-present homeless population. In 2009, Founder Kevin Heinonen opened the Tinderbox Kitchen, a fine dining establishment in the Southside neighborhood of Downtown Flagstaff, and people told him he was crazy. The story of the Annex Cocktail Lounge is one of growth and adaptation. Hero gallery paused, press to play images slides Playing hero gallery, press to pause images slides Every Cocktail is a Story
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