Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS - Friday March 14, 2008

I really was excited to go to Ground Zero...even though a few locals had said it was pretty "touristy". I had heard that they had great music and very good food. Well, I heard right on one count...

We were very tired and knew it would not be a late night. But, we wanted dinner. We did catch the sound check/warm-up and the first couple of songs while we ate, and the band was great. Someone told me the next day that the backing musicians were students at the Delta Blues Museum, and had just learned to play over the last few years. Yes, they were young, but - not students to my ears.

We sat at the bar, as the tables were all full. The place does look a little like a juke joint, only bigger. The barstools aren't at a good height for eating. And, if you're hoping for "local flavor" in the crowd - you won't get it here. Ground Zero is a tourists' hangout. There were a few local residents, and I'm sure the staff is local, but no flavor.

There were two young ladies working the bar that night, and no name tags. So, I will refer to them as "the blond" and "the brunette". The place was by no means "overflowing" in capacity. Literally - maybe 50 people, and most of the tables either had their food in front of them, or the remains of their dinners. There were at least 3 servers working the floor. I bring this up because I'm having trouble with the lack of service at the bar - with maybe 5 patrons.

We ordered the Fried Catfish Dinners - pretty standard - catfish fillet, fries, slaw, hushpuppies. I will admit - we ordered our drinks, and needed a few minutes to decide. They also needed to make more iced tea - both sweet and unsweetened (in the South????? at 8:00 PM on a Friday?) The blond dropped off my tea - wrong kind, but things happen. She corrected it later. But, we put the menus down within a minute of my man getting his cocktail and no one asked about our orders until after the iced tea was delivered - probably 10 minutes. The brunette jumped at the chance to take care of the 3 guys who walked up to the bar for beers. And then, stood around looking bored. A few minutes after the blond finally took our order, we were approached from behind (the floor) by someone else asking for our orders.

The food arrived rather quickly, brought by a runner. So - the bartenders weren't required to leave the bar to run their food. I also noticed that each bartender ran her own register. OK - each is responsible for her own drawer. I think the part that aggravated me the most was that the brunette was the closest to us. The blond also had the responsibility of tending to the service bar on top of being our "server" - at the opposite end of the bar. There was no teamwork, no sense of helping out the customer while the other bartender was busy. When the brunette wasn't taking care of the guys wanting beer (which wasn't that often - we were only there about an hour), she was leaning against the backbar - looking at her nails, her split ends - anything but "working".

We will return to Clarksdale, but not to Ground Zero. We prefer places with local flavor - Delta Amusement Blues Cafe across the street comes to mind. It may be a dive, and the service so-so, but it's real - and the food was great.

As for the food at Ground Zero - TV dinners came to mind. The catfish was overcooked, the fries were soggy. The coleslaw was decent - not too runny. The highlight was the hushpuppies - a little bit of spice in them.