I loved the open windows at this place. Okay, so I had to shoo a fly away from my potato salad a couple of times, but I love fresh air, and enjoying it inside in the shade was very pleasant. Even though there were ashtrays on the table, I didn't smell any smoke at all. The dining area seemed very clean, but I heard that the men's room wasn't in the state one might have hoped at 11:30am. Service was very friendly and attentive, and my drink was refilled without my having to ask. I was pleased to learn that I could have ordered a cider, since I don't find ciders as often as I like, but since I was returning to work afterward that was unfortunately not an option. Food was served on china with metal flatware in a paper napkin, and drinks came in glass. My sandwich came with three round pickle slices and a serving of potato salad. The potato salad was surprisingly bland: it was like they had created a neutral base potato salad that could have had mustard or sour cream or bacon or anything added to it, and then stopped before flavoring it with anything at all. It didn't taste bad, but I didn't feel the need to finish it.
The sandwich halves were held together with decorative toothpicks. Mine was perfectly toasted, nice and crisp the way I like it, without being so dry as to be abrasive. There were good quantities of beef and kraut, and overall the size of the sandwich was just about perfect: I didn't feel bloated and overfull after finishing it, but I wasn't the slightest bit hungry that afternoon. However, none of the ingredients had a very strong flavor. Okay, so I usually can't taste the cheese anyway, and it's not too strange for the beef and the dressing to be a bit subtle, but the kraut and rye flavors are usually pretty strong. This sandwich had wonderful texture--crisp outside, soft and juicy inside--but flavorwise there just wasn't much there, almost as if it feared to offend. Now that I ponder it, I have to wonder if my nose was stuffed up and I didn't notice, since I didn't seem to smell or taste much in the place at all, but I distinctly remember smelling cut grass on the way back to work so I don't think that's it. So while I did enjoy the sandwich, it fell short of the full Reuben experience, in which all the disparate flavors should blend together to something greater than the sum of its parts.
Overall it was a pleasant, inoffensive experience, and one I'd happily repeat, but next time I'd wait until after work so I could have that cider too. And I'd ask the chef to kick the flavors up a notch or three.