Naomi Wood
The Treehouse Bar on Hickory might look like the frat house that you avoided in college, and if the owners intended to give this new joint that beer pong vibe, they succeeded. However, we didn't let the idea dissuade us from going there one dreary Friday night. While bar games and bag tosses didn’t necessarily appeal to our late-twenties crowd, we went ahead and swallowed whatever shame we felt while sitting on the generously-lit porch.
We tried to ignore the over-priced (for Denton) “happy hour” drinks. this particular night featured a Kool Aid-blue long island iced tea. We worked our way down the menu to try and get a feel for the food that this supposed burger-rival had to offer. The burger, itself, was fine. Nothing to write home about, but good enough to satiate your appetite. The jalapeno ketchup, however, was what stood out about the burger. Stood out meaning that it was extremely hot and left our mouths burning for the rest of our meal.
The Cuban sandwich was the highlight of our hodge-podge order, but I wouldn't necessarily go as far as saying it is better than any other Cuban in town. This is one of the few times we’ll tip our hat to The Pourhouse. The rest of the food was affable, if not noteworthy. Bar food on a level lower than others doing similar things in town (Cool Beans is close by). The service was fine. It was mostly provided by the same group of post-teens that probably frequents the place on the weekends.
Having a band promptly slapped around our wrist at 9pm when Pink’s “Only One Last Kiss” began to blare in the background, quickly brought our otherwise-pleasant evening to a screeching halt, as we realized what we had gotten ourselves into.
The slightly silver lining to this seemingly gloomy cloud, is that the Treehouse has a fantastic location, space, and décor. Since they are still in infancy (they’ve been open for a few months at this point), we are hopeful that they don’t fall into the pit of becoming a mediocre bar and are able to find their footing. Donning a more interesting menu and improving the quality of the food (hey, even cheap college kids deserve good grub, right?) are a start. But if they don’t, we wish them plenty of luck on their way down.
The Treehouse Restaurant is located at 1512 W. Hickory Street, Denton Texas.