City Hotel & Bistro

I have just return from a week in Greenville NC where I set up residency in the City Hotel & Bistro. I had heard mixed reviews and after viewing the website I really didn't know what to expect.

I arrived Monday afternoon to set up the classroom for the next day. The conference room was huge, and filled with black chairs covered in suspicious stains. The service at the front desk was courteous but slow. My room was fine. There were lots of HBO channels.

Then there was the Bistro. Monday night, according to the website, is free pool. Maybe I am just snooty, but in my mind bistros and billiards are two separate things. The bistro at City Hotel and Bistro is not a bistro. It is a dirty, smelly bar with a few old pool tables, crappy service and free karaoke on Wednesday nights. The bar/restaurant (I refused to call it a bistro) doubles as the breakfast room where hotel patrons can consume nasty fake eggs, flaccid bacon, and sometimes, if you're lucky, reheated frozen french toast sticks. (That's it! The french toast sticks must be why they call it a bistro!) The other problem with eating breakfast in the bar is the smell left over from the night before. There is something truly stomach churning about eating breakfast surrounded by the smell of stale cigarettes and warm, day old Bud Light.

I am not sure what Greenville is really like. All I saw was a bunch of pirates (ECU) and a series of chain restaurants. Perhaps I will return there someday to explore more. And, I would stay in the City Hotel and Bistro again. I grew kind of fond of that dirty bar and its inhabitants. (I did spend every night there.) And it was only $64 a night!