After a couple years of steering clear, my wife and I decided to head back over the 2941 and check out the "new direction." I was optimistic and hopeful especially sine this place is *really* close to our house -- a bonus when one is still hiring babysitters and doesn't want to spend too much time in the getting there and back.
The new decor is an improvement. They took this grand space and made it more inviting - there aren't as many booths (a good thing) and the layout is not quite as broken up as I remember from the past.
I will tell you right off the bat -- the food is still (mostly) good. But our outing was marred by bad service. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw; our server was not good. Maybe this is the new "casual" approach? He immediately dropped off menus, rattled off some specials, and we didn't see him again for quite a while. He never asked if we'd like something from the bar (which we did) and when he finally returned I said so. By then we knew what we wanted eat so we put that order in as well. My mistake? I guess so, since our appetizers arrives 30 seconds after our cocktails. :/
Moving on. My wife had a butternut squash soup - excellent. I tried the cripsy pork belly, also very good. We then split an order of a pasta dish - lobster fettucini. It's well documented in this thread that the move to a broad Mediterranean-esque menu and a decided "pasta station" was quastionable...rightfully so I would say: this dish was awful. Limp, flavorless pasta and a vapid sauce that tasted of saffron but was otherwise underseasoned and underdeveloped.
The entrees were a split. My veal+lobster on a bed of risotto was excellent. Really well-balanced flavors. Cindy's venison loin was a bit salty and a bit dry (even though the meat was cooked rare/mrare. Not enough finesse to it).
I left with mixed feelings. Honestly I don't remember the price point at the "old" 2941 but it was a very expensive meal for what (I feel) we got. I suspect a huge part of that was the bad service. In my book that is really what you're spending the big bucks on. A couple missteps in the food doesn't sour an evening, but bad service does, at least for me. I want to go back and try again - the food was good - but it will be hard to get past that. You can't really mix fine-dining prices with "casual" service.