I was not comfortable as a young woman visiting this bar. I'm sure this sentence gets used a lot in generality, but I have an entire essay on my reasoning for this and I hope it can help in any way. I have to preface, this is my first ever review (and first negative review unfortunately) so I have put a lot of thought and time into writing this. I waited a couple days in order for my emotions to not dictate my writing.
Backstory: Last Tuesday was my first time visiting Backwoods Bar in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. CDA is my hometown so I was with my friends and family. We had brought together a group of my girl friends and their boyfriends/husbands (8 total). My brother in law from out of state was also there after finally getting time off from the army. It was a special occasion.
We were respectful and courteous of our volume since that's how we were raised and knew it was a weekday. However, things turned sour as a man that had been drinking all day arrived. He seemed to have a different idea of how he wanted his night to go and was specifically looking for a fight. To clarify: every situation you will read about below was promptly relayed back to the employees.
1): One of the guys in our group recently had surgery on his arm which was in a heavy-duty sling. The man kept pushing his arm/shoulder (pretending to be playful in a really odd and aggressive way) even after we had explained to him that he was in pain.
2): I then witnessed him taking advantage of my friend's injury by flirting with his girlfriend in front of him in what I assume to be an attempt to rile him up.
3): I try my best in every situation to be polite, but it was growing increasingly uncomfortable to maintain my energy with the amount of jarringly backhanded "compliments" he was throwing at us. It felt as though he was trying to lower our confidence/spirits in a poor attempt for us to "seek his approval".
4): Also him hitting on my twin sister while knowing she was with her husband (he had met my sister's husband just minutes prior) while insulting me was really weird.
5): The man was also following the girls in my group around- even going as far as to linger around the women's restroom when I had tried to excuse myself a second time after being followed around by him. Once I entered the restroom, he began to verbally harass the girls in my group who had seen him follow me. The girls were trying not to be super rude or confrontational, for the fear of things escalating but ultimately they just wanted to let him know that we were being made feel uncomfortable by him.
6): I exited the bathroom; hearing more of my group come over to that location. I heard a lot of the f-slur, and a derogatory term for women's genitalia being yelled- to which he admitted to expelling that type of language when an employee came by.
He was then kicked out for the commotion but came back in multiple times afterward. It looked as though the employees were allowing him back in, in hopes he would act differently but of course that was not the case. I saw the bartender embrace him after he came back in a 3rd time- telling him that he was family to them but that he should calm down a little. It was confusing to see an almost 30 year old man being coddled in such an atmosphere. My group consisted of 21-24 year olds and we were baffled. I understand that he was extremely drunk but we could not imagine acting like how he was to then only be given a slap on the wrist and a pat on the back.
We were told he was a regular at the bar but that did not excuse how his behavior was dealt with. I really wished better for this establishment but they were prioritizing this man over a decently sized group of young adults who had the real possibility of being regulars as well. We were spending a lot of money and tipping well so it felt like a slap in the face. I fully understand that obviously situations like this sometimes happen at bars. Having been a bartender myself, the way this was dealt with was unprofessional. He was over served and not handled.
I hate to leave things on such a negative note because there's potential for this bar to be better. Besides the obvious issues in security/management, I did like that the bar was very nice, clean, and spacious. There were lots of things to do like play pool, corn hole, there's a big open area outside with lots of seating, and tons of card game options. The woman bartender did a great job preparing the drinks. Drinks were tasty & quickly made. I would go back ONLY if I knew changes were genuinely made in terms of security and some sort of accountability:/. I always wish for the best in local businesses so if this kind of instance occurs again, I pray that they are more strict. I wouldn't want any more people to go through this or for them to lose any more business due to something that can so easily be patched. Thank you for reading. read more