I rarely leave negative reviews, especially as someone who understands the restaurant/bar industry…read moreand owns a business myself--but this experience was unacceptable from start to finish.
Our group (10+ people) drove an hour and a half to visit this establishment after dinner, expecting to enjoy drinks and spend time together. We arrived completely sober, in good spirits, and ready to support a new local spot. Unfortunately, the experience quickly went downhill.
From the beginning, service felt disorganized. We weren't given menus and had to ask what was even available. We stayed patient and understanding, assuming it was just a busy night. When we finally placed orders, the majority of our group ordered non-alcoholic beverages, with only a few ordering alcohol, all IDs were checked without issue.
Shortly after, when we went to use the pool tables, we were told someone in our group was "intoxicated and stumbling," which was simply not true. Not only was this confusing, but it was especially concerning that the accusation was directed at the only person of color in our group. That immediately made multiple people uncomfortable enough to leave.
When we brought this to management, the response was dismissive: "I didn't see anything, but I have to back my staff." While I understand supporting employees, there was no effort to investigate, de-escalate, or even hear us out.
From there, things only got worse. We waited over 30 minutes and were eventually brought out random food items (a pretzel and a burger), while none of our drinks, including majority waters and sodas, ever arrived. At that point, half our table had already left due to how uncomfortable the situation had become.
When we questioned the lack of service, we were told they thought we "didn't want anything anymore," which made no sense, if that were the case, why was food still brought out at all? The explanation was inconsistent, and the manager became visibly flustered, eventually raising his voice and getting confrontational.
To make matters worse, staff were visibly standing in the back staring, pointing, and talking about our group, which only added to the discomfort and embarrassment of the situation.
As a business owner, I fully understand that customers are not always right, and I respect that establishments must make judgment calls regarding alcohol service. However, this was not about being "cut off" this was about poor communication, lack of basic service, and unprofessional behavior from both staff and management.
This experience completely ruined what was supposed to be a special night with family and friends. We went out of our way to support this business, and instead left feeling disrespected, confused, and unwelcome.
I hope ownership takes a serious look at how situations like this are handled in the future because this was not just a simple "miscommunication." It was a breakdown in service, accountability, and professionalism in all.
I also want to address the "racism" being thrown about, undoubtedly there is racism of all kinds in the world we live in and for you as an owner to say due to your own race you cannot be racist towards another minority is a flawed and dismissive stance. Anyone, regardless of their own background, is capable of bias, and using that as a defense avoids accountability. It behooves you as a business, owner & management, to listen to customer feedback and do better going forward. We are not the first to report such an unenjoyable experience here and as a new business, especially one where you know how to run a proper business as you have others that have had successes, instead of focusing on chat GPT to respond to these real life situations, focus on better training, better staffing, and honestly look at the world around you and realize there are too many resources for something like this to not get attention. Do better, be better, and quite frankly to anyone looking for a spot to try, the atmosphere was not great, the service was not great, the management is aloof...just go grab a burger quite literally ANYWHERE else.
