I'm a Silverton local, and The Gallon House used to be my favorite bar in town. Seven years later,…read moreit is now the one place I deliberately avoid.
They have an amazing beer selection, a solid menu, and great outdoor seating.
However...
About six months ago, I was there with my daughter for trivia when a server was moving a table or chairs through the aisle. The table struck and caught my chair hard enough that I had to stand up and physically separate my chair from it. The server continued past without acknowledging what happened or apologizing. My daughter immediately asked me if the server disliked me because the interaction seemed so strange.
Later, I asked the server why she had hit my chair and said nothing. She initially denied hitting it, then said she hadn't realized my chair had been caught. At no point did she offer an apology. The interaction felt unnecessarily hostile and uncomfortable, so I asked for my food to go and left.
I contacted the owner afterward. He responded through Facebook, asked what happened, and told me he would look into it and get back to me. He also apologized for the experience. Six months later, despite greeting him around downtown a few times, I have never heard anything further.
I gave the place another chance recently when I stopped in with a friend to order a sandwich to go. The same server from the earlier incident was working behind the bar. We stood there waiting to place an order, but she would not acknowledge us, so we eventually went outside and called in the to-go order by phone instead.
While we were there, a man near the entrance who appeared heavily intoxicated stumbled past us and fell hard enough that police and paramedics eventually responded. We came back in about ten minutes later to pick up the order and left. When we opened the food, the chicken patty was severely overcooked and blackened.
Being a local and downtown regular, I don't enjoy writing a negative review about a locally owned Silverton business, particularly one I once liked. But after six months of waiting for a resolution, multiple poor experiences involving the same employee, and no meaningful follow-up from ownership, I no longer have confidence that customer experience, food quality, or the overall management of the establishment are priorities here.
There are too many other good places in Silverton to spend my money. I won't be returning, and based on my experiences, I can't recommend The Gallon House.
That is genuinely disappointing, because my daughter and I used to really enjoy going there for trivia night.