Raven T.
Yelp
Extremely disappointed with the service (or lack thereof) and organization of the restaurant yesterday. Wine.Dine.Repeat hosted our first monthly social hour of the season. We called a few times, a couple weeks in advance to reserve a space for our guests before hearing back from Aubrey. She was pleasant and accommodating. We settled on a space for about 15 with expectation that 1) not every one of our 30 registered guests would actually make it out and 2) we'd have a rotation of guest over the 2 1/2 hour event. She did inform us that there were a few other groups hoping to have happy hour the same night at roughly the same time; one group with the potential for 80 people. She also let us know that if she reached capacity, she'd have to turn people. Totally understandable, fire code is fire code.
I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the start time for our event and was shone to our space. I wasnt informed if i had to order at the bar or if someone would come out to serve me. When my other co-hosts arrived we decided to head to the bar to order before happy hour ended. We ordered (they were out of rosé ) and were asked to come back to bar for our food. After a while one of my co-host went to retrieve our food, ultimately playing server for our section.
By this time it was extremely busy, but we were settled in to enjoy drinks and the view. At some point we needed to feed the meter (found out today they have free valet, would have been nice to know yesterday ). On our way out we noticed a bunch of waiting to come in, which was surprising because the restaurant was mostly empty. We found some of our party (2) waiting and asked the security if they could come in with us. He informed us that Aubrey wasnt allowing anyone else in because there were 50 open tabs (why that mattered is beyond me but id like to reiterate it was NOT a capacity issue). At any rate we asked everyone in our party to close open checks. We closed three in hopes of getting our 2 other guests in to no avail. This time the excuse was that the bar and kitchen were overwhelmed. Mmkay but you (Aubrey) told ME that you had more requests/reservations than usual for this particular night and anticipated it being busy. So you didn't staff appropriately and prepare adequately even with all this knowledge. Sounds like a personal problem and I have no sympathy for it. We gathered our things and prepared to leave just as they allowed the people waiting inside. I dont do well with disorganization. If the open tickets were going to pose and issue, tell everyone upfront they have to close immediately. We're not new to this, we can handle a couple swipes of our cards, other places do it all the time. I only saw two (2) servers the entire time I was there for the whole patio area. Thats unacceptable for the servers AND for the patrons. The poor girl who eventually helped some of our party was slammed but stayed cool and did her best.
Honestly this could have been a 4 star experience. The ambience is great, the food (although small portions, so I recommend happy hour) is good, and the wine (house) is on tap. But service trumps everything, every time. Its what keeps people coming back and for me and others, especially those who had to wait outside like it was a club, were left feeling less than welcome. Not a good first impression.