Boot Barn Hall at Bourbon Brothers — Attraction in Gainesville

This was my second time attending a concert at this venue. I am glad it is here! If I were rating the venue on the entertainment alone, it would receive 5 stars. Both groups I have seen were excellent, and their interaction with the audience unique, and a lot of fun! I do hold tickets to future events. The rating of 4 stars is due to: 1. The need for more servers. Service is very slow. At my first concert, the event was three-quarters of the way through before I received my beverage. The waiter was assigned too many tables. He kept forgetting me, even after I asked about my beverage several times. Plus, there are too many tables too close together! You can't move between them! The menu and food choices . If you want to eat very heavy food, everything based mainly on pork, lots of bar-b-que flavoring and hot spices, then you will be in hog heaven! They do offer chicken and brisket in addition to pork, but these too will be bar-b-qued and spicy hot. If you want to eat light, have a traditional salad with a choice of salad dressings, order finger foods, or non-bar-b-que, hot, and spicy items, you will have, basically, no choices. I don't think of slaw with horseradish added, baked bar-b-qued pork and beans, a cup of macaroni and cheese, or a cup of green peppered chili as light. Even in the deep south, there are people who are allergic to pork and don't like bar-b-que flavored or hotly spiced items. This leaves those with ulcers, Ulcerative Colitis Disease, Crohn's Disease, food allergies to pork, and people who do not like bar-b-que or hot and spicy foods completely out of luck. This is a HUGE disappointment, and one that needs to be addressed quickly, if this venue and its concept is to succeed. The first concert I attended, I planned to eat supper at the venue. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. I saw that the dressing said Southern Homemade but did not know that meant a complete change in the dressing altogether. I was still expecting a Caesar salad. That night, I learned that southern homemade is caesar dressing with bar-b-que flavoring or sauce, and spices added to it. I paid $17 for my food and could not eat it. I have never been to an eatery that did not serve any alternatives to their overall theme. This is a first. Even Mexican and seafood restaurants offer plain, basically prepared American foods. Why can't this one? I understand the theme. I get that the owners are pushing a grilled, bar-b-qued, western, cowboy, smokehouse, country American theme, but this carries the theme Bourbon Brothers is aiming for over the top! It would be great for the concert menu to have lighter food options and finger foods like an ordinary house salad with regular salad dressing choices, a caesar salad with regular Caesar dressing, plain, non-bar-b-qued, lightly salted French fries, traditional nachos without baked beans cabbage, or bar-b-qued meat, regular chicken fingers without bar-b-que flavoring on them, potato skins with bacon as an option, slaw without horseradish, and perhaps even some fresh fruit skewers, cheeses, non-bar-b-que flavored kettle chips with dips on the side. Bourbon Brothers' Boot Barn Hall must rethink their menu if they are to survive. When I attended the second concert, I ordered no food. As for the drinks menu, it is very nice. There is a wide selection from which to choose, and quality brands have been selected. The only change I would make on their drinks menu is a listing of non alcoholic beverages. There are many people in the general public who are in recovery. They need to see that there are non alcoholic alternatives. Addiction can be a fierce mind game. Not seeing alternatives to alcoholic drinks makes the addict's wheels begin to turn. Boot Barn Hall is new. There are going to be kinks that need to be worked out. I plan to continue to patronize this establishment for the entertainment they provide. I hope their menus will be revamped to include a broader spectrum of food selections, and their non alcoholic beverages...

Our experience tonight has completely discounted any return to the Boot Barn and we will certainly tell anyone we know to avoid attending an event there. After spending nearly $1,000 between ticket/food/drinks to attend the Purple Madness show, my husband was enjoying the show in one of the balcony boxes, minding his own business, not causing any disruption to any other patron, was asked to leave because his Hawaiian shirt was unbuttoned too low to the security guard’s liking. Mind you, any woman at the show, including myself, was showing more skin than my husband, but somehow he was a problem. The security guard stayed by our booth, watching us which definitely made us feel like we were targeted. My husband buttoned his shirt up, but the security guard again approached us with disrespect and took it personally and completely blew it out of proportion and had my husband kicked out. The Gainesville City Police Department could not have been more polite, but the security guard at the venue was very clearly on a power trip. The kind police officer encouraged us to speak with the manager, which we did, but she stood behind the security officer and asked us to leave. For someone that was a well behaved patron, enjoying the show, causing no disruption to their neighbors or destruction to the property, this incident seemed blown out of proportion. The other members of our party stayed behind and both booths on either side of ours could not understand why my husband was removed which only goes to prove that we were not causing any disruption. I will be contacting management on Monday to file my grievances. I would warn any potential patron to avoid this venue as the security seems to be on a power trip to remove anyone that shows a challenge to them in any way. Credit is due to the service staff as they were very sweet and accommodating. Our service was quick and the quality of food was good, but we will never attend another event at the Boot Barn and will certainly tell everyone we know to avoid attending any event due to the pompousness of the security staff. Our hats off to the Gainesville City Police department as they seemed to see the absurdity of my husband being asked to leave. The officer was very kind to me in our discussions, but was ultimately bound by the ridiculous demands of the security guard. That gentleman should seriously reconsider his definition of an unruly customer as my husband with his Hawaiian shirt unbuttoned 3 buttons was certainly not a criminal. Shame on him and the management of the Boot Barn. If my husband had been violent or inappropriate in some way, we would at least understand their requests, but this was just absurd. We were having a lovely evening and were even discussing attending the upcoming Pearl Jam cover band and Journey cover band events coming up, but will certainly not attend by any means and will tell everyone we know to avoid attending any further events due to the irrational events of their security staff. Do better Boot Barn. There are offenses that merit removal from the venue, but a man’s Hawaiian shirt unbutton 3 buttons too far for a security guard’s...

We attended a show there with VIP TIX and were treated very poorly by the FOH manager. As I write this I see that there are 27 two star or lower reviews.

I made the mistake of ordering the Grilled chicken salad for $17 bucks. It was the worst salad ever, the letus was soaked in caesar dressing and I only found 5 small, over cooked pieces of chicken the size of small croutons, in fact I thought there was no chicken because the chicken and croutons looked the same, they put maybe 20 croutons on the salad maybe to cover the fact that, for $17 you get no proteins. I have read other reviews that said the service was horrible, that was not our experience the food came quickly, and our sever was very polite.

Then my wife returns from the ladies room where she smelled women smoking meth in a stall.

The front of the house manager was excessively rude and is NOT someone who should manage a music venue IMO. Fans of the band we were seeing were surprisedat how few tickets were sold for very popular band, after how we were treated by management, that makes sense now.

I give the other staff I interacted with kudos, they were polite and provided good service. As a music venue, I would avoid this place at all cost. My advice, if you have tix for a show there, eat before you go.

Note: My wife had the Bbq sliders and said they were fine… for the 3 for $14 they give you.

The venue seemed clean and the restaurant we walked through...