Alberta Abbey — Attraction in Portland

Please take all of this as constructive criticism as that's what I intend. I know it sucks to get a less than perfect review and I'm willing to change it if things improve.

The venue was running behind schedule and left us standing in the rain 30 minutes past door opening time. Maybe this wasn't their fault. Someone handed out free drink tickets, which was appreciated.

Doors open and it takes about 20 minutes for them to let us in from our spot in line which was about halfway back. The reason it took that long is they have their volunteers give a short speech to every group that comes in, one by one, instead of having one person tell everyone in line before doors open.

Seating could have been better as well. They had ushers for unassigned seating, which is a combo I have never encountered until that night. It resulted in slowing things down even more. Maybe there is an advantage to it, but it wasn't obvious and you'd think multi-million dollar venues would have already adopted this method if it did work, but they haven't, so I'm less sure it's worth it.

During intermission we wanted to use our drink ticket and found out it's only good for a specific unappealing cocktail that is normally $14. It was served in an 8 ounce plastic cup with ice but only filled about halfway up. We combined the drinks and even with the ice it managed to barely fill just one cup. Neither of us could attend the taste so we gave our drink(s) away to a friend.

I didn't use the bathrooms, but I heard from my date the downstairs one was too disgusting to use, so she waited until after the show to use the upstairs one.

During the show, to let you know you should cheer, they blast you with bright overhead lights which I saw multiple people around me wincing from almost everytime. This wouldnt be a problem is the light we're mounted higher up or in a overhead position.

The stage is too low for our performance, which isn't really their fault but it made it impossible to see the dancers at times when they were near the front of the stage and sitting or crouched. If the performers knew this, they might be able to adjust before show time.

I'm confident none of this was intentional and could be easily remedied. Asking for feedback via exit surveys and having an outside consultant review their processes would help prevent reviews like this one. There are plenty of professionals in Portland that I'm sure would be happy to do this for free. Mercy Corps might be able to find someone for them.

I look forward to trying again, but will probably avoid the venue if I have a...

UPDATE: I have revised my rating given the response of the venue clarifying it was the event, not the venue, that was the source of the policy behind my primary complaint. Had the event policies not been imposed I'm sure my experience at this venue would have been better.

I had the worst experience here, and the staff gave me conflicting information about whether it was the venue or the event responsible for the conditions. The chairs are uncomfortable (fine), but the temperature was turned up so high that people were crowding around the front entrance just to get some cool air. The barrier on the balcony made it hard to see the show, etc. That's what it is; it's an old building and wouldn't be so bad, except the staff wouldn't let anyone go outside during the 15-minute intermission. I can understand this restriction if the show didn't have an intermission, or if they were hosting an especially rowdy event. But the crowd was as tame and benign as you can imagine. Outside, there were many people queuing up for the next show. It's common in almost every venue, even in old buildings like this, even when alcohol is served, to let people go outside during an intermission to get out of the heat, get fresh air, smoke, vape, whatever. Especially when they're charging $70-120 per seat for a 3-hour show. Your customers are adults, not teenagers at an unsanctioned rave. I suggest not participating in venues that impose unnecessary restrictions like this, so it doesn't...

Great time at The Empire Strips Back burlesque show last night! First time at this venue and it was pretty cool! It's a small little theater which I love bc it feels very community oriented and that's the kind of venue I like to support. The lighting and stage work was great, the sound was slightly rough to start but the engineer figured it out right away so props for that. For this kind of show it was really fun that it was a smaller venue because the crowd was really vibing with each other and with the MC. Everyone working was great and really seemed to be having fun while also doing a great job running things. The bar menu seemed perfect, not too many options but enough variety to please everyone. The menu boards were hand drawn with cocktail specials just for the show and I loved that, it was super cute and just makes you feel like the venue itself was really excited about hosting the show, and that rules. They even have mocktails which I appreciate very much as a non-drinker who still likes fancy drinks. The only critique I would have is there was a little confusion before doors, lots of people trying to queue in a small space. I might change the seating situation bc it definitely did make a difference when you got through the doors as to how good a seat you'd get, so trying to tell people not to queue is simply not going to work. But other than that it was all gravy and I'll definitely be back there for...