Downtown Experiment — Attraction in Riverside

What Prohibition is running is less a restaurant experience and more a bait and switch, dressed up as an event. Leaving this review here as the ownership and management appears to be the same and it’s important for patrons to know exactly where they’re spending their money.

My girlfriend and I attended their themed party two weekends ago — in full costume — because the flyer explicitly promised a “$500 prize” for the best costume. We spent time, money, and effort showing up for what we thought was a well-organized event. Instead, we walked into confusion and misdirection.

No one on staff even seemed to know a contest existed until a server escalated the question to someone named Melissa, who eventually confirmed I’d won. She took my information and promised to follow up the next day about the prize. That was the start of two full weeks of evasive behavior, unanswered messages, changing pickup details, and one absurd excuse after another. Each time I tried to finalize details, I was met with a new story — including one employee saying the contact person “no longer works here.” When I finally called out the inconsistency, Melissa became defensive and unprofessional.

I then reached out to the supposed owner, Danny, expecting a level of accountability. Instead, he distanced himself entirely — claiming he’s not really involved in the operations of the business he publicly lists as his own on LinkedIn, and that he was “traveling abroad” and couldn’t be bothered to deal with the issue. His solution? He directed me back to the very person whose disrespectful behavior had prompted me to reach out in the first place.

Let’s call this what it is: false advertising to get people in the door, followed by an utter lack of accountability when confronted. The “contest” was clearly nothing more than a marketing ploy to lure paying guests with no real intent to deliver on the promise.

Any business that promotes events, collects contact information, and then dodges their own commitments operates in bad faith. And any owner who refuses to take ownership of that behavior shows you exactly what kind of culture he’s running.

In short, if the ownership doesn’t seem to care about their business, why should we?

ETA: (1) Regardless of who runs the local contests, one would think the alleged owner would at least express any semblance of remorse for such a difficult process experience a customer may have had with their business. My review was less that I expected Danny to rectify the issues and moreso that I was disappointed in his attempt to completely separate himself from the experience instead of offer any words of reassurance or assistance. As a business owner and an operations leader, acknowledgement goes a long way (2) Again, at this point, the gift card is a moot point. My review was aimed to highlight the unprofessionalism experience with the staff. Receiving the gift card (nearly two weeks later) does not undo that experience. (3) If you provide a contact email or phone number, I’m happy to reach out to...

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