Ladoga Ridge Winery — Attraction in Smithville

WARNING TO PARTIES OF MORE THAN 10

To the owners of this winery,

I was a part of a bachelorette party this past weekend (July 2020) and we stopped by Ladoga Winery on our tour of wineries in the area to sample and drink. After entering the main room, our group of 11 was immediately stopped by a server/bartender, a tall woman with dark hair and a Chiefs face mask, and shamed for coming in with more than 10 people without calling ahead.

Instead of trying to sort any type of accommodation for us outside (as none of us were from the area and we apologized for not calling) so they could more easily manage their indoor capacity numbers due to COVID restrictions (understandable during these times), she theatrically rolled her eyes, made a scene in front of the other customers in that room, and shamed us for even considering staying on the premises.

We left the main room and went to the less crowded "tasting room" to put in our orders, per her request. We were, once again, met with this same woman bartender in this room who, AGAIN, rolled her eyes to make it apparent that she was angry with us and, AGAIN, shamed us for even considering staying.

With kindness, I spoke with her at the bar and urged her to tell us what we needed to do to make her life easier, as it was apparent that our presence was even irritating to this disgruntled employee. Even though we were about to be PAYING CUSTOMERS, we relayed that we would be just fine with sitting outside, but that her treatment of us was uncalled for.

After asking our bride-to-be if she even had any interest in staying at this winery due to the treatment, this employee finally, begrudgingly, took our orders.

I would kindly like to request that the owners of this establishment reprimand this employee. Sometimes, finite company policies posted on Facebook pages and websites aren't read, particularly in detail, by all of your customers looking to purchase your wine and dine in your space. Instead of using shame as a repercussion for not doing thorough research of your winery's extensive and restrictive policies (using the other low-star reviews as evidence), using empathy and better customer service tactics will most certainly help your business in the future.

Our entire group will be sure that our friends and families know that this is not a group-friendly winery and inform them of the mistreatment and poor customer service.

We wish all of the other normal, kind employees the best. We stayed for about 1.5 hours after we were able to order from another, nicer employee and the winery is most certainly a beautiful place. However, we will not be returning. Cheers!

Response to owner: we did not arrive in a bus. This review is about the mistreatment and unprofessional customer service from one of your employees, NOT your restrictive policy about groups. Thanks...

My husband and I have been coming here often and bringing family and friends. I realize the similar reviews written already but my comments go beyond not allowing children. We showed up on a Sunday Afternoon with a sleeping 5 week old that my husband was baby wearing - no stroller or carseat etc. we were told to leave or have one adult sit in the car with the baby. We were the only customers present. Many of the last times we have come to the winery the staff seems angry and irritated, we have noticed the owner getting more and more negative about customers, complaint about children, rentals and weddings. If you don't like customer service don't open your own business. Bottom line it's not always best to enforce a new rule in place of a customers experience - this could have been handled much better and we would have been happy to not bring the baby again after being informed of the rule change. Now we will just be happy to visit jowler creek and...

!! Please read !! This place was cute and quaint. The wine selection and slushees were amazing. BBQ and charcuterie board were so good. Our group had fun and we supported our local winery, until it was cut short. We had our 4 month old baby with us sitting at the outside table and we didn’t realize that minors were not allowed. Our fault for not noticing the “signs posted everywhere” . I just wish the approach of the male staff who kicked us out was a little bit nicer. All in all it was our fault as guests we did not notice the signs, but the gentleman that kicked us out could have been a bit kinder. Will return (without children). Would give it four stars but can’t bring myself to do so because of the amazing service we received...