Modern Love — Restaurant in Calgary

Unfortunately our experience here was subpar. This was mine and my friends first time here and we came in super excited! From the start, our server was not super friendly, she didn’t introduce herself (we found out later that her name was Kelli) or ask how we were, instead she came up and said “just so you know if you sit up here the food will take longer, but if you want to stay i’ll be back in 5 minutes”. We watched her go around and bring food and drinks to other tables and chat with other customers instead of greeting us. I’ve been in the industry for 9 years so I completely understand being busy, but from the start the service felt very cold and unwelcoming. When she finally did come take our drink orders, I ended up receiving the wrong drink, which wasn’t a big deal because another server resolved it quickly. The next issue was that I ordered cauliflower wings but was brought out regular wings, I don’t eat meat so this was a little unfortunate as all my friends got their food out and I had to wait another 15 minutes or so for mine. The cauliflower wings I ordered had almost no sauce at all, and were terribly oily and salty. They also did not have the corn-cheese sauce or slaw as it described in the menu (photos of what i received vs. what the menu described attached). When I later spoke to a manager about this she informed me that they were out of these ingredients, but this was not communicated from the server at all, otherwise I would’ve ordered something else. My friends enjoyed their food though and the fries were good! Although the server never checked up on us to quality check, bring napkins or cutlery, or anything until they were done eating. The bill the server brought included these wings which a manager (who was quite nice!) ended up comping which I really appreciate! Overall it was a poor experience unfortunately, I as a server, hate to leave bad reviews but I think the server needs to work better on her service and being friendly...

I don’t often leave 1 star reviews but it’s really disappointing to see how this place has changed since taking over management from Broken City. Some notes for management:

why are you serving plastic cups on the patio? Broken city never did this, and it’s just going to go in the garbage after one use. I know you have the capacity to use glassware for dine in upstairs and it’s just lazy to be wasteful like this.

you need to reconnect with the community that once supported and uplifted this place. Hosting trendy “pop nights” will make you money until there’s another hotter place in town. You are disrespecting the scene that built this place from the ground up (including the fine folks at Rockin for Dollars that made this place great!

I went in at 4 pm on a Sunday and tried desperately to order a drink from the downstairs bar and there wasn’t a server or bartender to be seen. I even asked the kitchen and they said the manager had left and never came back. The one server on the patio was working his butt off with zero support.

play better music. This used to be a punk bar and now it feels like a cheap student bar with zero culture. You were promoting a “patio party” but there was no DJ, no specials, and hardly anyone there! Not to mention that our group couldn’t even order any food because the system was apparently down and there was no manager to help.

Really felt like we weren’t welcome despite it being open and the middle of a gorgeous day.

Anyways I wish you all the best but there is clearly no heart in this place anymore. I hope you can turn things around because you have an incredible patio but everything that made Broken City amazing (staff, customers, vibe, music, amazing food for vegans and meat eaters alike, community) are all gone....

The newly renovated space looks fantastic. I do think the new bar is about 10 feet too long, it makes the audience area for the stage QUITE cramped.

The washroom situation is an absolute joke. 6 individual toilets with a sink inside makes for an extra long lineup during live shows. What makes it worse is there is absolutely NO WAY to tell if a bathroom is occupied, other than going up to each individual handle to see if it's locked. Some sort of visual indicator on the exterior of each bathroom is needed.

I have seen 3 shows here since their grand opening earlier this year. And for all 3 shows, not ONCE has there been any sort of light show for the bands. There is all of this brand new fancy lighting systems installed throughout the stage, and yet for every single band for all 3 shows I was at, they all shared the same solid color for the entirety of their set. Please hire a light guy to run this lighting system. The bands are not able to give a proper performance without a good light show.

In addition, they have these large speakers at the front of the stage that take up a TON of room, and because of this the members of the band end up playing behind them, and are not visible in the audience. If they were moved to the other side of the pillars this wouldn't be an issue.

Now I have to give major props to the sound guy. The sound system installed in this place is very kickass and it is well mixed and sounds excellent during live shows. At the show on Sept 29th I noticed he was remotely mixing the soundboard from an iPad at the back of the bar. This is an EXCELLENT system, please don't change a thing.

If these other issues are addressed, this could easily be one of the best venues in Calgary...