The Gown & Gavel — Restaurant in Hamilton

Extremely unprofessional experience. My friend and I arrived at 8:30 PM and stood outside in 30-degree heat for nearly two hours. The line was not a line at all—it was a poorly managed clump of people with constant cutting, no direction from staff, and no organization.

While we were waiting, three restaurants down from the venue, on the public sidewalk, a staff member dressed in black and vaping approached us and demanded to take away the plastic bottle of water and celsius energy drink we had just purchased from the mini mart across the street. When I asked this lady why, she said, “Because you’re waiting in line to get in and you could potentially be consuming alcohol.”

I understand when you are entering or before getting a bag check, this makes sense as to not bring outside liquids in. But we were not even close to their security guard yet.

This interaction was deeply disrespectful—and frankly questionable in terms of legality, given that I was drinking water off their property. To have my drink confiscated on a public street, while I was trying to stay hydrated in extreme heat, felt unacceptable.

By 10 PM, after all this waiting, we were told we would not be admitted at all!!!!! Nearly two hours wasted, treated poorly, and left without entry. Or water.

This venue on a Saturday is disorganized, disrespectful, and unprofessional. I will not be returning, and I strongly advise others to reconsider before wasting...

Managers were all extremely rude. The restaurant itself is homophobic, as my gay male friend wearing a tank top was prohibited from entering because they “have a policy that tank tops on males are not allowed for over 10 years”. However, shortly after, they allowed a male in who was wearing a tank top (he was straight-passing). Additionally, I arrived at 7:45pm and was prohibited from entering because they “had a reservation” at the table we saw available. The security was uninformed on the restaurant policies and told us it would be another hour until we could enter (with paying cover), but shortly, another employee came over and said we could enter in the next 10 minutes. Staff were short with us and gave us very dirty looks, which would be more understandable if we were being unpleasant, but we were very kind and courteous. After entering, the table we pointed out earlier was not occupied for the next two hours. The waitress rudely dismissed us and said that the kitchen was closed for the night (it was 8:15) and said that if we wanted to order drinks we would have to go to the bar. Overall, all of the employees were extremely disrespectful and clearly did not care about their clients. Would not recommend unless there is no cover and you are not planning on eating...

I just want to start by saying how extremely rude and unprofessional Joana is as a server, and I have never felt so uncomfortable at a restaurant in my entire life. I work in this industry, I understand that you can become busy, or distracted etc. but she deliberately stopped giving service to our table, and when we went out of your way to go inside to ask for our bill, she later followed and made a comment to another table that we were “disgruntled” guests and that she had to come to us first. She made this loud and clear for everyone else to hear, in a sarcastic way, that we were such an inconvenience asking for our bill because we didn’t want to wait another 30 minutes for a drink. I live close by, and we love coming to Hess and enjoying your patio, but each time I have been here, we have been served by her, and it has been an issue every single time. I can’t even explain how I feel in this review, she is embarrassing and condescending and I will never come here again because of her. Please save your business and get rid of her. I’m so glad we are able to re-open our patios, so cheers to the business, but she’s gottaaaa gooooooo! The worst service, the worst attitude, someone like that should NOT be working...