Club Unity — Restaurant in Montreal

I keep seeing management replying to comments so hope they are going to respond to this one. Let me start with the positives so that i can be fair to all parties, the bouncer at the door on the ground floor was very nice and checking ids and doing a quick security check so all good. When you get to the counter for coat check and entry payment there is some crowd management (albeit a bit unorganized, but understandable). Before i address the issue of the “stamp man”, the ambience inside is nice, you have a techno thing going on the first floor and more of a pop commercial on the second floor. Each floor has a bathroom and the bar staff in front of the vip section were really friendly and calm and attentive.

Now, and given the responses management tends to have on here, i will try my best to keep my criticism as professional as possible and hope you can do the same.

The “stamp man” and neighborhood, i understand that you have to deal with drunk and agitated people, but there is a category you have omitted and that is sober people coming in, and the effect of that entry on their spending habits.

I have opted for a suggestions for improvement post and avoid putting your organization in more hot water with one more unprofessional response.

There is on amazon a crowd control kit of 6pcs for 250$, now i know it might be too much of an investment when your place is always packed but it would improve your customer retention rates rather than relying on turn over.

Unofficial polls, and ask your bouncer downstairs he knows the faces of people; he can tell you that you are functioning on an ever changing customer base. While that might not be an issue on first sight, recent service industry research has shown that when adapting to a recurring customer base and building a personal brand and loyalty with your customer base, the amount of money spent has increased on average at 37% by the third visit. Now given that we were a group of 20 people yesterday and spent 40$ per person, by the study findings, on our third we will spend instead of 800$, 1096$ which means an increase of 296$ which should cover the cost of these crowd control cables. Not to mention if your account can claim them as a business expense.

You could place one to split the coat retrieval from the no coat outflow; another one between the latter and the inflow that are either handing in their receipt for a stamp or showing the stamp to come back in.

For that to work you will need to move the “stamp man” a bit to the back in the larger area with a mirror and from there you can place a separation for people coming in and people going out to the 2 out flows (coat, no coat). This should provide you with a better flow control mechanism and streamline your flow by at least 5 seconds per person.

Now that 5 seconds might also seem meaningless but you can use these so that the “stamp man” can ask you (stamp or receipt?) then the client would either point to the stamp or hand over the receipt.

I’m sure there a big lingering “WHY?” In your mind right now and here it comes.

Given: 1- better flow of people 2- personal touch 3- less randomness in the equation 4- more breathing room for the “stamp man” to work

Expected outcome: 1- less pickle jarring people 2- less turn over more customer retention and given the influx of new people hopefully a larger customer base 3- with drunk people, the more control and rigor there is, the less chance things might go wrong 4- maybe he can stop screaming at people with more room to work:)

the bearded man with glasses screaming at people is hurting your company and the manager ( i assume) the one with a tattoo at the bottom of his neck, is addressing the result of the problem and not the root. you might not see it immediately (temporary influx fogging the value) but look at your turnover rate, it says a lot! I hope you tell the staff to fix the root of the problems and not just threaten people as a solution to every...

(Edit added +response to owner at the end)

My recent experience at Unity on Jan 25th honestly left me feeling unsafe and disappointed.

First off, we paid $25 just to get in, which is way more than most clubs in Montreal. Once inside, I saw something really disturbing: a girl who seemed passed out was being dragged into a room by two guys. I intervened and asked the bartenders for help, but it took forever for management to show up. I ended up calling 911 myself because I was worried she might’ve been drugged or overdosing. When the paramedics arrived, they asked for a defibrillator, but your club didn’t have one. How can a place like this not be equipped for emergencies?

Later, when we went for a smoke, we finished our drinks near the coat check to follow the rules about not bringing alcohol outside. Even though we were clearly still inside the club passed security, one of your security guards, Samuel, aggressively grabbed the bottle out of my hand and threw it away. I tried asking him why he did that, but instead of explaining, he told me to speak French. I’m bilingual, so I switched to French, but his attitude was rude, and he just ignored me. I kindly explained that if I was not in an area to finish my drink, he could’ve kindly told me and I would have handed over my drink. As someone who works in clubs themselves, I understand club etiquette and am always happy to apply. My drink was almost full once thrown out.

At the end of the night, we waited for our Uber downstairs because it was freezing outside. Even though our ride was only five minutes away, your staff kicked us out. I asked nicely if we could wait inside since we’d paid $25 to be there, but they didn’t care and made us wait in the cold.

Overall, the staff was rude and unhelpful, and the whole experience was really uncomfortable. Samuel, in particular, made me feel unsafe with how aggressive and dismissive he was. Unity is supposed to be a fun, safe, welcoming place, but that’s not what we experienced at all.

I hope you’ll take this feedback seriously and make some changes—better emergency preparedness, proper training for your staff, and maybe a bit of basic respect for the people who spend their money at your club.

Edit/Response to owner:

Thanks for the response, but I’m disappointed and honestly not surprised. Rather than taking accountability, you’ve downplayed and deflected everything, which seems to be your usual approach based on countless other reviews.

I was the one who called 911 because your staff’s response was delayed and disorganized. Rewriting the situation now as “under control” is dishonest. And yes, the paramedics did ask for a defibrillator, something a club your size should absolutely have on-site, no matter how you try to minimize it.

As for your security, there was no misunderstanding. The guard was aggressive, disrespectful, and dismissive when I calmly asked a question. Saying you “stand by your staff’s professionalism” while this kind of behavior is constantly reported just shows a lack of self-awareness.

And yes, I know about closing rules. But forcing guests out into the cold without even a minute of grace after charging $25 for entry? That’s just poor hospitality.

The fact that an entire Instagram account exists called @boycott_unityclub, and has for years, says everything. You can’t brush off a reputation that bad. You earned it.

You say issues should be taken privately, but public problems deserve public accountability. This isn’t just about me....

My friend and I decided to order a pair of shots from the bar on the first floor, right-hand side of the DJ booth. The bartender, a blonde bloke in his mid/late twenties, poured us our shot and handed us the card machine. Now, my friend had just tipped that bartender a little while back, so decided to press Skip. The bartender saw that, and PHYSICALLY snatched the machine off my friend’s hands, put in an 18% tip for himself, and handed it back to my friend. We were, of course, surprised. When we politely suggested that tips were, after all, not mandatory, the bartender removed the (still full) glasses from the bar and EMPTIED THEM DOWN THE DRAIN IN FRONT OF OUR EYES, before casually shrugging and turning away with a “If you wouldn’t tip me, I wouldn’t serve you.” If that wasn’t shocking enough, when I tried to escalate the issue to the floor manager (or whatever her official title is), this pompous, entitled woman no more than 5’3” rudely shrieks at me, “If you don’t want to tip, go to a club in your country” and walks away. My country? Excuse me? All in all, good club, but it’s got some of the country’s trashiest staff. I was this close 🤏🏻 to calling the cops on both these fools but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. My advice: pre-drink before you go. The lesser you engage with the staff, the more pleasant your night would be. Besides, alcohol-sales is clearly not their concern, so why bother

Update (given the venue’s response to my review): My friend of COURSE you have a ridiculous, distorted version of the story to reply with. Just look at your responses to absolutely anyone who’s left you a bad review. It’s somehow always the customers who’re wrong with you, eh? I highly recommend trying to learn from all of the bad reviews and actually making an attempt to improve, instead of trying to fight everyone who has a complaint. It’s...