The Crane Lane Theatre — Restaurant in Cork

An unsafe and unwelcoming environment for people who express themselves freely.

A small group of friends and I arrived to the bar, having been at a different pub beforehand - where I only drank half a pint. As we were enjoying a dance on the dance floor, I was approached very quickly, and then handled quite aggressively, by a bouncer who grabbed my jumper by the shoulder and pulled me through the crowd towards the door.

I had no time to react to what was happening in any way as I was so stunned and shocked. As the bouncer pushed me down the steps and out onto the street through a fire escape, he shouted at me that I’d had too much to drink - even though I had been in the bar roughly 20 minutes, and only had a pint of water - my only drink on the night was the half pint I had beforehand.

I am not sure what this happened, but the only reason I can think of is some sort of profiling because of the way I was dressed. It is so frightening and upsetting that bars in Ireland - a country that is supposedly forward thinking - are treating people who express themselves freely in this way.

If this is the case, it is equally terrifying to think about what else goes on inside this bar if the staff who are hired to keep everyone safe are too busy acting on personal hate and prejudice to stop truly unsafe/dangerous behaviour/individuals.

Such a shame that bars continue to employ hateful and close-minded individuals to positions of power where they can...

I live overseas and hadn’t been to The Crane in about 20 years. Out of nostalgia, I wanted to go back.

We got cocktails upstairs, each with a jaw-dropping price tag of €14! After wiping away my tears and having a lengthy discussion with the bartender about our preferences, we agreed on two drinks. Mine was delicious. My sister’s, however, wasn’t to her liking and didn’t match what she had described to the bartender.

Given the high price, we expected there might be an option to have the drink replaced. Absolutely not—we were told it’s the bar’s policy to never replace a drink. For prices that steep, this policy is ridiculous. If a venue is going to charge premium prices, there should be gold-standard guarantees that the final product aligns with the customer’s expectations. In this case, it didn’t—and unfortunately, the staff couldn’t do anything to help. In fact, I overheard the bartender say that replacing a drink could jeopardize their job, which is really sad.

If you're looking for a cool place to enjoy amazing cocktails, avoid this one. There are far nicer places in Cork that serve better drinks and actually appreciate...

One of our friends, the only black member of our group, wasn't allowed in because she was 'too drunk'. She wasn't.. it was 9pm and we had just come from dinner. When I noticed she wasn't with us, I went to find her (she had been trying to call us but we didn't hear our phones) and she told me the bouncer wouldn't let her in to tell us. She was apparently too drunk to enter the pub but not to isolate from her friends. When I looked over at the bouncer, he had a smirk on his face.. and we knew he would have loved the opportunity to escalate it if we argued. All five of us (women in our 30s and 40s) have worked in pubs over the years and we know this type of dude... The type who enjoys his job because he gets to exercise power and discriminate. I got my friends and we left. I'm from Cork and my friends were visiting with me. I'm so embarrassed they experienced this in my city, and my friend, so used to experiencing racism her whole life, was subjected to it in Cork. I've read the other reviews and this appears to be an issue that no one is addressing at...