Del Ray Pop Up Bar — Restaurant in Alexandria

This review is for the Swiftie pop up bar event. Nicely decorated. Seemed like a good vibe upon entry. We waited for a first come, first served table. When we finally got one, we waited at least 30 mins for them to clear the dirty dishes from the table, which they never wiped down. After waiting another 20 mins, we were told to order at the bar, they told us a server would come, took about 10 more mins for the server to come. so, over an hour just to order. Average pub food, buy our server was on top of things. Once we started to receive service, he was very fast and efficient, making sure we had everything we needed. We didn't have to wait around if we needed anything. Note, the themed drinks are overpriced $16+, so you will definitely spend more than $20 to $20, unless you order a soda and an appetizer or a single drink. It's easy to spend $30 to $50 or more prr person if you have one or two drinks and an appetizer or two. Taylor music disappeared entirely for over 30 mins. When we asked why, we were told it's because he doesn't buy Spotify Premium. Talk about killing the vibe. There are ways for businesses to use a dedicated Spotify playlist through platforms like Soundtrack or Sound Machine and others that cost less than $40 per month for a premium business account, rather than using a free Spotify playlist that requires other artists to be played. They should look into this. Having an entirely Taylor playlist is key to a Taylor event. It's what people expect. I felt particularly bad for families who waited in the extremely long line outside with their children for them to get inside with nowhere to sit and nothing for them except for expensive cocktails and decor, especially when they arrived while other artist's music were dominating. Maybe Sunday's will be better for kids. The ads we saw said friendship bracelet workshop, but apparently that's only on Sundays. I hope they can improve the experience going forward because decorations and expensive cocktails really isnt much of a Taylor experience, it's really just a bar with expensive drinks named after the Eras with party decorations. The music issue is a huge problem that definitely should be fixed. If you choose to go, you should opt for getting in line before they open if you don't want to wait in an extremely long line. We arrived at 3 and waited an hour just to get inside. Then another hour between waiting to snag a table and ordering our food. The wait is to be expected for such a small bar, but best to be prepared, especially if you are bringing children. If you need a table, be sure to make friends with people who already have one, and maybe they'll give you their table as they leave. It's also important to note that there is a 2 hour limit for sitting at the tables. This experience might be someone else's cup of tea, but I do not...

The decorations were great. Walked in with very high hopes. We came on Halloween night, so I fully expected it to be busy. But the level of efficiency with service was not there for the number of customers they had packing the place.

Three bartenders were caring for the main length of the bar. One bartender was not taking orders or running drinks or anything and was just making drinks for the people at tables and ordering the other bartenders to run them. The fifth bartender was running around everywhere working quite hard helping take orders throughout the entire bar, running drinks to the tables, and doing the dishes. He was the only person anyone could get the attention of, so people were stopping him constantly.

I sat in a chair at the bar on the far side the entire hour and a half I was there and was served one drink. No bartenders were tending this area except for the one who was running around doing a little bit of everything. We could not get the attention of anyone. It took us 30 minutes to finally order the first drink, and we finished that pretty quickly. The one drink we had was good but a bit small. Then we sat with empty cups for 45 minutes trying to make eye contact with or get the attention of any bartender and failed to get help to even pay our check until we went to just get up and leave. It was quite literally easier to get a drink at a packed undergrad bar during the first week of classes. Probably the worst bar service I’ve ever experienced, especially considering we were sitting at the bar and still couldn’t manage to get served.

The bar was really busy to the point that they put a sign outside saying no more walk ins allowed. A lot of people were getting angry with the staff about not getting service, which I understand can be stressful. However, there needs to be a more organized way for them to take orders. Each bartender should have an assigned section instead of there being three bartenders glued to one area of the bar taking orders and one guy running around everywhere else. There needs to be more efficiency or more staff if they’re going to do something like this, especially for...

I visited ERAS pop up during its last weekend. Street parking was fairly easy for me to find near the location. We were warmly greeted by the team and seated promptly at an available table. Since we were a party of three once another large table became available the team promptly seated at the table. I was very impressed with the team’s customer service making sure tables were clean and available for patrons. The decor was thoughtful, bright, nostalgic and fun. The care put into highlighting albums, lyrics with the drinks and food menu, and overall atmosphere is amazing. We ordered the sliders, fry sampler, and chicken tenders. The beef sliders were juicy and very good. I chose to substitute without the special sauce and they were still juicy and tender. The fry sampler included potato fries, sweet potato fries, and tater tots and they were hot and fresh. The drinks were great as well! I had the lavender lemonade mocktail and sangria. The lavender lemonade was refreshing and the sangria was well mixed. The pricing for the cocktails were around $15 (depending on cocktail) and the food was moderately priced. I would definitely visit the pop up again to meet with friends or experience...