DRY 85 — Restaurant in Annapolis

DRY 85 has that new-age vibe. Its rather industrial in style - steel chairs and tables with touches of wood here and there - but it is by no means unwelcoming.

Their whiskey and bourbon flights are impressive; I'd even go so far as to call it their claim to fame. The liquor flights are priced from a modest $12 For 3 samples to $200 for the same. They do have a worthy beer selection as well (which rotates daily according to them but I cannot confirm as I have on my been there once) and offer flights on them as well. While the liquor flight is a fantastic deal (and gives you a chance to find your new favorite bourbon or whiskey), the beer flights are smaller and limited to 3, though, in my opinion, price accordingly.

The food is where this place lost a star. This might be a bit selfish of me, but my personal meal (and only mine; my wife's was fantastic) was overly charred.

I struggle to explain myself here. As I am normally a fan of food slightly charred (nothing better than a charred hot dog), I was bothered by the fact that my Brunch Burger tasted like nothing but char. I don't complain often about food - each recipe is unique and reflects the chef who develops it - but my medium burger was so charred it negates the egg, bacon, and cheddar it was topped with.

Not deserving of a loss of a star is the service. I recognize my own bias here so I tried to not rank them on this, but when I am done eating I am ready to leave. Period. I want my check, I want to pay it, and I want to leave. DRY 85 kept me waiting about 10 minutes for said check, but it's not a big deal in the larger scheme.

Overall, DRY 85 is a place for those who enjoy a drink - both beer and liquor. I would not bring children here. It's a bar first and foremost. The food is decent, though it's not their prime attraction point...

TL;DR: Matt M. was the rudest bartender we’ve had and clearly didn’t want to serve most of the people there on Saturday night (or maybe just the women). He complained about having to work on Saturday, rushed us to order, and showed annoyance with serving us. When we decided to leave due to his behavior, he ignored our request to cash out and continued chatting with others. When walking out, another customer outside overheard us speaking and informed us she had also experienced poor service from him and had to leave!

Main review: We were offended by the bartender's, Matt M., service. When we got there, he urged us to hurry with our drink orders, stating he had to serve the entire bar (even though it wasn’t even a third full). He neglected to provide water, and instead of checking on us, he engaged in lengthy conversations with other people. He seemed to mainly ignore the women in the bar. When we attempted to place a second order, he didn’t acknowledge he heard our orders, and instead rudely stated “I heard you the first time” when we tried to repeat the order. At that point, we decided to cash out instead of getting another drink with him. Matt M. ignored our request to check out with our credit card, but he continued socializing, so we scraped up what cash we had to settle our bill. When walking out, another customer outside confirmed she had also experienced poor service from him. We’ve normally had great experiences at Dry 85, but we’ll be walking straight out if we see Matt...

I have lived in Annapolis all of my life and have been to Dry 85 many times and it is one of our favorite places for food and the creative, quality drinks that they serve. Unfortunately, my friends and I were there last weekend and we had stopped in post dinner rush for some beverages. There was not enough room at the bar so we asked the hostess if we might sit at the table in the front window, to which she replied of course. Our server, Darian, came over and was immediately rude stating he knew we were only here for drinks and obviously was not happy about that. He continued to treat us in a very rude and aggressive manner so we only drank one drink each because it was so uncomfortable and infuriating as loyal customers and locals of this fine town. It is an understatement to say that I am severely disappointed that one server, no matter how bad of a day he was having, treated customers in such an obviously disgusting and blatantly rude manner so as to ruin our experience. You are in service...it is completely unacceptable. What's more is that he was serving military, nurses, and a fireman, people who work in public service, and all of us are locals who have loved coming to this establishment many times. I think it will be a while before we return and certainly if we see Darian, we would absolutely request a...