Brickroom — Restaurant in Ashland

I’ve been a customer for years, even back when the service was slower than you’d ever expect, never complained.

I have frequently recommended them to my guests from my place of employment, as I love the atmosphere and menu/drinks. (Won’t be doing so any longer).

The customer service leaves much to be desired, and to be honest is down right poor.

A group of locals, myself included who all patron Brickroom often were enjoying time there Saturday night. Our plans were 8-10pm, and our group accounted of about 15/20 throughout that time. My sweetie and I joined the group at 8:45pm. After us all ordering various drinks at the bar we were told at 9:15 that there was a band about to begin and that we had to all pay $5 each. We told the gentleman (who seemed rushed and stressed) that we would discuss our plans as a group and let him know, as we were only staying until 10pm anyway. He returned at 9:30 and asked us our plans and we said we would not be staying and would close out and leave. About half of us had just ordered drinks, the other half closed our tabs and waited for the rest of the group to wrap up. With a group this size it takes time to get everyone moving, so when reinforcements were stressed by a bouncer who came to stand guard near us, staring us down while we (tried) to enjoy our time together, we felt really put off. The front house man came back to tell us “I don’t mean to be rude but....” and I told him firmly how disrespectful he was being with everything, that we were on our way out, and that now rather than having patrons continue to purchase from the bar now half our group were simply sitting there waiting for the other half to finish so we could leave, and if he would please leave us alone until we could just do so in peace. His manager came out after he ran away, with her bit about “we don’t make anything from the band so you have to pay the cover.” Here are my notes as a manager:

Inform your guests there will be a cover. *When we arrived at 8:45 the hostess greeted us. Never said a word about a band or cover at 9:30. Am I opposed to paying $5? Not if I am made aware of it and want to partake.

Don’t bully customers who are already spending money. * Our group was enjoying the bar and drinks; they lost 2nd rounds on about half our group because of their lack of patience.

Always think from the guest perspective. * We had just arrived and felt kicked out. The timing was ridiculous; they wanted their nearly full bar to pay a cover while we were already customers inside? It was comical, really.

Don’t most places waive cover if you’re already dining? * I work at a resort and actually heard from two guests that dinned there that same night how they thought it was so rude to request $5 per person after they had spent $100 on drinks and dinner! (They left as well, I add).

Will not be recommending this place any longer. Truly disappointed in the lack of customer awareness, and hope they can better manage...

Atmosphere was great. Very classy and calm with the bricks and lighting. Almost an upscale coffee house feel or a classy underground comedy club feel. Food was good but expensive for what you get which you kind of expect when you walk in so no surprise. The wait staff were severely over-run when I was there and it took 15 min to get water and nearly 20min from the time we finished eating to the time our check arrived. In fact we ordered a taxi and the cab arrived before our chek did! Food arrived a little slow but within a normal window of time so the kitchen staff were on it that day.

The biggest dissappointment was the espresso we got. With such a classy laidback feel, I expected greatness in anything brought to my table. When I got the shot of espresso, my entire opinion of the place changed and I would have to reccomend to anyone going there to avoid espresso drinks or even the drip coffee. The espresso shot was SOUR and discusting! Not even close to inside of a “use by” date and WAY outside of the few weeks of the roasting that generally accepted as quality espresso beans by a local shop. For it to have gone that spoiled it would have to be months out of date. Now I’m cheap so I tried to choke it down because I paid for it ($2.50), but as I made it to the bottom of the shot, the flavor got worse and worse and I had to waste it. The flavor went from sour, to rotten compost and was easily the worst espresso I’ve ever had. It’s pretty bad when you can’t even make it through a 1-2oz drink. This flavor also could have come from a dirty machine which brings up a whole new questioning of how clean the bar area is kept. Because that’s purely speculation and it looked clean enough from where I sat, I won’t go there, but if a manager is reading this review, please take a good look at your grinder, espresso machine and bean’s date! Something is horribly wrong with one or more of them!

So all in all, a good relaxing place to go if you’re hungry with friendly staff and good food, but based on their coffee beans, I was made to wonder what else was served past it’s date and passed off as quality. This in mind, I’ll not be returning and will go to somewhere else next time I am in Ashland. I’m sorry for the poor review. I really wanted to like this cute local restaurant and am a huge advocate of supporting local...

For a place with good food and a fine dining atmosphere, the service is very mediocre by my apparently old fashioned ideas of good service. For the past several years, every time I go the food runner/server auctions the plates: "I have a flank steak... I have a chicken," etc. In the old days, back when I was a server (10-20 years ago), it was considered very bad form to auction plates at any restaurant approaching fine dining. The women were served first, generally older women first, host last. At the very least, the food runner should know where the plates are going without asking. Plates were served on the left side, plates cleared on the right, not just for form's sake, but so when the food arrived and someone still has their appetizer share plates or whatever in front, a busser can pull from one side without interfering with the server. There seems to be no mise en place here or anywhere else anymore. I hate the online menu. I have repeatedly had to ask to receive printed menus. 10-20 years ago, it was considered rude and child-like to be on your cell phone in a fine dining restaurant, now the whole place is full of people scrolling through their cell phones. Also, being a host is being an intermediary between diners and the staff, dealing with difficult diners who want to sit in this section not that, etc. Brickroom hosts always look like teenagers on their first job, not people old and experienced enough to gracefully manage guests, which is really a host's job. Fine dining is dead and still young servers have attitude like they are skilled workers and their job is so hard and thankless and it's abusive for the rich Ashlanders to tip them anything less than 20%. This service would have gotten a reluctant 15% tip anytime before...