The Aristocrat Lounge — Restaurant in Austin

We really had an awful, almost disturbing experience here last night. Bartender Miguel has always kind of been rude, and a little dismissive. He very much makes you feel like you are not someone he ever wants to talk to and makes you feel almost guilty for ordering drinks because he is so bothered all of the time. I have always felt like I annoyed him every time I have come in, and you can tell who he likes by the service they receive. A lot of people just take it for what it it is, because it’s “edgy” and definitely plays into the dive bar vibe the Aristocrat is know for. My friend and I were sitting at the left far end of the bar and he was primarily gravitating towards the other end of the bar where he seemed to be more familiar with the patrons. I smiled at him, I waved, tipped an empty drink, trying to get his attention and was either flat out ignored or he just didn’t have anytime for a solid 30 minutes. The Bar back Mike (AN EMPLOYEE) was making out with a DRUNK customer over the bar and then disappeared to make out behind the red curtain to left of the bar. I am guessing why Miguel was running around doing everything (I have video if the owner is interested, and so does Miguel because he stopped screaming for a minute to ignore us and pull his phone out to record) which also brings up some very important questions of consent and professional conduct. We had been there for an hour, had one drink, and my friend who was with me “said, 👋 hey we have been waiting 30 minutes to get our drinks”, at which Miguel proceeded to lunge over the bar Ariel-over-the-rock-style and SCREAM in her face. I completely shut down and my fight, flight or freeze (FREEZE for me) kicked in. My friend yelled back, because it was so uncalled for it was jarring. We asked for our check, and he did not acknowledge the request and proceeded to be loud and gruff. When we I left I was fighting back tears with my heart beating in my ears. I am a native Austinite, and while I may not be a bar fly here, I have been coming here on occasion most of my adult life, never have I EVER experienced anything like this at any establishment. It’s a problem. So, unless you’re a patron who comes here regularly prepare to be ignored, talked down to, possibly even yelled at. Also expect Miguel to rile up all the patrons for an absolute s-show ending to make sure you’re adequately shamed if you dare to stand up...

I am kinda appalled by this place as not only a bartender but as a customer- it’s kinda trash. Old fashioned on tap is beyond an insult, so asked for a bulleit rye old fashioned extra sweet (they don’t use simple? Or cherries? Apparently that’s “old school” and it was- I’ll say probably better than whatever old fashioned they had on tap w 2 wildly different bourbons but still, extremely lacking) and the service is legitimately less than 1 star by the bartender Garth. It’s not hard to be remotely friendly - seriously try it guy you might make more money . Got cut off after 1 drink and legitimately half a shot (ordered a lemon drop but legit was just only deep eddy lemon and they can’t do sugar rims ?? ) because I accidentally spilled the electric jellyfish I had just got (people are clumsy and I’m short so was trying to hand it to him over the bar) trying to get change for the egg claw game because my friend and I were having a blast playing. When asking to help clean up and apologizing because I was a klutz he cut me off and patronized me- still tipped over 20 percent and when realizing my friend didn’t tip because of the situation I brought $10 cash to tip for him afterwards- you’re welcome. Get a freaking personality and an actual good attitude. Im nice and usually it takes alot for me to write a review, but heck no to all that!! Get it together and at-least pretend to like your job- bartender to bartender you’ll probably make more money or have returning guests. Don’t bother coming here!! Go to better dive bars like Nosh and Bevvy, they are always the sweetest, nicest folks around with amazing cheap drinks! We regret trying to branch out for the night and try a new place, but good thing nosh and bevvy is only 4 min away so we could end our...

We walked in in and it was the type of place we were essentially looking for. dark, lounge, good whiskey. They had that. I walk to the bar, bartender approaches me with a stern voice and slight attitude saying " I need to see your IDs". Almost as if he already hated me. I complied and didn't worry about it at the time. I asked for 2 whiskey on the rocks and two shots of patron. his moody sounding reply " we don't have patron". Okay, I replied, what do you have? He storms off and points to a shelf behind him saying nothing. I could hardly see the bottles, as he returned the other bartender grabs one of the bottles he originally pointed at with attitude. When he comes back to me I asked what is that bottle the other bartender has? He looked me square in the eye and said "I don't know what you are talking about" and never turned his head to look what it was. My words to him were "are going to look or just gonna stare at me". Its a shame there are people in this world who treat you this way, especially as a bartender. Unfortunately I will not be back to this establishment because of this one really crappy individual. He was Caucasian, wearing a cap, and had a beard. I'm sure people will know who I am talking about. Needless to say, we left after our first drink. The taller African American man, who was very nice, closed my tab. Mr. attitude grabbed his cigarettes and walked out after he saw my girlfriend and I get up to leave, I guess to avoid further conflict or maybe he just needed a smoke that bad this entire time. The bartender who closed me out was the only reason I left a tip although I'm sure Mr. attitude got his cut. We did notice most customers hovering on one side of the bar, the side attitude was...