West End Tavern — Restaurant in Boulder

(We had this on our final meal of our Denver/Boulder trip, last night at around 8:30pm.) It is amongst some of most AMAZING BBQ we have had in our lifetime, and it has an impressive liquor list to accompany it. The family meals are HUGE, so keep that in mind if you get appetizers or want some dessert! Food is a 5. Our server, Sibo was sweet and professional; also A 5.

Here is where you lose that last Star:

Our overall first impression wasn’t the best— the hostess was rude, condescending and straight up UNPROFESSIONAL. When we asked if 1 of the 4 people in our party could sit inside instead of waiting in the cold because she has arthritis, the hostess said “Um no, we are actually still in a pandemic, you can find somewhere else to wait” with the worst attitude attitude and just walked away. I understand if you cannot accommodate, but there are better ways of communicating with your patron. The entire time we had to interact with her, she made us feel as if we were a total inconvenience and/or a nuisance.

I’m a little disappointed in how management went to our table to serve our drinks and food, but didn’t have the time to come and ask how everything was, because if they would have, I wouldn’t be writing this review (I would have expressed this verbally to her). The food and Sibo’s service is really what salvaged this experience for us, so...

Company Happy Hour Event

We hosted a small company happy hour in the space upstairs at West End Tavern yesterday and they did not disappoint! The weather was nice so the upstairs bar area was perfect with the windows open. We ordered the blackened shrimp, salad, and deviled eggs as apps, all of which were great. Being a group of carnivores, I opted for a buffet with ribs, blackened chicken, and pulled pork as our main dishes; cole slaw, veggies, and mac-n-cheese for the sides. Everyone was so gleefully full from going back for multiple servings! The food was fantastic - chicken was spiced just right with something I can't quite put my finger on, the pulled pork was tender, and the rub on the ribs was tame enough for kids to be able to enjoy and for grownups to appreciate a slight kick. The vinegar coleslaw was a favorite as was the mac-n-cheese, no surprise there.

Finally, and in my opinion, most important was the service! Melissa, was our server and Franco was the bartender for our group - both were extremely pleasant, and eager to help and answer questions. Franco was knowledgeable about the liquors and was able to whip up a few custom cocktails based on individual preferences and I heard no complaints.

Long story short, being the person at our office who plans these things, you guys made me look good - thank you for making it a...

Pretty good food and a great place to try some whiskeys.

Edit: Came back to edit this because while the food is quite good and it has a great whiskey selection, my last visit was awfully disappointing. Some of the servers/hostesses were being quite rude and dismissive while seating my party, and I had ordered a glass of Pappy van Winkle (of which they had only enough for one more glass and this bar is somewhat famous for being one of the only ones in Colorado where you can consistently find it) and while the waitress went and put in my order the bartender went ahead and served it to another patron, after I had already ordered it. Went out of my way to come all the way back up to Boulder to try that whiskey and they just served it someone else even though I ordered it before that person. The waitress who served us (who admittedly was much nicer than the hostesses) tried to "make it up to me" for this incident and for forgetting to place my friends order of burnt ends by taking those off bill (which helps me out so much, taking an item off of a bill I'm not paying). Really hope that if I come back that the experience isn't nearly so bad as it was this time and that maybe something can be done about the incident with serving that rare and expensive of a whiskey to someone else after...