Craft Lounge — Restaurant in Caldwell

In addition to the 1 star reviews from a year ago (Staff personal drama, dawn soap applied to others food, the renting room guest were told they were “too loud”). I would like to add to the 1 star service for the owner and the staff. To describe the staff (combative, manipulative, lazy, inattentive) to describe the owner (incompetent and lacks proper training for his staff). Upon describing how our group was mistreated and voicing our concerns via email and review, the owner replied with a series of misinformation putting the blame on us customers and is telling lies that our group told the staff derogatory verbiage. All is incorrect and lies. We were provided a complementary birthday dessert for (2) bdays which happened to fall on Aug 17th & Aug 18th AFTER we asked the waitress if they offered a birthday treat. This waitress never offered this to us even though we mentioned having our birthdays. The same waitress mistreated our guest who had asked for more information on the menu to which she was told “if you’re not ready I will come back” and storms off. AFTER paying for our order that the manager discounted AFTER we voiced our concerns of being mistreated The Manager and Bar Manager confronted our table and told us “Hey Ladies we need to have a talk, three of our waitresses did not want to service your table due to prior experiences. You stated you often attend the nampa location, maybe you should go back to Nampa as you are not a good fit for this location”. For clarification, 1/4 guest had never been to the Caldwell location (She also is a business owner in the Idaho service industry) and 2/4 guest had not been to this Craft lounge for about 2 years. The manager who moved forward stating that we were not a good fit as guests for the Caldwell craft lounge and we should stay attending the Nampa craft lounge continued attacking us (on video) and the bar manager attacked the 4/4 guest telling her why she keeps attending craft lounge if she feels treated poorly ( recorded on video) . Why would we be told the staff did not want to work with us due to prior experiences if 3/4 guest have never recently attended craft lounge Caldwell? This is due to discrimination and maltreatment by the Caldwell management and owner. The owner claims that they saw the video and was upset that we celebrated 2 birthdays and received a discount (which the discount was never asked for from our group). This discount was applied by the manager after we complained about the treatment we experienced. Then to cover their tails they responded to review/ email that our guest used derogatory language to the staff which is a COMPLETE lie and gaslighting the scenario. We have our footage and the owner claims they have reviewed the footage and did not see their staff do anything wrong. Please avoid at all costs as they will treat you like they have been treating others for the past year based on the google reviews and personal experience. Disappointing that management can’t look at their own reviews and give the staff proper training and correct the issues. And YES we will see what type of misinformed response the owner types up after this review. I hope that instead of typing a response he coordinates an internal training for the Caldwell location on SERVICE.

Places that I’d recommend (5 stars) instead: Casa Anejo, The Depot, Calle...

Let me start by saying that my husband and I frequent The Craft Lounge in Caldwell often; once or twice a month as a date night or with friends and we typically love it. Tonight we had a disappointing experience and I did not intend to post a review. That is until we got home and I read what was written on my husband’s to-go order. We went out with another couple. Our waitress was fantastic! We ordered drinks and our meals. I ordered a fried shrimp taco, which is new to their menu and a half order of build your own mac n cheese (my fav). Everyone’s meals came out and they were delicious… for the most part. My fried shrimp taco tasted like soap and after my 2nd bite, I asked my friend to try it and tell me what she thought (without my opinion). She took 2 bites and before we know it, she’s spitting it out and complained that it tastes like Dawn dish soap. Our waitress came over and asked how everything was tasting. I NEVER complain about food but I decided to inform her of the soapy taste and included that because half of the taco was eaten, I planned to pay for it. My complaint was for information only. She said she was going to speak with the kitchen to let them know. She came back out and said that it was going to be removed from the bill, I told her that wasn’t my intention and asked for the taco to be left on the bill. She said it’s not a problem and proceeded to inform our table that 10-12 other tables have ordered the fried shrimp taco without complaint, then walked away. A few minutes later one of the kitchen staff walked by our table, staring at us. He got to the kitchen door, paused, turned around and seemed to be talking with our waitress. He pointed at our table and when we made eye contact he tried to change his pointing to a less obvious kind of hand gesture. We had already paid so we took that as our cue to leave. When my husband and I got home, I noticed his to-go order says “1/2 BYO Mac +’maters +no dawn”. I honestly didn’t think that letting our waitress know that the taco tasted like Dawn dish soap would have lead to being mocked or made fun of. My husband is certainly leery of eating his to-go order and it will probably be a while before we return to The Craft Lounge....

I’m incredibly disappointed with the experience I had at The Craft Lounge in Caldwell—a place I had hoped would be a great spot to celebrate my birthday with close family and friends. As someone who was born and raised in this town, I expected a welcoming atmosphere from a local establishment. Instead, we were met with rudeness from the waitress right from the start, which made us all feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. When we politely tried to address the issue, the manager Jenni got involved and, rather than offering any form of customer service or resolution, told us that “this restaurant isn’t a good fit” for our group. The way we were treated felt not only disrespectful but discriminatory, especially considering we were simply there to enjoy a special occasion. No one should be made to feel unwelcome in their own community, especially when supporting a local business.

In response to the owners comment:

Thank you for your reply. I would like to clarify that at no point during our visit did anyone in our group mistreat the staff. We were never approached or spoken to by Amanda (the waitress) or Jenni (the manager) regarding any concerns. Additionally, no one in our group was asked for age verification, which is a serious violation of alcohol service laws and could be grounds for reporting to the ABC Bureau.

I have full video footage from our visit showing that nothing escalated and no staff were mistreated. If management believes otherwise, I welcome them to share the video footage they claim supports their version of events.

We were respectful throughout our time there and are disappointed by how the situation has been...