The Gin Joint — Restaurant in Charleston

We spent 5 wks in Charleston because we’re maybe moving there in 2023. We had an amazing AirBnB above GinJ- great location. When we first saw that we had such a cool little drink spot right below us we were very excited. For 5 wks we ate out every meal, everyday & tried so many restaurants/bars. We had many incredible experiences, GinJ is not one of them.

Because it was so close to us, we stopped by 4 diff times hoping we’d get a better experience. It actually got worse.

Our 1st visit was our very 1st night in town & our best experience. We had a yummy dinner at Magnolias & thought we’d stop by for a drink to check it out. We entered, saw empty seats at the bar & started to walk toward them. We got stopped rudely as if we should know that their bar is a waitlist. We’re totally ok to wait & obey the rules but as regular bar seaters, we know that 95% of the time bar seating is 1st come, 1st serve. Maybe the female employee who was rude doesn’t know this & would therefore think we are the rude people to just walk towards the bar ourselves but regardless of that she should still politely inform us that there’s a waitlist for the bar. (We then did witness someone else walking straight to the bar & also getting rudely stopped. They chose to walk out) We did end up then getting a seat at the bar where the bartender was so busy. We felt sorry for him. He was working hard & looked miserable. He should have just acknowledged us. When he finally asked us what we wanted, we got no smiles. Again he was miserable.

Visit 2. My sister & husband were visiting & we walked in & there were lots of available seats including the bar was empty. We said we’d love to sit at the bar. The hostess said “we can only seat parties of 2 at the bar”. Me “ok, we’re 1 party of 2 and they’re a separate party of 2” & she said that it doesn’t work that way. Another female, who I’m assuming is the manager, then walked up & we asked her “the place is pretty empty, including the bar, can the 4 of us sit there?” She said no. We smiled cause we honestly thought she was joking & said “we’ll walk back outside & walk in then as separate couples & request bar seats”. She said rudely “I won’t be able to seat you”. We could tell that the hostess felt bad & uncomfortable. We were speechless & left.

Visit 3 We stopped by early evening & asked the manager lady (same one from 2nd visit), “how late are you open tonight?” She said “last call is at 10:45.” We said “Great. Thank you. We’ll be back on our way home”. It was 10:44 when we came back. The hostess grabbed the menus & started to walk us to seats but the manager lady came up & said “we’re not seating anymore”. The poor hostess was again uncomfortable. I looked at the time, showed the manager the time (10:45 now) & she matter of factly said “no”. Then we reminded her that we had stopped by earlier & she herself had told us that last call was at 10:45. We also said that we only wanted 1 drink. She showed zero emotion or care & simply again said “no”. Wow.

Try 4. We had friends in town who saw GinJ & said that they really wanted to go there. We explained how awful our first 3 tries were but we figured we’d just give it another try. We all 4 had to show ID’s, which is the only place we’ve had to do this in Charleston, but not a problem. We all showed our ID’s. Our friend had turned 50 2 days previous. She had no idea but her license had expired on her bday. The hostess informed her that it was expired & that she would not be allowed in. I get that a rule is a rule & in our visit 1 to GinJ we had seen them deny a group because one 50+ lady didn’t have her ID on her but most would figure common sense should prevail by just looking at the 4 of us. We are ages 50, 53, 54 & 63. An almost comical side note to this story is that then my friend was so stressed out thinking when she tried to board her flight to get home TSA would deny her because of an expired license. TSA let her thru! She can fly but she cannot grab a drink at GinJ.

The employees need training in good...

I'd like to start by saying that this used to be my favorite spot in Charleston however, after tonight's incident...I absolutely refuse to come back. It's a shame that my friends had to experience this over their first holiday visit to this beautiful City. Due to Covid we are aware of the regulations around restaurant capacities, etc. We had told our friends (a family of 4) to check it out, and I had a party of 6 myself. Upon arrival there was a table open for 4 so I gave that to my friends and put my name down for my party which the hostess said would take about 45 min. The hostess aka manager on shift was extremely rude and seemed annoyed with us from the start. After realizing it had been over 1 hr of not being called...I realized they had told our family friends that unless they left the restaurant, our party would not be allowed inside. We are all adults and know how to respect the venue rules...its not like we are little children that need to be babysat and can't follow directions. We understand that if we know the other party we still need to stay seated and social distance (which we were prepared to do) we were even willing to sit outside separate from each other. This whole issue turned into such a ridiculous mess and left me absolutely embarrassed that I had even suggested this place. The "Manager"/hostess handled herself so poorly. This is not hospitality AT ALL. Everyone's plans were ruined for the night and it put such a damper on Everyone's mood - mind you (came in as 2 SEPERATE PARTIES). Either way, I will not be going back and I DON'T recommend giving people like this...

I went for my first time this past Saturday night with three other coworkers. We happen to run into two other people we knew and sat at their table . They had been there already for 45 minutes. I was disappointed to hear that they did not serve vodka since they served everything else so I ordered one drink which was tequila and soda($17). We later then received our bills which were four separate bills one for myself and three for the coworkers . The couple that have been there before already had their bill. We had not asked for separate bills either but we're very shocked and surprised to see that each of us had 20% added to our bills for gratuity automatically total bill was $23. I am a big Tipper usually over Tipper so I was very upset about automatically having that 20% gratuity added. I then went and talked to the female server who told me that it's automatic because it was a party of six . I said we were not a party of six we just ran into friends and sat with them . Nor did we ask for Separate Checks so how can we be considered a party of six. She was only remotely apologetic and didn't care or ask for a manager or anything. I will never go to that place again it wasn't crowded and it wasn't that special. Don't waste your time and money and be cautious about this automatic gratuity being added to your bills none of us would have known unless we just looked at the bill carefully. We work for the airlines and and were there on an overnight. We also have big word of mouth on advice to where to go eat and drink, this will be a big fat and hard no for us to...