BackStage Lounge at SouthBound — Restaurant in Charlotte

I have been a member at BSL since they opened. To be fair, many of the reviews for backstage lounge are for the pre-covid staff/drinks. BSL has re-opened with new staff/bartenders and my review below is for post covid experience.

Reviewers demographics: 32, male, professional, BSL member since the doors opened.

Our order: cranberry sangria, Moscow mule and old fashion, 4 roses on the rocks, Croquettes, bacon wrapped dates, bison sliders.

Experience: A friend and I went to BSL Friday night 7:00 pm. Casey is no longer the bartender so that was the first red flag but we decided to stay anyway. They no longer provide the complementary house beverage. They removed the beloved leather menus of 25+ drinks and now include a meger 10 drink paper menu. Our server mentioned they hired a "mixologist" from Florida to create a drink menu. Too bad we are in NC.

We started with the cranberry sangria and it was a waste of time. It was all juice, stacked with ice and half filled. Not to mention cranberries are not included in the drink. Laughable. 13$ per glass.

We sent the drinks back as they were not good tasting and very misleading and decided we would order the most basic drinks of all time- the Moscow mule (not on the menu) and an old fashion (also not on the menu). The bartender decided my friends Moscow mule should be served in a martini glass (with orange juice) and I should have a tequila sunrise instead because I quote "its a contemporary old fashion".I kid you not! The literal name of the drink is OLD FASHION. It took another bartender to approach our table and ask what we ordered. Once we told her, she looked at the color of our drinks, laughed, apologized, took our drinks and proceeded to make them correctly.

The third attempt at our drinks were a success. The second bartender was much better. We believe her name was Shareka. She was the only African American female bartender on shift that night (dont make it a race thing). The Moscow mule came in the correct cup and my old fashion was a classic old fashion (missing the orange peal but I'm okay with that).

The 2nd bartender compt all of our drinks and purchased us a round of 4 roses. She felt so bad for the drinks the guy tried to serve us. We are not scoundrels so we ended up tipping her the cost of the drinks. We were not there for anything free. We came to support our neighborhood speakeasy.

Food: the Croquettes have potatoes in them only so please don't expect a real Croquette. The sliders were okay and the bacon wrapped dates were good. Word of advice, eat before you go.

Solutions: I am not the type of person who complains with solutions. I want BSL to succeed so I will offer some advice. Hire Casey and let him manage the bar. We are not personal friends or anything but i never had an experience like this under his watch. Bring back the drink menu that kept us all happy (Moscow mules, dark and spicy, tequila old fashion, etc). Serving Florida inspired contemporary drinks in a NC speakeasy is just weird and unappealing. Lastly, its a speakeasy, get rid of the DJ blaring music while my friends and I are talking about capital market gains. Turning BSL into a noise club is not what your...

I’m really surprised that no one else received the lack of service my friends and I had last week when we attended this establishment. I do not leave a lot of reviews and most of the time I only do so if they are positive, but this was bad enough to warrant one. First of all, kudos to the mind behind the decor and the eventing aspect of how it was set up. It was exciting to walk in and see the atmosphere and appreciate the effort somebody really put into that to make it look really special. Unfortunately, the service we received, or didn’t receive, really made this whole experience very unfortunate. There were only 2 bartenders but it wasn’t too busy (small space) and though they made eye contact with us, never came to say hello or even gave us a thumbs up to show acknowledgement. We had to go to the bar and ask how it worked…if we ordered from the bar, or wait or what have you. “I’ll be there in a sec”….was his response. When he approached the table, it was…. ”what are you guys having?” First of all, you should know that there was an intricate bar list of cute, fun, Christmas themed cocktails, but he is not interested in explaining any of it. After a few short “yeah that’s a good one” we just ordered whatever. He came back 15 minutes later with our 4 drinks. And the drink was good! I was so excited for a moment to curb my disappointment. That was the last we saw of him. We’d seen online where they serve food. We were never offered a menu. I finally, after watching him scroll through his phone for about two minutes, walked over to the bar and told him we were ready for a check. He came over with our checks, didn’t ask how everything was, and then I proceeded to ask him if they serve food, since we’d seen it online, to which he said yes, we have small bites, but again, didn’t offer a menu. Was there some ‘secret code’ to getting a menu in this place? Kind of just laughing at this point and over it. Had I not been hanging out with friends I hadn’t seen in a while and not wanting to make it a big deal, I would’ve asked for a manager. This was the worst service I’ve seen in a while. It’s unfortunate that four attractive women were sitting in a bar, super chill, not a bunch of giggly Southend girls, ready to tip, and this gentleman could not be less aware of the money he lost out on. If he had 10% of a personality, he could’ve racked up from our table as we are all BIG tippers. Clearly the cute spunky girl in the ads doesn’t work there. The bartenders weren’t dressed as cute elves either. Just black shirt, black baseball cap….definitely fitting with his Scrooge vibe. These bartenders nowadays have no clue how many they could make with the right attitude and people skills. With the right staffing, this place would...

Bunch of jerks work here! After a holiday brunch we decide to go by a festive drink before heading home. Heard it was in southbound restaurant so approached the glass side door that had a sticker “ backstage lounge “ walked down at hallway toward a big black wall with BSL painted on it . To the right a big wood door with a small peep hole window and a wall phone…seems like an entrance to a hidden club , right? I pick up phone and it rings rings rings with no answer but we hear music/people inside . Meanwhile a group of several young people get in line behind us . We try the wall phone again , no luck. Finally someone leaves so we try to walk in and this guy runs over and yells “you can’t come in here ,its the exit “ . I said , sorry no one was answering phone and there is no note. He’s so irritated and rudely says “that because ITS an EXIT! go around “ More people arrive so we aren’t alone in thinking this is way to get in. We decided to still give it a shot thinking he must be worried about a violation and needed to check ids or get password. Nope, went around the inside and pulled the door open and walked right in . We are now just feet from the exit door we could of just enter thru. Mind you this is 4pm on a Sunday in CLT not a NYC club on a sat night . Floor was extremely sticky , music was blaring so loud so went to leave out the EXIT door (that one we are now so familiar with ) and the female bartender thinks my husband is coming in that way and screams at him! Management needs to address the little angry guy attitude because he hissy fit was not called for. He’s in the service industry and certainly not in the holiday spirit. How about realizing its his fault there is no sign that says go around. Mentioned to manager on way out but he was speechless. If I was the manager I would if sent that staff home for the day and worked the bar myself. We headed over to Canopy cocktails and had great time by the fire with welcoming staff and...