King of Cups — Restaurant in Chicago

I have not ever been here so I can’t say anything as far as the cocktails and what-not. Which is why I gave it 5 stars— please know I’m not trying to hurt your business.

I am an intuitive reader and I was given this name for a party I am hosting in the coming weeks. I felt inclined to comment...

spirituality/tarot and alcohol should never be mixed. Drugs and alcohol create holes in your aura and therefore when combined with spirituality/divination you are inviting entities(dark energy) to latch on to you which can bog down your energy — or do much worse.

A monarchy has nothing to do with spirituality therefore the verbiage associated with this ‘spiritual lounge’ is false and I can’t help but feel whoever is building the culture of this brand might be using the new age trend to their advantage with ignorance toward its actual purpose... Words like tribe / coven would make more sense. I understand the king vibe but the king of cups tarot card as nothing to do with any sort of royalty/ monarchy. It is actually in reference to a mature masculine being who is very even keel and emotionally intelligent/ sensitive to the needs of others. 9 of cups is more accurate title given that represents a gluttonous being who drinks and eats in abundance and the illustration is that of a heavier man with his empty cups stacked behind him while he sits in front of a feast of food (more traditional king like definition if you ask me)

TAROT is NOT fortune telling, and rather a ‘mirror to the soul’ as a means to dig deep into your sub conscious to find answers within your self... Fortune telling gives the impression that you are telling someone their future. This is extremely difficult to do as we all have free will, and therefore can choose to move in a different direction at any which point of our lives. This alone makes it nearly impossible to predict someone’s future unless every single variable remained the same as the present moment (not likely). You discredit tarot and it’s actual power to help people when you refer to it as fortune telling.

With all of this said I’m not trying to make it so that people don’t visit this place. I actually love the concept, and based on the reviews it seems like the cocktails are on point and so is the ambiance— but there are some holes in the brand probably due to people’s lack of knowledge regarding the oracle. For fun and games I’m sure it’s a cool spot- but I would for sure sage yourself after you leave this place and protect your aura ... or as a recommendation to the lounge sage regularly, and light many white candles. Perhaps create an Oracle night or tarot party where people can come and have their tarot read, and drink AFTER the fact in celebration... unless you are open to attracting negativity to your space.

Wishing you much success as a business and I hope my review doesn’t make you feel attacked, as that is not...

Please let me spare you from this place.

I brought my sister who was visiting from out-of-town. After not being acknowledged by either bartender, we awkwardly stood for a few minutes. We had booked a reservation ahead of time. There weren't any details in the reservation telling us to look for our table, so we expected direction from staff. When it was clear we were on our own, we started looking at all the name cards on the tables. We finally found a card with our name and reservation time at the bar.

The bartender was having a rowdy conversation (more like yelling through us) with another patron. Look, I'm in the industry, too, but I would never find it appropriate to talk about a friend who “accidentally smoked [illicit substance]” in front of guests.

The first time we were acknowledged was by this bartender to admonish us for scooting our chairs over-we only did this as his conversation partner had sprawled so far into our space there was zero room for us.

He eventually asked us rather shortly what we wanted. I asked a question about a drink, my mistake.

The utter disdain and contempt in his voice should have dissuaded me from any further interaction, but I’m a glutton for punishment, so I politely asked a second question. I received a few curt adjectives describing a drink. When it’s $18 a drink, I expect the staff to be knowledgeable about the drinks and at least tolerate a question.

After he made our cocktails, he kept them behind the bar as he cleaned his shakers and continued to yell/talk with the other man about Chartreuse.

Finally, when he was done cleaning, and only then, he handed us our sweating drinks (egg whites that have sat a bit…yum). He thrust the Toast POS into my sister’s face without even looking at her and kept talking to the other man…icing on the cake he had pre-selected the 25% tip option.

Drinks were fine, but to be treated so rudely was unacceptable.

The only salvageable experience was that our tarot reader was nice and provided a great reading, despite the rather challenging circumstances of their space. The area the bar provided for readings is a hallway thoroughfare between the office and basement walkin. Barbacks and the bartenders frequently walk by. It’s not the most intimate/private space, but our reader made up for it.

Ps. We visited on 1/20, the bartender who served was wearing a shirt with a giant...

Solid cocktails with some really interesting ones, but the service was the worst I've had at a cocktail bar. The bar is set up such that you sit at a table but go up to order at the bar. We discovered this by searching online, after being seated without any guidance and waiting 20 minutes without anyone coming over. But fair enough, I can see that approach working. When we ordered, we got a little attitude for not understanding their setup.

We ordered two rounds of cocktails. After the first round was called out (two at a time), we were one drink short. The bartender made it with no hassle. However, after the second round was also missing a drink and we brought up that it was missing, the overweight lead bartender in the Hawaiian shirt told our bartender not to make the missing drink yet, and pulled up our tab to make sure we were telling the truth. The fact he did this after being the one that forgot one of our drinks in the first round was infuriating. We finished our drinks, paid and got out of there.

The setting was really fun and I'd love to go there again to try more of the cocktails, but this experience will keep me away...