Pops for Champagne — Restaurant in Chicago

I am a regular here! I think the chef is outstanding and during their busiest nights the bus boy always seems alert and anxious to get you more bottled water, lemons etc... Today I was appalled and terribly disappointed with the three women who were there to supposedly serve and take my simple order. What makes me livid is I always encouraged my clients to come here for food and great drinks but I myself am not big on "drinking" I just love their cheese plates, tapas, and especially their home made fries. Today I decided that I am (done) for a while because I purposefully stayed an hour after I checked out of my hotel just to wait till they finished their business meeting so I went OUT OF MY WAY to kill time at Starbucks and wait till 3pm. I set my luggage down at a table and used the bathroom for all of four minutes. There was a bottle of water and a glass at my table with a menu. I knew what I wanted because I typically come here for the fries and cheese options. Here I am the ONLY customer here and from 3pm till 3:20 I wait patiently while the three girls are engaged in gossip and chit chat. No one bothered to see if I needed SERVICE. Gee must BE NICE FREAKING NICE to be PAID to gossip about your friends behind their back and do nothing while customers get IGNORED. Hey owner of this Pops for Champagne location I am letting you know I will no longer visit for snacks and I will not RECOMMEND any of my clients to indulge because your servers don't seem interested in your loyal customers. The incident happened TODAY between the hours of 3pm when you opened and till 3:20pm when I decided to politely excuse myself from my table after my female server decided to stop chit chat with the bartender and one other girl. If I were the owner I would do and complete overhaul ....get rid of certain servers who have no desire to serve and find young, anxious college students who NEED the work badly and who would be proud to work for you. I called the general manager just two minutes after this happened and he admitted to me this is an ONGOING PROBLEM and he had JUST FINISHED having a meeting with his staff regarding this issue. Start from scratch and hire fresh staff or lose your guests! I won't be back because 50 % of the time this does happen where I feel ignored. I should not have to raise my VOICE for service or get out of my seat to catch the attention of your STAFF just to order...

Plans. We all make them, right? What we plan to do, when we plan to do it, etc. (Speaking of plans, some have said that if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your “plans.” 🤣)

Well whenever we visit Chicago one place that we always plan to visit is “Pops for Champagne.” Amongst all of our travels I can’t recall discovering a place quite like it.

The name pretty much says it all (I mean how could anyone accuse them of false or misleading advertising? 🤷‍♂️). What you see is what you get here. If you’re looking for a menu featuring page after page of unique bubbly options, then cast your gaze no further. Not nearly limited to only the Champagne region of France, here you can sample the bubbly options produced from almost every continent around the globe (i.e., Champagne, Prosecco, Cava, and sparkling wine).

The ice buckets permanently attached to the window tables make conversations (and people watching) a seamless part of your evening.

Although there was no live music during this visit, we have enjoyed that here on past occasions.

Please be careful not to typecast “Pops” as merely a place for the occasional celebration. The vibe here lends itself well to any occasion when you want to take your Chicago outing to an entirely new level.

If a window seat is important to you (and it should be), then reservations are recommended.

And that’s…Henry’s...

Unfortunately, we did not have a great experience at Pops last night. First off, we arrived at ~8pm and were told there was no room downstairs at the Watershed, so they sat us at a “low” table with couches which was fine. Then they came over a few minutes later and asked us to move, and said they would send an app for our trouble. We moved to a high top table, which was fine, however a server did not come over for about 20-30 minutes and didn’t apologize (although someone did come by a few minutes after to check and see if we had been taken care of). A while later, when we were almost done with our drinks, a waiter with cheese curds came over and tried to give them to us. We sent them back as we hadn’t ordered them. The waiter went back to the kitchen, and then brought the curds back as it turned out those were the complimentary snacks. A nice gesture, but it would have been better to choose our app, as we had dairy dietary restrictions. We also checked the downstairs on our way out and there was still plenty of room, so not sure why they didn’t let us sit down there initially and the hostess came by to apologize and let us know there was room downstairs after all. Overall, we’re not thrilled with our experience, there are better bars in the area with good customer service and...