Stooges — Restaurant in City of Lockport

Stooges used to be my favorite restaurant and I would eat here at least once a week because I loved the food. However, after witnessing how the ownership/staff have treated customers, including myself, on several occasions, I no longer frequent this business. It's such a shame because the food is really terrific and the place could be extremely successful and even have franchise opportunities, but how they treat customers is not ok. I'm always willing to forgive things like the time we waited for our food for over an hour when the waitress discovered that the reason our food hadn't come out was because they gave our meals away to a take-out customer, because mistakes are going to happen. However, I have witnessed this business turn away many loyal customers time and time again because they've made the decision to close early without notice or reason. I've seen this happen both on weekdays and weekends. Stooges closes very early in the evening for a restaurant, but they do clearly post that their kitchen closes half an hour before the listed closing time, which is totally fine because it's clearly posted. However, while I've been dinning there I've seen them turn away many customers who have shown up 45-60 minutes before closing time. One time I was there and watched them turn away people 1.5 hours before closing time. The excuse provided was "weather," but it was barely snowing outside and it wasn't predicted to accumulate. From my perspective it just seems like the staff wants to go home early, so they start denying people seating and tell them that the kitchen closed early. I can buy the "weather" excuse once or twice when the weather is actually bad, but that is not what is going on here. I continued to patronize Stooges because the food is so good, but I'd always check there Facebook page before leaving home to make sure that they haven't posted anything about them closing early, so I never thought that I would get turned away, especially since I show up well in advance of when the kitchen closes and the servers and hostess should recognize me as I am a frequent customer and tip very well. However, several weeks back, I showed up on a Thursday evening over an hour before closing time and was turned away despite the dining room being full of other tables with guests. I had checked the Facebook page before leaving my house, the open sign was on in the Stooges window, and the weather was not bad, it was snowing a little but significant accumulation was not expected. I was disappointed, but said "ok, no problem, I'll just place a take-out order," but was told no because the kitchen was already closed, no exceptions. It made me feel really horrible and not appreciated for spending thousands of dollars at Stooges over the last 7 months, and made me not want to go back ever again. If this was a one-time thing, I wouldn't be this upset, but I've watched Stooges do it to their customers time and time again. This is not how you should treat your loyal customers, because they will never want to patronize your business again. I wasn't sure if the decisions to repeatedly close early without announcement was being made by the servers, manager, or owners, so I asked if I could have the phone or email address of the owner, so that I could let them know what was happening. I was told by the hostess that they wouldn't give the owners contact info, but that if I left my name and phone number they would have them call me. My thinking was that maybe the servers or managers are unilaterally making these decisions to close early and turn customer away, and maybe the owners weren't aware that this was happening. However, I never received a call back from anybody, so I have not returned since. It makes me feel really sad because I love Stooges' food and always wish local business well, but if you can't treat your customers with a basic level of respect, then you don't deserve...

I’ve never written a review, and certainly not one like this, but I’m honestly not sure where else to share this. This isn’t so much a review on the restaurant itself, but more so the management, and a warning to future employee’s. I worked at Stooge’s for a few months, and it wasn’t bad. But I QUICKLY realized how toxic of an environment it was. For starters, everyone is mean to everyone. But, if you’re in the restaurant business, you know that’s just sorta how it is- drama. Drama aside, I also quickly realized how unfairly the owner treated her daughter vs the rest of the server’s. I’m not claiming that she treated us terribly, or anything like that. But not only did she allow her 17 year old daughter to serve (it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to serve alcohol in NYS), but her daughter was the only other server (other than the owner’s friend) that was allowed to work on Friday nights, aka the night you make the most money. But that’s not the main reason i’m writing this. My main issue with the management is how i was “let go”. On July 15th , I was obligated to move out of my apartment because of my lease ending. Everything had to be out of my apartment and into my new house by that night. I only had myself, an at the time 18 year old girl, my boyfriend, my dad, and brother- to move an entire apartment into a new house… 30 minutes away. So on July 14th, being scheduled the next day, I asked one of my co workers to pick up my shift, as I wouldn’t be able to make it in. And seeing how (at the time) I had enough respect for Adrienne (the owner) to not just call in, or no-call/no-show, I got my shift covered. Not even an hour later, I was sent the following text:

“(Co worker) said she is working for you tomorrow. You asked to work the morning shift, which I gave you.

I will cover your shift Sunday and all shifts moving forward. I needed all hands on deck this weekend, not staff giving up shifts.

Best of luck to you.”

And I was “let go” just like that. So, take this however you want. But just know, you will not be treated fairly, you will be spoken to like you’re stupid, and you might be fired for doing something you had every right to do, such as giving up a shift. To add- I am NOT the only one this has happened to. I recently received a text from THAT SAME co-worker who picked up my shift, saying that when she put in her two-weeks, she was fired on the spot. It seems that Adrienne sees us solely as her employees, not human beings who have our own...

I'll never forget while I was living overseas and watching an episode of some crime show years ago when I saw someone "running through the caves" in Lockport, NY. The bad guy was on the loose and our crime show heroes were going to stop him. Just seeing Lockport, NY on the screen made me squeal, "I used to live near there!" I used to go rollerskating in Lockport. We would always take out-of-town visitors to the locks to see the Erie Canal. We sometimes walked the towpath ourselves. And here it was on tv! Something was making Lockport famous.

That episode is all but forgotten now. But that's okay. Lockport has something else to draw attention to this quaint WNY town: STOOGES. Stooges makes an incredible stuffed burger, and I'd be doing this place a huge disservice if I didn't mention their freakin' spicy mac n cheese. Lawwwddddd, that stuff is GOOD!

Back to the burgers. Ya know how you sometimes order a burger and end up wearing half the toppings on your shirt or your pants? Well, Stooges stuffs the "toppings" into the burger so that they are no longer problematic. (Whhhaaatttt?) They have some delicious options for you to choose from, or you can even build your own.

Let's get back to the mac. Their mac n cheese is glorious. They've got the mild version for people who can't take the spice, or you can live on the edge and order the one with the peppers (grab an extra beer to cool the burn).

I am happy to say I once again live down the road from Lockport, and every time I get out of town visitors I take them to Stooges to eat. (Because I'm a good friend.) I've taken a few locals as well, who had no idea this gem existed. (Again, because I'm a good friend.) If you haven't been, I'll take you too! (So long as you pick...