Druthers Brewing Company — Restaurant in City of Schenectady

I would NOT recommend booking a private event at this location. We have been supporting Druthers for years so when it came time to pick a wedding rehearsal dinner spot, we figured the Schenectady location could be a great location. (It is right across from the casino our guests were staying at). Unfortunately, it turned out to be the opposite.

I contacted Druthers in January to ask if they had a private event space where we could host both our wedding rehearsal and the dinner that would follow. We were offered two options and after visiting to see the spaces, we said yes to the patio. I explicitly asked if there was a cost to renting the space and was told no. Flip to a week before the event in June. I had followed up twice via email to confirm our final count and meal selections. No response. I decided to call and spoke to a different front end manager on the phone who informed me that our final numbers did not meet the minimum $1,500 cost for renting the space. (Note: The actual cost with tax & tip came out above this). I was shocked and explained that they should have informed me of this policy beforehand when I asked about the cost to rent. She said the other manager didn't think it was important to mention because our initial estimate would have hit the minimum (obviously that is not a good business practice). After I expressed my frustration, she said they would honor the agreement.

Unfortunately, when we showed up for our rehearsal, the patio was filled with customers. They threw us in the back corner and made no effort to make it a private space. Not a sign, separator, anything. Random people were mixed in with our party, walking through to order drinks at the bar, and interrupting our wedding rehearsal. The original manager who I had exchanged multiple emails and calls with was working that night and pretended nothing was wrong when I approached him to ask about the space. I didn't want to make a scene so I left it alone but I have to say it was an extremely uncomfortable and unfortunate situation all around. Either our event was supposed to be private and they purposely left it open to the public because we didn't meet the minimum OR we were mislead from the beginning and it was never going to be private. If I had known how it would turn out, I would have booked the Italian Restaurant we were looking at which has a beautiful private backroom. Regretfully we chose Druthers because we thought it would be a great space and we wanted to support a company we love. Now I'm just left with a bad taste in my mouth when I think about the whole experience....

God awful experience. If I could leave zero stars I would. My boyfriend and I came here for the first time tonight, decided to try something different for date night. Drove 40 min only to wait 40 min for a table.

Once we got our table, it was another 10-15 min before our (inept) waiter came over. I asked him what beer they had that was comparable to a Blue Moon. I don't remember the name of the specific beer he recommended, but it was GROSS and NOTHING like Blue Moon. I asked a waitress who had brought over some ketchup if I could try a different beer my boyfriend had found on the menu he thought I'd like. She happily exchanged it out, and didn't even charge us for the first one. (That's honestly probably the only good part of the night...not getting charged for the first beer). Another 10-15 min went by before the waiter came back for our order. He saw the new beer in front of me and sounded offended when I told him I didn't like the initial one.

We ordered the broccoli cheddar hummus as an app and it had zero broccoli flavor, as well as pita slices either were black crispy burnt or barely cooked. My boyfriend finished his beer and it took about 20 min before our waiter even acknowledged it. We initially received the complete wrong meal and when we told the woman it wasn't our meal she sounded shocked. When our food finally arrived (my boyfriend got the Americana burger and I the butternut squash mac), his burger was so greasy it made the bun soggy and his fries were "limp" looking mine was unevenly hot. Our waiter never even came to check on us or see how things were going. We finished our meal and waited 25 min for to go boxes. He filled mine so much the sauce was leaking out the side when the lid was clasped together. He took the side of his pointer and rubbed it on his pants to clean it off. We got our bill and he overcharged my meal by $2.50 and when we asked about it, he didn't believe us. When he finally agreed to look at the menu, he realized his mistake , said he'd fix it and disappeared for another 10-15 min. Needless to say neither myself nor my boyfriend will be returning. We have no desire to go back...

I went this Sunday 5/26 and it started out pretty typical. Atmosphere was good, it was crowded outside so we sat inside by the window, that was fine though. We had the loaded grilled cheeses which were great, it's my go-to meal at Druther's. Overall it was going well until we got our food. We realized we didn't have any condiments we tried to get our waitress, Nicole W's attention. She passed our table several times without checking up on us. I figured she might have had a lot of tables to cover so I was pretty patient but after we finally got Nicole W's attention she didn't say a word to us, just gave us a funny look when we asked for a refill on my drink and condiments for our food. Then a few minutes later Nicole W came back while we were still eating and asked "Are you finishing up yet?" Excuse me? We were waiting for you to bring us things that should have been at our table when we arrived. Nicole W didn't check up on us after we got our meals and that was the only comment Nicole W made to us the whole time we were eating. I didn't like that comment at all.

I was going to let that go because everything else was good. But then I received a notification the next morning from my credit card company that I was charged 100% tip on my credit card after I left the restaurant. I wrote on my receipt that I had left a cash tip at the table and that nothing additional would be charged to my card. I had to make additional phone calls with the restaurant and my credit card company all because Nicole W overcharged me. It's a really sneaky thing to do because you get charged the base amount and then the restaurant updates the charge to account for tip after you leave. So Nicole W really charged my card 80 dollars for a bill that costed 40 dollars and thought I wouldn't notice. I don't want this kind of thing to happen to anyone else, so I'm warning you not to be served by Nicole W.

Update: Management was very understanding. I had a very positive phone call with Jonathan who helped me resolve this issue. Angie was also...