The Century Bar — Restaurant in Dayton

I visited The Century Bar on Sunday evening April 7th at approximately 6:15 PM, prior to attending a Shuster Center event. I had 3 family members with me and was proud to take them to a friendly, historic bar in downtown Dayton. We entered and found seats at a table, but I’ve been to the bar before and I recalled they didn’t offer table service, so I went to the bar along with one of my family members. They were definitely busy for a Sunday night, but we waited patiently to be acknowledged. The bartenders were a slight, middle-aged man with dark hair and beard wearing a vest, and a woman with a long strawberry blonde ponytail. Neither of them even looked our way for several minutes. Then it became painfully obvious they were ignoring us on purpose. We waited several more minutes while he washed glasses, and rang people out that weren’t even finished drinking. The man even started putting away bottles of liquor, wiping down the bar, etc. without so much as a word that he would be with us shortly. Since I hadn’t been in the bar for some time, I thought maybe they did offer table service and he was angry that we were standing at the bar, versus waiting on a server, so I said to him “Do you offer table service, or is it bar service only?”. Without even looking my way he said, “Drinks are only served at the bar”. By this time, it was very obvious he was being rude to us on purpose, but the person with me asked for a menu. Again, without even turning around, the male bartender extended his hand with a menu. I took it and placed it on the bar and we left. I have never been treated like this in any establishment in my entire life. I waited to post this for 1 week because I wanted to really think about what had happened. Did we do something to offend? No. Were we dressed inappropriately? No. Were we rude to him? No. I am a lifelong resident of the Dayton area and I hate that anyone coming to our area would think the behavior of those bartenders reflects the people in our region. I hope I never experience service like this again. I definitely won’t experience it at The Century Bar! I anxiously await the response...

The staff in particular a female bartender was nasty. She served my friend a beer when he asked for a rum. When he told her that's not what he ordered she said "it's busy tonight just go with it." My other friend just took the unwanted beer as he tried to explain to her the rum he was asking for originally. She looked appalled as if it was his fault she got the wrong drink. Apparently my friends before me ordered an old fashioned. I asked for 1 as did my colleagues who got there after me. This bartender rolled her eyes at us for ordering a 3rd old fashioned and suggested STRONGLY that we should have ordered at the same time. Even though we all decided at different times what our drink would be. (An old fashioned should be 2nd nature at a whiskey bar as should customer service.) After her command a fellow patron expressed to me that he couldn't believe her attitude as she is in the service industry. As we had this convo (mind you my 1st drink) she over heard and loudly yelled as she pointed at me "YOU'RE DONE HERE!" I walked away just thinking how appalling her behavior was and immediately asked for a manager. The manager proceeded to say he would take care of us without offering us any sort of grievance. To then insult one of my colleagues when they ordered a blue label. She asked her "do you know how much this costs?" My colleague answered yes that's why I ordered it. She proceeded to put the bottle on the bar then walked away to make other drinks for patrons. I approached my colleague to ask what was wrong and she said that her bottle of STRAIGHT BLUE LABEL was just sitting there. This bartender sees us talking and AGAIN starts yelling and pointing at me "I SAID YOU'RE DONE HERE!" from across the bar. The manager did NOTHING. 1st time in this establishment with a party of 15 and we all had this...

I was not impressed with my experience at The Century Bar. My husband and I met downtown to wait for friends who came from out of town, wanting to visit the infamous bar. We parked two cars in the lot next door around 8:30 pm. Not spending much time downtown, we were not aware of the small sign that said no parking ANYTIME. I did look for a place to pay and obviously missed the sign so i assumed it was free parking after a certain time. My husband and I walked to the front door and was greeted by someone who worked the door. This man knew we parked in the lot because he saw us pull in. He did not offer his observation or mention that we were illegally parked. No, it is not his responsibility but I am sure he sees this all the time and it would have been a nice thing to do. He was talking to someone who I assume was the person who probably gave us our citation after we walked into the bar. Unfortunate that he would not have asked if we knew we were parked illegally. Then we enter the bar and waited in a long line that took over 20 minutes to get a drink that was not very good and had to be remade 2 times. When our friends arrived about a 1/2 hour later, we once again tried getting them a drink but gave up. There were only two bar tenders and they were not very friendly, unless you were a regular. After we all left the bar shortly after we discussed our disappointed with the service and inability to get a drink AND we each found a $68.00 ticket on our car. I will NEVER frequent this bar again or recommend...