Crimson and Gold Tavern — Restaurant in Denver

Literally the worst experience I've ever had at bar. If I could give 0-5 stars, I would.

My friend and I got there around 7:10. The NCAA Championship was going on, so it was busy. My friend and I sat at the bar and ordered 2 beers. About 20 minutes later, we decided we wanted to play some pool. The bar tender told us he would just transfer the tab over to the server.

Unfortunatley, the server never once approached us. About 20 minutes went by with both of us having completely empty beers, and my friend went to the bar to grab another one. Once again, the bar tender was cool, and gave him a beer for free. Much appreciated.

I still had an empty beer, however, and I was thirsty. I decided to go grab beers from the bar tender. I ordered 3 beers and chips/queso. He gave me the beers promptly, and told me he ordered my food.

After about 30 minutes without getting my food, I went up to the bar. The bar tender apologized, and told me my food would be out soon. No big deal, he's by himself and doing a great job. I can wait a little longer. I ordered 2 more beers and went back to the pool table.

Another 20 minutes go by, and still no food. I go back to the bar, and he apologizes again. He's all by himself, and he hasn't had a chance to run the food. I'm a little annoyed at this point, but not upset.

2 hours go by. Still no server, and I haven't gotten my food yet. I'm upset, and go to the bar to get my tab. The bar tender gives me a the wrong check. I tell him its not the right tab, and I'd like the right tab. He gets defensive, tells me he bought our round, and tells me I should stop complaining. I try and tell him it's still the wrong tab, and he ends up leaving the bar and, literally, getting in my face. I've never had a bar tender be that aggressive before, especially when no one is causing problems. But at this point, the bar tender is in my face yelling at me. I try and tell him it's cool, its just the wrong tab, but he won't hear it. My friend eventually sees what's going on, and get's between us. The bar tender goes outside, and my friend pulls me outside to get out of the bar. The bar tender approaches us again, and tells me I should stop complaining.

At this point a "manager" gets between us, and tells me I'm causing issues. We try to tell him what happened, but he won't hear it. I want to tell the manager that he understaffed and he caused this issue, but he's telling me to back off.

I'm the GM of a restaurant in Fort Collins, I understand that staff get's busy sometimes, and customers get neglected. Still, when an employee approaches a customer like that, he get's fired. That's about as unprofessional as you can get. I'm embarrassed for whoever owns the place. I will absolutely never go back there, and I hope that no one else receives the treatment that I got. Hopefully they hire a real manager, and this doesn't happen to...

I’m pretty sure I was drugged here by a bartender. I never set my drinks down or leave them unattended — I’m aware of how I look, and I know I could be a potential target. So Im always inherently cautious. Thats why im positive it was a bartender.

I had two rum and cokes — normally I can have three before I even feel anything. But after just two, I started blacking in and out in 5-minute intervals. Five minutes conscious, then gone. Then back again. Over and over. That’s not alcohol. That’s GHB or Rohypnol.

While I was in one of those blacked-out states, I was punched in the face — hard. That punch snapped me back to full consciousness. I was disoriented, bleeding, and in no condition to defend myself.

I’m a guy — good-looking, lean, smaller build. I wasn’t flashing cash or acting reckless. I didn’t look like a robbery target. Which makes me believe this was something else... something darker.

Update: This happened just before COVID. And I’m still pissed — not just because of what happened to me, but because of how the bar chose to handle it.

A staff member came up to me while I was bleeding and asked, “Who did this to you?”

I pointed the guy out.

They didn’t call the police. They just kicked him out. No report. No accountability. No protection.

On my way out I asked a staff member, sepcifically the bouncer at the door, why didn't yall call the cops, i just got assaulted, he told me directly:

“They dodn’t want to get the cops involved because they would’ve shut the bar down that night. Everyone would have been told to leave....”

So instead of doing the right thing — protecting a drugged, assaulted customer — they made a business decision. And I’ve had to live with that ever since.

I didn’t know how to process it at the time. I didn’t understand what had happened to me until I started talking about it years later. But now I do — I was drugged. And worse could have happened that night.

I was in no condition to fight back. No ability to defend myself. And the people who should have stepped in… didn’t. In a way I was lucky I got blasted in the head twice, because it brought my nervous system back online, but that doesnt mean it was right.

Now that it’s public and showing up in your Google reviews, now you want to treat it seriously?

No. That moment passed. This is just damage control.

I have to live with what happened. You can...

Oh man..the food is absolutely AWFUL. our hot food that came out had red dye on the bottom. The salsa tastes like water, the pizza is basically a giant ball of cooked dough with a tiny bit of cheese, the pretzel we got was hard (clearly re-heated) and the burger had such a weird funk to the taste. Fried pickles were soggy. No wonder DU students don’t come here. I expected bar food but this was absolutely tasteless and not worth the money. This is the second time I’ve gotten food from here and both times were more than disappointing. For being in such a prime location I know why older people come here. They really need to step it up. I can see why everyone goes to Spankys and the other bars instead...