Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom — Restaurant in Duluth

We have had horrible experiences 2 out of the 3 times we have eaten here. The last one was so bad I have to let others know that they should not waste their time or money at this restaurant...there are so many other GREAT places to eat that treat their customers well.

They have crammed so many tables on the upper level it is hard to even navigate to your table, not to mention that it gets really loud in there with so many people so close together. Our server kept saying "what?" over and over. I felt like it took us 10 minutes just order our food. We tried the Stromboni's, which we had never had before. We both commented how good they looked in the picture with the thin crust and the insides just packed with veggies and meat with cheese oozing out. As you can tell by the way the story is going, this is NOT how they looked when they made it to our table. By the way, by the time the food made it to our table, I had been out of a beer for 15 minutes and our waiter had not been seen anywhere. We finally spotted him taking orders for a 30 top that had came in. (This is were the waiter should have told their manager that someone needs to help with his tables if he is going to take the large party.) Our food was brought to us by a runner, who ran away so fast that I didn't have a chance to ask for ranch or ketchup (my son ordered fries and there was no ketchup to be found...do you know how hard it is telling a 3 year old that he has to wait until SOMEONE walks by that can help us???). I finally got up and asked another waitress for ketchup and ranch. Here comes the good part...20 MINUTES LATER...still have not seen our waiter. Our Stromboni's were dry and gross. Neither of us barely touched them. No one had been back to our table to ask how our meal was. So, we are "done" and need a box for my son's burger (because there is NO WAY we are taking the Stromboni's home). As you can imagine, I still have been asked if I would like another beer (by now I could have used three). I have to get up and get a manager to get some help here, I explain our situation and give him my card to run for our check. He brings us our check to sign, clears our two plates and leaves. No apologizes, no concerns, nothing done to our check. As we are getting ready to leave the manager comes by and grabs the check and asks "is this taken care of"? I almost lost it. I had a vision on snatching the billfold out of his hands and tossing it across the restaurant.

I will never ever go there again and I am going to write this review on every social media outlet. Old Chicago...get it together. Train your servers better, fire your Stromboni cook and definitely fire your manager. If anything, he had one opportunity to at least apologize for the bad experience at your restaurant. A apology goes a long way. Needless to say, we had to stop and pick up dinner on...

I gotta let you guys know a little bit about an experience. We had out at Old Chicago in Duluth right off a canal park. This is something that I need to share because it meant a lot to me. To actually have this experience at a real real real great Pizza place. Old Chicago, and what I want to tell you about is the pepperoni. Pizza, that was so amazing, served by our just ultra talented waitress. Brooke, and let me repeat that ultra talented waitress Brook. Uh, we also had the artichoke dip, which did not fail to amuse and entertain. It was entertainment for our mouths, delicious, uh, on top of that. The spaghetti was so good. I even ate the piece that my son dropped on the table. It was so good. I'm just like I'm eating that, I'm eating that. Look let's get back to the service because it's it's worth coming back and revisiting, how excellent the service was here. Okay, typically, Pizza takes what 30 minutes 25 minutes to to cook. Uh you know and that's in like a firestone oven, but, uh, twenty minutes less than twenty minutes hot, delicious pizza don't know how they do it, but they do it. Spaghetti, just coming back to that again noodles done el dante. So yes, our waitress, yes, she did it all took care of the kids and made them smile. She was pleasant and funny to me and my wife made sure that we got taken care of got our food done out on time. Okay, everything you could ask for in service when it comes to service. I literally asked her to pick me a random beer. She literally picked my favorite beer out of the hundreds of beers they had there she picked the one I like the best. When you get that kind of service where people just innately know what to do to service, the customer in an efficient and pleasant manner. That's rare. Get out to this place, get up, get off your butt, go there, do it now. I'm gonna put some pictures up of some of the delicious food we had like the wonderful spaghetti that my kids had. The delicious pepperoni Pizza with a sauce that is unlike any sauce that I've ever tasted in my life, and the savory creamy, cheesy artichoke dip that just melts in your mouth and on the chip. Just delicious so get out there. Pour yourself a Pabst Blue Ribbon with an icy mug and get out there and have a slice and enjoy yourself request Brooke, because she does it right. She'll, make sure you get your food out hot....

Waited for three appetizers to go for more than an hour. Spin dip, pretzels, and fried pickles. The excessive wait time for appetizers (which are specifically created to be able to serve quickly) is already frustrating, but the hosts really solidified my strong dislike of this place.

All four hosts stood around chatting with each other, largely ignoring me, giggling and shooting the breeze. FOUR. It looked like high school study hall. Then, they acted like I was the crazy one for asking about the food I was told would be ready a half an hour ago. Thirty minutes later and they still don't care.

When I finally got my order, it was obvious it had been sitting there for a while. It's a bummer because I bet it really was good when the kitchen first made it. I took a bite of the pickles immediately and they were lukewarm at best.

This place clearly needs a management overhaul. Demand better from your employees.

And if you hosts see this, I waited tables for years. I get it. But you're paid to work. What you all did tonight wasn't work. If I was your boss I'd fire you and never look back. I hope you find some work ethic or your futures will be bleak.

Bartenders - this excludes you. Y'all got me a cold beer quick and if not for that I'd be fighting some entitled gen z little twerps in the entrance right now. You know what you're doing and if I come back, it will be to only sit at the bar.

TL/DR waited over an hour for appetizers. Don't waste your time. If you do decide you have an hour to wait to eat, sit at the bar. At least you'll be treated with...