Big Lou's Icehouse — Restaurant in El Paso

To Big Lou's owner and/or Management:

This review is inspired by the poker games that you host for the Nomad Poker League. Me and my husband have been to the Big Lou's on the West Side, as well as the one this review is about. We spend a lot of money and we tip really well. We are the type of customers you dont want to lose.

I have to ask- Has a manager ever been there while this league was running a game? You should be completely embarrassed to be associated with them. The couple 'in charge' get sloshed and fight to the extreme (literally scream like someone is dying) or the girl cries uncontrollably (or, in my experience, both). This happens in front of everyone throughout the game. Apparently, they have no shame.

That's bad, but it gets way worse. The league owners dont follow the standard rules of poker, which caused a fight amongst players in the two days I played (almost physical both times). One of those fights was at your establishment, Big Lou's and guess what? It was your very own poker hosts that were instigating it! They were defending the actions of a known cheater (Chili) because her and her husband spend a lot of money being the biggest drunks of all the players and being friends with the league owners. From what I've been told by a number of other players, Chili has been caught cheating several times but nobody does anything. I personally experienced the rules being bent to allow her unethical behavior. Again, Big Lou's has a manager ever attended one of these games? I can not imagine one has.

There's much, much more, but the main issues that I hold you partially responsible for are the ones described above. It's your responsibility to maintain a safe environment for your patrons. Allowing a rouge legue to operate the way they do is just playing with fire. People get mad when others are allowed to cheat. People dont want to spend their precious time around drunk couples fighting. I highly recommend you manage the chaos.

Last thing- Your bartenders are top notch and deserve a living wage for having to work in that environment. Unfortunately, we won't be back to either location, but hopefully, you'll step in before you lose...

Great service especially with Arlene, good specials and prices overall, friendly environment, lots of beer selection, free popcorn machine for a snack, they have parties where they cater free food for everyone(first come first serve), bar space is huge with lots of space, as far as the rest of it it's not huge but not small where if there's a lot of people it's hard to walk by or anything, they even have a patio area in the front with tables and chairs , they have hosted UFC fights with no cover, they have tv's to watch the sports and the have 2 huge projectors for the big games and fights, they have a dart game, they have big jenga game, they have this cool game where there is a ring on a rope and you have to like swing it and make it into a hook against the wall, they have that game where you try and make a little bean bag into a circle and then of course a nice touch tunes jukebox which I feel like has access to a way bigger music selection than other bars. Every other day they have a live DJ and i know ive seen a live band here a few times but it seems like its been a long time since they have had that. I also remember they did kareoke as well but haven't seen that in a long time. I've never seen a fight or altercation here and I'm a regular (4+ times a week), parking lot in the front is good with plenty of space on the side of the building as well. The bathrooms are clean for the dudes with 2 urinals and a stall with little or no wait time unless it's super packed, for the ladies though it's only one girl at a time which isn't a problem, it seems, during the week, but on weekends or busy days a small line can form. Overall...

I’ve been here a few times before and it was kind of a cool place but last night I was pretty disappointed with the service. I had to literally get up and wave her down, otherwise she probably would have never gotten our order or refills. I’m not a regular but it seemed she was catering to certain groups and wouldn’t even look our way. We also ordered a few shots after another bartender that saw me waving came to help and the shots were really watered down when she finally brought them. I don’t mind paying for anything but they weren’t worth more than a $1 … the food we ordered was subpar and wasn’t warm, so that just made things worse. I can understand if it was a busy night but there weren’t too many people there. Maybe it was a bad night for them or they were short handed but it would have been so much better to go somewhere else, and next time this place will definitely not be an option. To be honest, I was a little embarrassed to have brought my out of town friend here… but it won’t...