The Lodge — Restaurant in Fort Myers

I know there are generally two sides to every story so I am anxiously awaiting the rebuttal as I am still bewildered by the treatment we received this afternoon.

It should be noted wife and I have been to The Lodge almost a dozen times and always had an enjoyable experience-including last St.Patrick’s Day with basically the same people.

Our group arrived for the St. Patrick’s block party today (Sunday, March 16) about 11 AM. We requested, and were seated at, a couple of picnic tables outside on the sidewalk. We ordered eats and drinks continuously and had nine people in our group once they all arrived. Throughout the stay a couple in the group left for brief periods to purchase t-shirts or other souvenirs from vendors and to chat with friends in the streets only to return to order another beverage and food. It was an enjoyable festive afternoon.

About 2:30 our server Dani informed us she was being cut for the day and wanted us to settle up our $300+ tab and said we could open another one with the next server and we agreed to do so. A few minutes later, a manager named Gabrielle approached us and advised us that we had been there almost 4 hours, and we would have to give up our table and get back on the waitlist if we wanted to stay there. I thought she was joking, but then I realized we were being ‘asked to leave’ for lack of a better term. She said there was a three hour wait for tables we had already been there for four hours so we would need to forfeit our table and let someone else sit there despite the fact we were still spending money. I’ve never in my life been asked to leave an establishment we were actively supporting and having a good time. We would likely have been there for another couple hours and one in our group had just received his wings.

We asked to speak to another manager named Lisa because I was still shaking my head and wanted to know the true reason we were being asked to leave. Lisa never bothered to come out and talk to us (not even sure she was told we requested to talk to her?)and we were still there for another half hour settling up our tab and finishing the food and beverage that we had. Even more baffling was the fact were three other tables open on the sidewalk in front of us and multiple tables open inside the restaurant as well. Once we had finished our food and drinks, we were standing on the sidewalk for another 15 minutes and no one had even approached the tables to clean them off to seat the people on the ‘three hour waitlist’.

Very very disappointed and don’t know that I will ever return. We live here in Fort Myers and come downtown at least twice a month, especially when we have guests in from out of town like we did today and don’t believe the Lodge will be on our list of places to support any longer.

A follow up to the reply from an ‘unnamed owner’…. I understand the math and our group did the same thing last year and gave an extremely large tip and planned to do the same this year. However not once was it conveyed to us that we had a time limit set at our table and as The Lodge identifies as a sports bar, at times you have patrons that come in to watch multiple football games. probably have a sandwich a couple beers and drink water for the rest of the game… So while I understand your logic, I don’t appreciate the manner in which it was not conveyed to us that we should come in and eat and leave. No one minds playing by the rules, but they need to be explained before the game starts not in the middle of it. I will follow up with an email to customer service explaining...

(Review from my first visit.. but look at my added notes after this about my second and third visit..) 1st visit. My wife and I just ate here for the first time and I had to share how great it was. We ordered an appetizer, drinks and food. The food came out hot and Tasted amazing! The drinks they make are delicious as well. And we had Gabby as our server. She was so sweet And an amazing waitress!! She checked on us every few mins. Made sure we had every thing and had a smile on her face the whole time. We had such a great experience! We will definitely be back!! (2nd visit) i brought my mother after the fort myers boat show. The server was great! but we had a food runner litterally throw the plate on the table( like slammed it down) at my mother who was furious.. she spoke with a female manager who was a sweet heart and handled the situation.. I took it as some one just having a bad night and brushed it off. The food was as great as the first visit so that was consistent. (3rd visit) last night the wife and I returned to the lodge we had sat down at a quater after 5. And it was 5:45 before anyone even took my drink order. Mean while 3 tables sat down around us and had their drinks and food orders put in before we even met our waitress. I approached the hostess and asked her hey not to be rude but i still havent seen a server she looked at her tablet and said omg you guys have been sitting 30 minutes.. that ridiculous, im so sorry and got the server. When the server came she got our drink orders and food out to us which were as great as always.. but I only saw the server 3 times my whole hour and a half at the restaurant... I would like to basicly just say Im updateing this to say the food is consistently excellent however your staff service is declined considerably.. It seems for every great person I meet on your staff I meet an equally under par performer... not sure if its under staffing on busy nights.. but it may be a while before I visit again... In hopes service returns to the par it was when the...

I really had high hopes for this place. My wife and I were in town for a 1-day convention. After the show, we were in the mood for some BBQ before we headed back to the hotel for the night. It was a Saturday around 5 PM. I walked in and was greeted by Brielle who was charming and cute if nothing else. My wife and I already looked at the menu online, so we knew what we wanted. My wife ordered the 2-meat combo with sausage & brisket, chips with queso and okra. I ordered the half rack of ribs with baked beans and fries. Brielle said it should be about 10 - 15 minutes. I told her "I don't care how long it takes, just make it right". While waiting for the food I was met by Michelle who was also very sweet. While waiting for my food, we discussed sauces. I picked out what my wife wanted and then the Kansas City for me. I actually ended up buying 4 bottles of the Kansas City it was that good.

Brielle brought my food and quickly went over everything. I was hungry, tired and wanting to get to the hotel. Now, this is where it goes a little South. First off, the ribs were not the "fall off the bone" type ribs which is ok for me, I don't mind a little tug but these I actually had to use a knife to cut them. Very tough. The baked beans had green peppers in them which I am not a fan of. They would have been perfect without the peppers, but the worst part of the meal was they FORGOT MY WIFE'S OKRA!!! She was so disappointed :(

Overall, they got 2 stars because the sauce is really good and the girls who waited on me were also pleasant. They had 3 stars but when Brielle went over all the food, and something still ended up missing I had to drop it 1 more star. Just being honest. We would probably not go back. I get more tender ribs from Sonny's and nowhere...