General Wood Shop — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

Me and my sister’s first gay bar experience ended terribly!

I am recently out and am trying to find community and places where I can feel authenticity myself. I decided to push myself and go out to eat at General Wood Shop and invite my sister. She drove and I bought the food and drink.

Everything thing was good. I loved the happy hour options on drinks, the Bao Combo (highly Recommend), and my sister loved the music! After spending almost $60 and giving our server a generous tip we left happy. But then it turned downhill when we couldn’t find my sister’s keys.

Upon realizing this we went back to look for them. They had a “bouncer” by the door for the Drag Show happening in a few minutes. I explained the situation, all they did was ask for the description and tell me I can go look for it. We could not find it and with it being our way home we couldn’t just leave.

A server frantically rushed to help us. She wanted us out ASAP because of the Drag show starting soon. Instead of holding off the show she told us “ You can’t look for your keys now because we have a show, so you either need to pay the cover or leave”. We explained that we wanted to go home, but don’t have the keys. She then repeated to us to “Leave Immediately! Because we need the table for paying people!”

Be left our contact info, and were rushed out with us running into the Queens during the performance. With us being shouted out by the Queens, causing unwanted to us. This was handled poorly, they could have done this very differently. We were polite but assertive.

Is this the procedure when someone has a missing item? Is this how you treat your customers after they pay for their food and drink? I can’t say I’ll be back but I will be reaching out to the manager to...

One of the safest spaces in town, hands down!

I feel safe and welcome here as a feminine queer person, which is not something I can say for any of the other queer bars in GR.

All of the staff are wonderful, and very knowledgeable. If you’re unsure of what to order, they are always happy to custom make a drink for you. Drinks and food always come out quickly, even on the busy weekends.

I also really appreciate that NA/mocktails are a big part of their offerings! They have many different NA spirits, as well as NA cans and bottles. I don’t always drink, so it’s nice to be able to come here and have something I can enjoy without alcohol in it.

The food here is amazing! The bao bun trio is my favorite. Their fries are hand cut and sooooo good with the truffle aioli on top! Their churros and cheesecake wontons are fantastic too.

It’s so clean inside, the bathrooms are always clean and stocked… which feels like a rarity for bars on bridge street. The bar itself is well decorated and has very cozy intimate vibes.

I can’t wait for their patio seating! I plan to enjoy that all summer long :)

Overall, this is a wonderful space and a lovely addition to...

Would have gotten 5 stars is the service was terrible. I have never heard nor been to general wood shop, but my friends and I were looking for a bar to spend a lot of time at ordering food and buying drinks. It was 9pm, and the tables were clearing out, but that didn't matter. The servers were more focused on talking to each other. We got our food, which was immaculate, and our drinks were delicious so much we wanted to order more......tell that to our server to snatch our water glasses without even refilling them. Never came back to the table to check if we were all set. My partner, whose card was on the tab, had to walk up to the half empty bar with 4 workers gossiping and waiting for them to be done to cash out at the bar. Needless to say, I'll only go their for carry out cause the service was awful. Which sucks because the atmosphere was actually...