Knoop Rooftop Cocktail Lounge — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

I was in town for a week as I was training with my new employer for a job I recently was hired for. I learned midway through the week that my employer would cover my meals for the week and thought it would be a good opportunity to splurge. I also happened to be staying as a guest at the Canopy Hotel so naturally my first thought was the rooftop bar and restaurant. My eyes wandered to the most expensive dish on the menu “Bikini Bottom Buns” Lobster, crab, shrimp (should have been my first red flag, what can I say I was too jazzed about a free meal to have exercised more discretion) with “shaved asparagus” (??? Interesting but I’m always down for something new) $25. Sounds good to me I’m not paying anyways!

The server, a very nice blonde woman who was friendly and gave me great service, brought out a medium sized dish of 3 slider sized “buns”? What the hell is this…

The bread was more akin to a Hawaiian roll than a proper sandwich bun. My girlfriend opined that perhaps they used brioche bun but it was smaller than a conventional bun. Strange. It seemed to be a very poorly seasoned melange of the three shellfish varieties with a yellowish tint perhaps an addition of mustard. I find that unlikely as there didn’t seem to be a trace of zesty flavor in this concoction though it was heavily seasoned with paprika on the side that was touching the bread…? Which seemed to nullify any possible flavoring. The shaved asparagus.

Shaved asparagus.

Shaved… asparagus….

A sliver of shaved asparagus adorned each bun. It did not add to the flavor of the dish or the enjoyability of eating it. To the contrary. It was as if the chef stepped outside and found a particularly haggard blade of grass curly in all its god given liberty and placed it on top of the bun. Each shaving was the first bite of the each sandwich which was followed by an awkward slurping if you will to make sure to get the whole damn thing in your mouth.

$25 for 3 of these. Grand Rapids has a vibrant local scene with many formidable sandwiches and Knoop needs to significantly step their game up should they hope to go toe to toe with any of their competitors.

For context I had phenomenal sandwiches all week at half the...

This was our first and LAST time going to Knoop. I have never been treated so horribly. I have Celiac disease and I prefer to order my drink at the bar so I can watch it be made, however we were told that wasn't allowed and was sent back to my seating area to wait for our server. I specifically told her I wanted a TITOS extra dirty martini. After quite some time, she brings out a Ketel One martini and tells me the bartender told her, this was safer for me. Now in my history, titos is certified gluten free and while others believe that in the distilling process gluten is distilled out, Ketel one starts from Wheat, whereas TITOS doesn't, and I know my body and my disease, and mind you, I ordered what I ordered, what bartender (I have been one for years) substitutes a drink and just sends it out and tells the server that he knows what is safer for me. I then asked for the drink I ordered, in clean shaker etc. I walked inside to try to see if I can at least see him make it, to ensure he used the right bottle this time, he had already added the vodka to the shaker, so I am not certain which he used the second time (but I am sick the morning and the drink was awful, didn't even finish it). While myself and my friend stood there watching, the bartender and the server were talking about ME, and how I don't know the difference (hence why I wonder what I got, because it did not taste like my normal drink) but also that I was clueless about my illness etc. She then turned around and you can imagine her shock when she saw me standing there and heard EVERYTHING they said, plus why should I have to defend a typical drink, you are a high end cocktail bar, shouldn't customer service be a key component. We did not get an apology etc, it was just horrid. As someone who has also been a server, I am shocked we couldn't find, see, or have a manager come to our table. We cashed out immediately, which also had to be on one check, instead of 3 because it was company policy to be on one check, but I didn't see that in writing anywhere, although I was too busy defending my drink order to pay much attention. 7 people will NEVER be...

My visit to Knoop was very disappointing. My younger sister and I visited on a busy Friday evening and got sat instantly, which was surprising. We knew we were going to order drinks right away. She ordered one of the signature mocktails, because she's only 18, and our server instantly asked if she wanted to add alcohol to it. This made her a little uncomfortable because it's clearly under the mocktail section of the menu, and she had never been asked if she wanted alcohol at a restaurant before. It just threw her off, which had already thrown me off. But we moved on and I ordered a cocktail. I had my ID in my hand because I just turned 21 over the summer, I almost always get asked to show my ID, and I feel like it's respectful to have it in my hand ready to go. Our server stares at it in my hand for a good 30 seconds, and then grabs it out of my hand to feel up and down it. He hands it back to me laughing and says he cannot accept it. I was really confused at this point. I asked why he couldn't accept it, and he explained that he had a Michigan Driver's License that was not as glossy as mine was. I found it pointless to argue, but I couldn't help thinking "Yeah of course it's glossier, it's probably 5 years newer than yours." He then offered to sell me a mocktail, which felt like an insult. He just offered my 18 year old sister alcohol in the NON-ALCOHOLIC drink she ordered, but will not honor my completely valid new Michigan's Drivers License as an acceptable form of ID. I'll definitely be carrying my passport around from now on. The whole interaction with our server was just extremely uncomfortable, which was really unfortunate. We had been excited to go all week....