Wine 101 Helotes — Restaurant in Helotes

My wife, friends and I planned to go to Wine 101 this past weekend. We live nearby and have been often. Their Facebook page said they opened at Noon (they have now changed it). My wife really likes their food, so she didn’t eat lunch and was planning to have an appetizer. We arrived on Saturday at 2, and no one was there. Luckily, they share a beer garden area with Busted Sandal, so we had a beer. Unfortunately, no one showed up until about 3. They said they were having issues with the keys, so didn’t open the wine window until 3:30. Sadly, they also said the cook wouldn’t be there until 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. We did order about $60 of wine at that point.

Unfortunately my wife was now starving, so we got food from El Chapparal while we finished the wine. It’s a shared garden area with other businesses, and their kitchen wasn’t even operational, so we figured no big deal. They don’t even have wait service right now because of COVID. Almost as soon as the food had arrived, an irate employee ran out of the kitchen and started screaming at us for ordering food elsewhere when they serve [usually] food. I explained to her that we had been waiting for hours, and that they weren’t even serving food at this point! She said we were lying, and that their Facebook says they open at 3:00 (it didn’t, I showed it to her). We explained to her that we had just ordered some wine. She never asked us to leave, and just started yelling about health code violations and went back in the trailer.

About 30 minutes later, the POLICE showed up! They asked us what happened, and told us that the business was kicking us out! The employee had never politely asked us to leave, or to eat the food elsewhere, and a manager never spoke with us. They weren’t even serving food, my wife was already done with the food, and we were in a space shared with other businesses. This was incredibly embarrassing and I’ve never had a situation like this before. We will never be back and this was some of the worst management of a restaurant or bar I have ever seen in my life. ...

I’ve been coming to Wine 101 since they were one of the only joints in that area. At that time, they were housed inside the little house-like structure which I believe now is a coffee shop. It was gorgeous. Fire pits sprinkled around the generously spaced out seating affording guests privacy and a little warmth in the cooler months. The previous owners did a bang up job of getting to know their customers. They routinely did rounds saying hello and asking how your stay was. You always saw them and they made lots of opportunities to speak to us. It became so comfortable that we became wine club members. The wine club held many perks including hosting events strictly for members. —Smart business practice given that during the COVID lockdown, the monthly memberships sustained Wine 101 during those lean times. Unfortunately, the new ownership has not taken the lead. I believe the new owners took over nearly a year and a half ago. I’m still a member but have yet to meet the new owner. And unless I’m mistaken-there hasn’t been any kind of meet-and-great for the wine club. I don’t expect a lot, but it would be nice to see the owners coming around to the tables-to introduce themselves and say hello. Open communication goes a long way… I still enjoy coming out and sitting under those glorious trees…but the shine is off the penny. The food is still good although the prices have jumped rather drastically (the cheese board went up about $10). And I’m glad to see a salmon appetizer back on the menu. I hope for the sake of the business, the new ownership do more to make their customers feel welcome and appreciated. It would be a shame to loose this -once-little gem. New owners:...

I have only been to this place only ever once, and it would be my last time coming here. My sister and I, came here after shopping in the area to enjoy half bottle Wednesday, we went and sat at the bar stools. It took awhile for us to be greeted, there was a little bit of a rush so it was understandable to have waited. About 20 minutes go by and we were finally acknowledged, the server did not seem interested in taking care of us whatsoever, you could tell because she was more interested in handling others that had just walked into the door. It took awhile for her to get us our bottle, because she took it out and sat it on the counter since she was pouring glasses and taking orders from others around us and not really giving us service. I have worked in the food industry before, while I was in high school and in college, so about 9 years of working and I know you have to work for those tips, this was just bad service. The only time she actually gave us anything on time was the check and she stuck around as well when we signing off on the check. We actually left a tip to another server that...