Jeff & Blues — Restaurant in Huntsville

My wife and I stopped here for drinks before a show at the Orion Amphitheater, sometime between 6:30 and 7pm 4/11/25 (the exact time is hard to say; the show was a phone-free show). The good: the atmosphere was good; the whiskey selection was decent good; I liked the all-wood look to the place. But I'm leaving a review because of bad service and questionable food safety.

My wife ordered a whiskey; I ordered a mojito, because they had fresh mint displayed in jars at the bar. After handing us the handheld credit card reader to have us enter a tip amount and charge our card, the bartender poured my wife's drink. I got done with the card reader as the bartender was beginning to make the mojito. As I put the card reader onto the bar, I see that the bartender, with bare hands, has the mint in one palm and her other hand raised. She says to me, quickly, "we don't have a muddler so.." and slams her hands together in an attempt to muddle the mint. After about half a second of taking in this stunning information, I tell the bartender that no, that is not a thing I can just go with. If they have no muddler, I can just order a different drink. She pretends that is impossible because I've already paid (every business has the ability to cancel a transaction, even one that has been paid). Accepting that I'm locked into a mojito without a real muddler (even though muddling by hand is not going to make a good mojito), I tell her that if the mojito order can't change, she needs to redo this muddling process after putting on gloves. She tells me THEY DO NOT HAVE GLOVES.

In response to this (dubious) claim, and after being denied a renewed attempt to just order something else [no gloves? so there is no way for you to NOT physically crush my mint against your bare skin before mixing it into my drink? that is repulsive], I tell her that she will have to go wash her hands, and then restart the drink. I point out that she just handed me the credit card reader that every patron in the bar touches, and she then tried to crush my mint without washing her hands from that obvious contamination. By now, the back and forth has gotten both of us a bit flustered, though neither of us are raising our voices beyond what is needed to hear over the music and the general noise of the crowd, so that's good on her to retain composure. We have a short dispute over whether she should empty and wash the shaker (I believe she already threw the contaminated mint into it). She refuses, and proceeds to hand-muddle the mint, add the ingredients, shake, strain, and serve the drink. As expected, it is not a good mojito - if you crush/muddle the mint in your hand, most of the oils released (which have all the flavor) naturally end up on your hand rather than in the drink.

The clearly-communicated opinion that I am the one in the wrong here for enforcing basic food safety is stunning, and the complete unwillingness to just swap to some other drink (even a cheaper drink with the same alcohol, so alcohol inventory systems aren't thrown off) is ridiculous. If you don't have a muddler and don't have gloves, the answer to "I'll get a mojito" should be "I'm sorry, we don't make mojitos," not "let me just slap that mint between my unwashed hands." I suspect this was a food safety violation: I doubt the permissibility of bare-handed contact (without washing hands, after obvious contamination) with consumable ingredients that go directly into the final consumable item with no intervening cooking to kill microbes. Instead of fixing it, the bartender pretended a)it was perfectly normal, b) that I shouldn't object to the process and c) that it is impossible to...

Been coming to Orion for years now and it’s sad to see its customer service at its nicer bar go down. Went to Jeff and Blues to get drinks and was flabbergasted by what happened. Took forever to get our drinks because the bartenders were all talking to each other. Then I watched the girl bartender be rude to other customers who were just asking about where food was. She was very rude and borderline arguing with the other guests. For being known for hospitality, being treated poorly and then watching other people be treated poorly is just sad. We went to other bars that were busier just for the fact the bartenders were nicer. Avoid...

Great place to relax and enjoy the sunshine! My visit was fun filled and the perfect spot for laughs with my friends! We enjoy corn hole, cold drinks, and karaoke all while front porch sitting! The staff was wonderful, very friendly, and accommodating. Food trucks were available! *Big props to Mr. Shane Pierce for the guided tour of the amazing Orion! If you can get in on this tour you will not be disappointed! **Do yourself a favor and visit Jeff and...