Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom — Restaurant in Independence

Walked in at about 2 p.m. No greeter at the door. No bartender at the bar. no employee to be seen anywhere with the exception of four employees sitting at a table in a far corner. After a couple of minutes we walked toward the kitchen area and did find an employee to ask whether we should seat ourselves or continue to wait. The employee suggested we just find a seat.....ok, we'll seat ourselves. As we passed the bar I noticed a gentleman with an empty glass looking around for service....uh oh. We chose a table near the four employees who were soon paged to the back to see...someone. As they passed our table one did say we'll be right with you.....I guess the "meeting" was more important than the patron. Finally a waitress did return from wherever and we managed to order a couple of beers....which sat at the bar until I finally retrieved them myself. I should add the restaurant was very slow with only two patrons at the bar area. You would think the bartender (who was constantly leaving her station) would have had the incentive to deliver our order since our waitress was seemingly indisposed . They charged us $16 for two beers and some of the laziest, incompetent and unacceptable service I've experienced in a long time. The manager who tolerates this sort of "service" should be reconsidered as eventually it is this person who is running the show. We left after we finished our $16 beers without so much as an acknowledgement from the "greeter" who managed to find her post. Old Chicago may have decent food, but don't waste your money on this place folks. The only reason I gave one star is because I wasn't able to...

I’m not a super fan of large chains. However this one was pretty good. We had eaten here before, and I was not super thrilled, but we tried it again and it was great. Burger was cooked right and was better than expected, daughter enjoyed her pizza, and wife indicated the Thai salad was quite nice. I enjoyed the outdoor seating, and the service was great. They were out of two of the beers I requested, but had ample alternatives.

I did not talk to or see a manager, not that I needed to, but would have commanded the waitress for noticing an overcharge on my bill that I had not noticed.

I think we arrived immediately after the dinner rush, as the parking lot was full when we arrived, but was half empty by the time we got our food. I did find the restaurant and bathroom to be slightly untidy but nothing unacceptable.

Nice visit.

UPDATE:

Revisited after kids activities got done relatively late wanted a bite to eat at around 9:45p on a Friday. Unsure whether it’s my expectations that are wrong, but something was amiss. Maybe servers trying to go home, I don’t know but service absolutely forgot us repeatedly and we were one of like MAYBE 5 tables in the whole restaurant. Took forever to get drinks. Took forever to get order. Never got refills, food finally came out but was cooked wrong and man I don’t want to continue to rail, but was honestly one of the more….. disappointing experiences given our prior visits here. So word of advice…. If you have a late ball game, theater, track meet, etc…. I’d steer clear here. They are just trying to go home....

This first part has nothing to do with my rating as it is a chain thing, and not a "this location" thing, but I think it's important for first-timers to understand. I figured a pizza place with the name "Chicago" in it would offer traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizza. It doesn't. The pizza is in a "deep dish" pan, but it is not Chicago-style deep dish with edges and kind of flaky. (I even ordered one with the name "Chicago" in the title and deep dish crust...) Their deep dish crust is more like something between hand-tossed and pan crust, and the toppings were arranged in typical sauce/cheese/toppings order. More research might have revealed this ahead of time--we stopped in on a whim.

As for this location, we had an overall good experience. The server was nice and attentive. However, she did get one order incorrect. We ordered a kid's Mac and cheese and broccoli without the cheese. We got a kid's cheese pizza (and that's what was on the receipt). I didn't bring it to her attention because she seemed like she was doing the job of several people, and it was for a 3-year old. Even though he asked for the Mac and cheese and broccoli, he was excited when the pizza was presented to him. We were traveling and very hungry, so we couldn't take any extra food with us and he wasn't going to wait for the correct items.

For the COVID-curious, the staff were still wearing masks. All staff I saw kept them above their noses.

The restrooms were clean and stocked.

I would probably go here again if in the area and...