The Empourium — Restaurant in Kernersville

The empourium had recently become my partner and I’s date night spot to grab a few drinks after dinner and play pool. We visited last Tuesday and ordered a round, paid cash & began to play pool. Every time I’ve come to the emporium the bartenders have been wonderful and service has been quick. Generally when I come I either pay cash & tip before I leave by throwing a twenty or two in the tip jar, or I tip at the end of my night on the screen once my card is run. This has never been communicated as an issue to me that I do not immediately tip as I order each drink, and being a bartender and having a career in bar management I’ve never seen this as an issue. My partner had gone up to order our last round when an employee who was off the clock sitting at the bar told him that would be our last round that was served to us because it’s “customary to tip at the emporium.” My significant other said okay, apologized for the confusion of us intending to tip by putting money in the tip jar before we left, and handed the bartender a $20. Upon him returning to the pool table he said that we were leaving and confused I asked why. As he was explaining the situation to me the off-the-clock employee ran over to the table and began raising her voice at us insisting that we never intended on tipping. She appeared drunk and very aggressive about the situation although it had been explained multiple occasions that we have always tip before we left and that was our full intention for this trip as well. As she was shouting at my partner I interrupted and told her as I understand she is passionate about ensuring her employees are fiscally taken care of the way she went about the situation was poorly done, she yelled at me “then don’t come back.”

While I understand wanting to ensure your employees are tipped and treated fairly to be off the clock, seemingly drunk, and aggressively yelling at patrons was not the way to handle this situation - especially when we were not combative, apologized for the misunderstanding and tried to correct the issue immediately.

I’m writing this not to complain, but in hopes that if this happens to another patron in the future it is dealt with differently. The emporium is a great spot & I’m sad that we don’t feel welcome to come back, but hope that this can be used as a way to approach situations in a better way in the future as I truly do not feel it should have escalated in the manor it did on the...

I've been to the Emporium more times then I can count and have never been disappointed. Firstly, a friendly and attentive staff serve VERY fairly priced drinks promptly and knowledgeably. Inventive and delicious craft beer are always on tap. But, for me, what really makes any bar is it's vibe. And this place nails it. It's always filled with down to earth, interesting people and that comfortable feeling of "being-at-home" is hard to miss. Not to mention it would literally be impossible to find yourself bored at the Emporium. Like some other bars, one can find pool, darts or live music to pleasantly partake in, but this place goes much, much further. A Nintendo 64 (with classics like Mario Cart and Smash Bros) can be found along with its older brother the SNES (and yes they have MarioKart along with sooo many more games). But if that still doesn't satisfy the old school gamers out there just go down stairs to find a treasure trove of classic arcade games. We're talking Galaga, Pac-Man and sooo many others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Not to mention air hockey, fooseball and (of course) ski-ball. Factor in all the board games and other scattered forms of entertainment that are to numerous to mention and I guarantee no one will find themselves on their cell phones (unless you're texting the rest of your friends...

An extremely unprofessional bartender happened to be working when we went there. The bathrooms wreaked of urine. There were puddles of standing water downstairs next to arcade games and electric cords. The drinks were made poorly and she acted as if she never worked in a service related industry before in her life. She had a very unpleasant attitude and interrupted my friends while they were having a private conversation to say, "I'm already having a bad day, so I'm going to ask you to take your conversation outside because this is my safe space". I guess we'll be going to one of the more upscale options in the area from here on out. Very disappointed since this place used to be such a pleasant and welcoming local spot. I guess maybe this was why there was only 4 people there on a Saturday night.

Now looking at some of the other reviews, it seems that the lack of service and professionalism is standard and has become the expectation based off of the responses to similar reviews...