William Oliver's Publick House — Restaurant in Lafayette

To the owners and management of this establishment, I try not to write negative reviews. However, this experience deserved some attention.

We wandered into your restaurant on Thursday around 9 p.m., eager for some much-needed “mom time” and a couple of late-night snacks to curb our munchies. As locals who are regulars at William Oliver's (shoutout to the New Orleans bartender, who makes the best Sazerac in the land), I had high hopes for your place. Spoiler alert: I should have known better.

We were greeted promptly by a young redhead who, let's just say, didn’t exactly radiate warmth or enthusiasm. She approached us with all the energy of a tired houseplant, but hey, we’re moms out for some rare, carefree fun. We laughed a little louder than the average library crowd, but nothing too crazy. Apparently, Miss "I Haven’t Seen Fun in Years" was a little put off by our joy, though, because it was evident she could not have been more annoyed.

My husband orders a beer (the first drink of the night, mind you), and here’s where things take a turn. We had just returned from an event in Denver and hadn’t had a drop of alcohol all day. But, we did partake in a little legal plant beforehand, because, well, it’s legal and we’re adults. But according to our lovely server, we were already over-served. Yes, you read that right: “over-served” when we hadn’t even taken a sip of anything. LOL. Look, as a former industry worker who has taken the TIPS class more times than I care to admit, let me just say this: her ability to assess intoxication was a level of wrong that could only be described as spectacularly misguided. Maybe she needs to stop playing judge and jury and stick to a job where her ‘intuition’ isn't needed—like, I don’t know, filing papers?

And let’s talk about TIPS for a minute, because in that class, they teach you the basics—like, if you think someone’s had too much to drink, you immediately offer water. But nope, not a drop of water offered. We had to ask for it. Thanks for nothing.

Oh, and by the way, my friend is gluten-free, so guess what was forgotten? The bread. But, of course! Because why not throw in a little extra touch of incompetence?

At this point, we’re just trying to get through this disaster of an evening. This girl seriously needs a lesson in customer service. Honestly, she’d be better off in a job where she doesn’t have to gasp interact with other humans. Perhaps a nice desk job where she can stare at spreadsheets without worrying about things like “service” or “smiling.” She seemed to realize her lack of judgement and tried to make it right, but that ship had sailed. We took our money elsewhere.

Long story short: we won’t be back. If your staff can’t tell the difference between laughter and intoxication, or figure out how to treat people like human beings, maybe it’s time to rethink your hiring strategy. Better yet, invest in some real training for the folks you employ.

We'll stick with other local establishments where the drinks are great, the staff actually enjoys their jobs, and no one’s accusing us of being "over-served" before we’ve...

Had two very negative experiences here and won't visit again. Both times I was shocked by the abysmal service and both times ended up leaving without ever having been acknowledged by the staff.

On the first visit, two of the five members of our party arrived about 20 minutes before the remaining three. When the three of us walked in, our two friends had already been seated and had already been served their drinks. We sat with them and waited to see the waiter return. The five of us sat there for OVER AN HOUR waiting to be helped, handed a menu, acknowledged, or just something. Not a single staff person spoke to us and we left having never even been acknowledged. They literally lost out on selling 5-8 more drinks and food, but they didn't seem to care.

On the second visit we walked in, seated ourselves as the sign instructed, and waited. Again our table was completely ignored, so I helped myself to some menus on the hostess podium and we, again, waited. We sat there for a total of 15 minutes, never even got acknowledged, and ended up walking out. A smug looking hipster with a bun walked right by our booth 7 TIMES (yes, we started counting) and never stopped nor said anything to us. Another staff member stood at the hostess podium 12 inches from our booth, made eye contact with us, and then punched some buttons on the computer and walked away having said nothing. One of our party literally stood on the booth, looked over the half wall, and made eye contact with the bartender. Still, we were ignored. Absolutely incredible! I'm unsure what people do to get acknowledged at this place, much less served.

I've eaten here before these two incidents and it's nothing impressive. Portions are decently priced, but too small. Pretty basic pub food, nothing special or memorable. The amount of meat you get on the sandwich isn't enough for the amount of bread you get and the sauces leave a lot to be desired. Drinks are overpriced. Beer selection is decent. The place is mediocre at best and Lo/La has way better options within a 10 minute drive. Don't waste your time, because that's exactly what these...

I am not one who normally leaves reviews, but what is happening in our country and seeing how this bleeds into our local community is really sad and scary. To see how people are reacting towards minorities especially right now is troubling and it’s all of our responsibility to speak out and stand up to injustice when you see it…this is how we stop the harm to all. What I witnessed was appalling and uncalled for…I felt unsafe in this establishment and would not recommend any BIPOC person to come here due to safety reasons. For the waiter to speak to a Black mom like that in front of children and threaten to call the police on her is EXTREMELY VIOLENT. Any of you reading this…put yourself in this situation and how would you respond to that? And then think, would I trade places with a Black person in that situation? No…you wouldn’t.

Not only did that happen..but then to allow 2 older male customers to circle a female table with children…what was the point of this? To scare them? To intimidate them? For being rightfully upset for how they were judged due to the color of their skin?

And to the owner…yes you are a minority, and I hope you realize your strength, power, and responsibility as the business owner of this establishment… to be the example of how to help our entire country with racism RIGHT NOW. The example we need to be to stand up towards racism….and not give excuses to adults who should know better…and to hold accountability for your establishment treating a groups of female minorities in this manner.

I can say, thank you to the bartender who finally came and stepped in after a white lady asked once for manager help (even though the Black female asked over and over again). The bartender came, LISTENED to what happened and immediately realized the harm and made it right. If he wasn’t there, I don’t know how it would have ended up…and to the owner…I really hope you hear that and let it sink in. If he wasn’t there, what would...