The Watering Hole East — Restaurant in Lincoln

Update: Ownership definitely went above and beyond after this review to make sure we had a great experience. They were easy to work with after reaching out. She met with me in person, took care of the employee issues and helped us to continue to use the establishment. They have been wonderful since this issue.

Probably one of the most disappointing and disrespectful experiences I have ever had at one of our local sports bar and grills.

7pm on a Saturday evening and wanted to take some friends and family out. We called ahead and asked about our party of 15 and they only said that we may have to sit separately because there were only 5 tables open (understandable).

We get there and find two tables close together right away and there was enough space for all of us at those two tables. They were not busy in my opinion as there were more than 5 tables open and plenty of room.

I sit down and immediately a server comes and tells me that they are not able to accommodate our party. The manager comes over and tells us that they are not going to serve us and that we needed to leave.

Now we were being understanding and tried to give all options… two servers? Two checks? One check? Longer wait time? Limited menu? Separate seating? We did not care about doing whatever they needed to LET us eat and drink in their place of business. No matter what we suggested the “manager” was not having it and literally told us we had to leave.

Many of my clients own similar establishments here in Lincoln and they could not believe we were being turned away with no regard. 6 kids and 9 adults who all were buying drinks and food, ready to tip well and prepared for wait times. We were being treated like they absolutely did not want our business and didn’t care that we had to find another place or drive somewhere else. We all went to Riskys and got service right away, food, drinks, football, tipped great, bought the kitchen multiple rounds, and had a great time. Thanks Riskys!

I will NEVER return to any of these locations and will definitely be making it known to the owner and the owners of other businesses in the city to steer clear of this place. Used to be one of my favorites, been a loyal customer for 15 years. Just...

Copy/pasted from my review of Cliff's Martini Lounge, a sister restaurant owned by Mo Chara LLC:

Hi y'all. My name is Dillon. I worked at Cliff's briefly in August 2020. I had been looking to find a job before my last semester of my bachelor's degree program at UNL started classes. I got a few offers, but I decided to take the one at Cliff's because I could work weekends, and I figured tips would be good.

Bartender Dustin Erdman summarily fired me two days before classes started, without giving me a reason. And that's within his purview, I'm sure he'd say I wasn't experienced enough for the job or what-have-you. We didn't really see eye to eye.

What was not within his purview was illegally withholding my pay for several months. I'd call him up and he'd give me the ring around, "I'll have to talk to Barb she handles payroll." I was never allowed to talk to Barb myself, see. Or whatever her name was, I forget.

The employee handbook reads, "paychecks will be issued approximately nine (9) days after the pay period has ended." And I don't recall exactly how long it was before I saw my check, but I think it was around 6 months. They paid me only after threatened with a citation by the Nebraska Department of Labor. And incidentally -- I think they should've been cited. Not paying your employees is a serious offence.

And indeed, it seems this is not their first run-in with the Department of Labor. If you Google the parent company, Mo Chara LLC, you'll find a court order, United States District Court Case no. 4:16CV3066, Thomas E. Perez, United States Secretary of Labor v. Bryan A. McFarland. I am not familiar with the details of that case but it doesn't look good.

The same Bryan A. McFarland was also sentenced to three months in jail plus probation for assault, as you can read about in the Journal Star.

To my knowledge he either no longer owns or at least no longer manages Mo Chara LLC, but as I personally can attest, conditions have not improved for employees with regard to pay.

If you believe businesses should pay their employees, my advice is don't give Cliff's Martini Lounge your business. Or the Watering Hole. Or any other Mo Chara LLC...

We visited as a group of seven on Wednesday evening, August 20, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Unfortunately, the service we received from our server was disappointing.

I personally ordered two Guinness and closed out my tab around 5:30 pm before leaving. My receipt showed $10.50 for the drinks (before tax and card fees), and the transaction was processed for $11.94 plus the tip I added. Despite that, my coworkers later told me the server claimed I still owed $2 because my card supposedly didn’t cover the full charge—something that made no sense since the tab had already been closed properly, and my card had no issues.

Things didn’t improve for my coworkers who stayed. Several of their bills were inaccurate and needed to be disputed as they closed out, which was both frustrating and time-consuming. On top of that, the server tried to claim an automatic gratuity applied for groups of eight or more. At no point were we an eight-person party—there were seven of us initially, and one wasn’t drinking. After I left, the group was down to six, and although another coworker stopped by later, we were never a group of eight at the same time.

This isn’t the first time we’ve run into questionable billing practices here. A couple of months ago, a coworker had nearly $20 extra added to their bill, which we only caught after reviewing it closely. While that was resolved, experiencing similar issues again raises some serious concerns.

I first addressed my concerns directly with the establishment; however, the manager’s assurances were not fulfilled, and no further communication was received from her.

Overall, it was a frustrating experience that left a bad impression. Between the poor service, confusion with billing, and what feel like misleading charges, it’s hard to recommend this place...