8UP Elevated Drinkery & Kitchen — Restaurant in Louisville

Honestly, one of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had. The only bright spot was the waitress. We booked one of the igloos for a friends birthday which has a $500 minimum. We were led to believe that the igloo would be an appropriate option for eating a full meal. It is most certainly not for anyone thinking of doing that. Do not book an igloo unless you only plan on doing drinks and appetizers unless you want to eat your $40 steak out of your lap like a family picnic at the park. The main heater in our igloo was supposedly broken and when we asked to speak with a manager about our situation he informed us that the heater had been broken for a couple of weeks. Well, if you're a restaurant that charges a $500 minimum for an "experience" like this there is no excuse not to march someone down to Walmart or Lowes and buy a new heater for that tent the second that the heater breaks. It also turns out that the heater wasn't broken, it was merely unplugged.

We were also told that there would be blankets in our igloo to which we were informed they are only available on request. Call me crazy but when the temperature is under 30 degrees maybe you should have those blankets already in the igloo waiting for your customers. When we called for a manager he was incredibly defensive during our entire conversation. He never said, "I'm sorry this isn't what you thought it would be. How can we make it right?". Instead, all he could say was that it wasn't an ideal situation for a full meal, but they thought it was best not to limit the menu options even though there was literally only a small coffee table in the igloo to set food on for 8 people. He told us that their original idea for the concept was cocktails and apps, but he could show us hundreds of receipts where people had eaten full meals in the igloos. Well, if that manager reads this I really don't care about the hundreds of people that have eaten out there. Those people that chose to eat a full course meal out of their laps have nothing to do with our situation. Your jobs as a restaurant manager, or a manager in in business for that matter, is to find a solution for a problem without creating more conflict. It's not to tell the customer in front of you that you've never had that problem (which you clearly have if you read your Google reviews), and that it's basically our fault that we were misled by your staff when booking the igloo. To top it off after our initial conversation you could tell he was frustrated with us and when he left the tent he aggressively zipped the tent down about half way leaving it half open so that the 30 degree weather could get into the tent.

We did end up going inside to eat so that we didn't have to eat out of our laps. We were a party of 8 and half of our food came out and then it took another 20 minutes before the other 4 people's food came out. The first 4 were almost finished eating before the second 4 got their food. when we asked why it took so long their explanation was that their food was "made to order" so it can take extra time to get the food out for one party. Isn't all restaurant food made to order? The only reason I'm giving them two stars is because our waitress was very good and accommodating. I'd strongly recommend you take your dining...

Made a 5:00 pm reservation, outdoor seating, party of four. Planned for 90 minutes of drinks and appetizers before having dinner at The Brown Hotel. I called after making the reservation and inquired about being seated by a heater. I was told to request this upon arrival, that it shouldn't be a problem given our early reservation (they open at 5:00 pm).

Arrived at 5:06 pm, hostess was on the phone. We stood there for 10+ minutes along with another man waiting to be served, while multiple staff and management stood around with no one acknowledging our existence. It wasn't that they were busy, there were only two other customers in the entire place, already seated at the outside bar.

When the Hostess got off the phone, she gave no acknowledgement of our waiting. I provided my name and asked for seats by the heaters. The outside deck has two large fire pits, which each seat 14 people and I believe another smaller seating area near a fire pit. They were all empty.

The Hostess then walked us out and attempted to seat us at a table nowhere near a fire pit AND in chairs that each had a pool of water in them from rain the previous day. We pointed out the water in the chairs and I again requested to be seated by the fire pits, clarifying that we have my 85 year-old mother-in-law with us. The Hostess indicated she would have to check with the Manager. Again, the entire place was almost completely empty!

The Hostess went back inside and as she was talking to a Manager, I walked up and again asked to be seated by the heaters. I again explained that I had an elderly woman with us, and that we now were only going to be there for drinks and appetizers, that the space would be freed up in less than an hour. The Manager said it would be no problem.

The Hostess walked us back outside and took us to the far fire pit, only for us to find that again, the chairs mostly had pools of water in them. She literally just stood there watching as my son went around the table, trying to cobble together four dry chairs (he found one) for us to sit in.

Then the music came on and it was apparent she was trying to seat us immediately adjacent to the speakers, which were very loud, especially given the fact that there were only three customers in the entire place. We would not have been able to hear each other.

The Hostess was clueless during this entire time, she made no attempt to dump the the standing water out of the chairs or to take any steps dry them after we dumped them. Literally every other seating option available to her would have been more appropriate than what she offered us and she just stood there, mouth agape, when she encountered problems.

And what kind of restaurant opens without doing a basic walk-around to ensure the premises are ready for customers. It had rained the day before but the day of our reservation was sunny and dry, albeit cool, all day. There is no excuse for trying to seat customers in an inch of standing water, not once, but twice. And never an apology, any decent staff would have been horrified.

We left. After patronizing 8-Up many times in the past, we will not...

I have not been to this restaurant in 10 years and after my recent experience I will never be coming back. I was apart of a bachelorette party of 10 that had reservations to eat dinner at 8UP. Our server was awful as first miscounted how many were at the table which meant we were 1 water short which was me and it took her 20 plus minutes until I was able to get said water. Then most of us decided to order their special alcoholic drinks which aren't cheap. Every single drink the server brought to the table was wrong and she would confuse us many times by calling the drinks different names and they were all wrong. One moment she would give us one drink and say "that's the Godmother" then come back with another one and be like "here's the other Godmother" when it looked nothing like the first Godmother she brought to the table. Overall none of us ended up getting the drinks we ordered which were $16 and she never asked if we needed any other drinks or if everything was good. So I am already starting off the dinner with the wrong drink which I hate. Then the second annoying problem was the food. I ordered a caesar salad with no anchovies but instead I paid $8 to add chicken to the salad. I was also not the only one who ordered this salad at the table as another girl did with no anchovies as well. Well of course the server gives us our food and the other girl who ordered the same item got the salad with no anchovies and then mine was of course covered in them. I told her this is wrong and she asked if I wanted a new salad which I said yes. She then came back in less than 5 minutes with a "new salad" which tells me she lied and took the anchovies out because as I began eating it, it tasted like canned fish and the chicken pieces were questionable and had some discoloring. So overall I spent $38 on food and a drink that I didn't really eat at all. Then to top off the night as we were finishing dinner they said for a party that they can only split the check 3 ways which is very frustrating. We told the server how we wanted it to be split and she didn't even try as each bill was very random and had everyone's items all spread out on all 3 checks. Then 3 of the girls went to complain to the manager and get the checks fixed and organized and even then they still messed up as they put a few extra drinks on the bill that my food was on so we ended up paying for another drink than wasn't purchased. On top of all of that the views aren't even great to make you want to come back and the food is definitely too pricey for the quality you get. Plus there was some parents sitting near us who let their kids run wild as they kept coming near our table and being loud and blowing in soda cans to make loud noises.... definitely not a dinner I want to ever...