Taj Louisville — Restaurant in Louisville

This review has nothing to do with the service workers at Taj, but their security. Service was excellent when we showed up on a busy Saturday. My wife and a couple coworkers showed up to a packed bar and they got to us nearly immediately. We had a wonderful time on the patio and then last call happened and decided to have a small night cap which was also delivered in a timely matter. It was around 3:30am and decided to hit the bathrooms before we left which were outside. I also feel the need to mention their hours are posted to be open until 4am which lead to these issues. I went out and was approached by two workers immediately telling me the patio was closed which is where the bathrooms where (and the bartender pointed me to). I described what happened and they pointed me to some porta-potties way in the back, which were less than ideal since they hadn't even started cleaning the bathrooms but I was understanding as a local bartender. I exit the porta-john and was immediately ambushed by a security guard saying I "cussed out" the outside workers and claimed he "heard it on the cameras" when I was in there 45 seconds MAX. Mind you, as a bartender of nearly 10 years I can tell you MOST security systems in small bars such as this DO NOT have audio, and the only systems that have that kind of response time are those with a surveillance team attached. No such exchange happened and I was being pushed out by this man. I said this exchange didn't happen and he started leading me to the door. I wasn't fussed as it was last call and I just wanted to pee before we left. The issues arised when he pushed me through a side alley and not back to my wife and coworkers at the bar to tell them we had to leave (like I said, I wasn't happy with the situation to begin with, but we had our drinks and were on our way out). It lead to me having to call my wife from the curb outside to get them to come out, and when they came out I started explaining the situation which lead to the security worker coming back out and arguing with me further about a situation that didn't even exist in the first place. He was incredibly rude, uncomfortable and HOSTILE over something that didn't even transpire. We all had just gotten off work and wanted a drink somewhere to decompress. I understand the stress of a bar on a Saturday truly, but for this man to take it out on me was completely UNACCEPTABLE. We will not be back and will no longer push our late night patrons...

I do not recommend Taj. Used to really love this place. But it's taken a plunge in staff hospitality recently. Ive been a frequent patron of Taj from the day it opened. Those who know me know that I nearly always have a camera on me. My cameras are more often than not film cameras. I've posted many photos with well over 1,080,000+ views. Ive posted around 50 images taken at Taj (some are visible with this review as I am editing an old review). It was shocking to have an incident occur over taking an appropriate and tasteful photo down the bar including patrons & staff. Which I promptly offered to destroy given the hostile response of the bar tender. So apology offered and image offerd destroyed. You'd think that'd be the end of it. It was not. The continued staff response was shocking and unprofessional. One by one the staff approached me with ever increasing hostility over having taken the picture. This is especially surprising given that it was an image of the very first bar tender to ever serve me at Taj and I am well known to this person. Attempts to smooth the situation were met with over the top hostility by bar staff who were unknown to me. I was neither intoxicated nor rude.

I once sat through Taj's bar staff meeting (hard to miss given the bar size). In this meeting the bar staff were instructed to encourage people to take pictures and tag Taj on Instagram and other social media. Seemed sensible.

I welcome interaction from owner on this matter.

RESPONSE TO OWNER: When it was expressed that the staff member didn't want their picture taken, I apologized and deleted. One picture was taken, one picture was deleted. No other photos were taken. You'd think problem solved. It was after this that your staff got out of hand. I understand you'll stand by your staff. The response was over the top. "Never come back" banned for life. I'm okay with that. I dont desire to return. But you should probably consider whether there is a...

Something was put in my drink on a Tuesday in January 2019 while having a casual evening with a couple of girl friends after work. Despite having 3 drinks over a period of 4 hours, I was not able to drive and felt absolutely horrible the next day. This is not how I react to alcohol and I haven’t experienced anything like it in the 2 years since this incident (thank God).

When I followed up with Taj after the incident, the manager informed me they had cameras and would look into what happened that evening. I was grateful for her concern and gave her a full timeline of what occurred that night to help her search for answers in the video — when we got there, when we left, when I started to realize something wasn’t OK.

I dropped by Taj a couple of days later to check in and see if they had found anything on video, as that night was a very unsettling and scary moment for me. The manager, in response, complained about Taj’s WiFi and how it made it impossible to record and save video, expressing nonchalant disappointment at her inability to help. First, that’s not how WiFi works. Second, it became crystal clear that Taj does not value the health & safety of their patrons, so I ended the conversation with the manager and left the bar.

I’ve not been back to Taj since and have discouraged others from going to Taj at every available opportunity, especially other women. There are so many fantastic bars in Louisville, and thus no reason to patronize an establishment that is not able to investigate threats to their patrons’ safety, should an...