The Last Refuge — Restaurant in Louisville

First, I have never left a 1 star and couldn’t bring myself to do it although a two star is a stretch. Our experience was terrible. Our conversation at the end of the evening with the manager capped off a very disappointing family night out. Six of us went for dinner on a Friday night. We had reservations but were told when we arrived that our reservations were for the outside patio. They were not - in fact our reservations were for a high-top table in the bar area. It was over 90 degrees so we weren’t too excited about sitting outside but decided to hope for a breeze and make the most of it. The atmosphere is fantastic. Live music was excellent. Food was meh. Service - totally lacking.

We ordered our drinks after waiting for about 15 minutes for a server to great us - not a big deal on a Friday evening. As expected, the outdoor patio was not crowded (not too many people want to sit outside in the heat). We got our drinks and ordered an appetizer while we waited for our last 2 guests. Our appetizers arrived about 20 minutes later as had the rest of our party of 6. A round of drinks were ordered for all 6 of us. We had to request small plates and napkins. Another 20 minutes passed before we got our drinks and small plates. The drink order was wrong - like not even close! We ordered our dinner and requested the correct drinks. After another 15 minutes, we asked our server to please check the status of our drink order. She replied they had a new bartender and it would be a few more minutes. Our food and drinks finally arrived - sans utensils. We asked for them and off went our server. After waiting about 10 minutes, looking at our food but unable to eat it, a member of our party went inside to ask to speak to the manager. A young man assigned to the door said the manager would be outside to speak to us. In the meantime, we flagged down another server and were brought utensils and napkins. The manager later walked outside to our table, saw the utensils and said, “so were you just lying to me”? We were dumbfounded and really caught off guard. We attempted to explain the frustration with our experience when he shrugged and walked off. We flagged down our waitress, got our check and waited for her to pick it up. FYI - A 20% gratuity is added to the check (one check for all of us) for parties of 6 or more. For a good experience we are 25-30% tippers. We handed the check back to the server without an additional tip and told her we were disappointment with the evening. She took the check, didn’t respond and walked away. Needless to say, we will...

The two young bartenders that worked last night need to be fired!

My friends and I came to this bar for the first time. One of my friends owns a local bar in town, another is a bartender, and I worked in the service industry for 15 years, so we like to patronize new bars in the area. There were 5 of us total. The vibe and the decor of this place was fantastic. The service, however, was horrible. We knew going in that this place has not had their hard opening, so we didn’t expect things to be perfect. There were two very young looking bartenders (perhaps one was a bar back?) working the bar. No cocktail servers. The young guy had a mullet and an eye patch (he didn’t give us his name), and the other was a female with curly reddish brown hair. We had 2 rounds of drinks to taste them all. I will say that the drinks were delicious, though the male bartender was not very knowledgeable about them, and he didn’t seem very experienced. It was not busy, but the crowd coming and going throughout the evening ranged from 20 something to mid 60’s. The bartenders made last call, so one person in our party ordered one last beer. We were finishing our drinks, then started to pay our tabs. The male bartender couldn’t find a tab for one person in our party. No big deal. We chalked it up to his probable inexperience. Then when the last person paid her tab, the guy asked her why she didn’t tip more! She was confused and thought he was telling her she didn’t pay her whole tab, but she paid with a card, so she asked for clarification and he told her he gave her a beer after last call and we were there after closing, so she should have tipped him more! She tipped 15% to a bartender who didn’t know what he was doing for a $16 drink and a can of beer. It was 12:09am and the bar just closed at midnight. Then the female bartender started yelling at her and said something along the like of “go ahead and pop off” which made no sense since she didn’t say anything other than just asking the guy to clarify since she was confused.

Never in my life have I witnessed something so bizarre and uncalled for, especially at a newly opening bar in an area with very well connected patrons. This place has the potential to be great, but the owners of this establishment need to hire more experienced staff with more professionalism. The girl who was rudely accosted by the bartenders had planned to go back next weekend with a group of our friends for her birthday, but after that insanity, none of us will be returning...

We went to The Last Refuge to celebrate friends last night, abd before we even arrived we were informed they lost our reservation, and the experience did not improve from there. Our server, bless their heart, had a rough evening and tried their best to make it up to us, but didn't have a single order with the right person. After the first hour, we ordered drinks (which we perfectly fine) but my glass had 4 obvious lipstick marks encricling the cup on arrival. When I told the bartender "I hate to do this to you, but this is covered in lipstick" he told me "it's really hard to get off" but did replace the glass. We arrived at 7pm, and at 8:40, our server comes from the kitchen to confirm who ordered what over an hour prior. As our entrees trickled out, salads that took mere seconds to assemble came out dead last, and at 9:30 people were left shoveling lettuce into their mouths while we packed boxes and venmo'd each other for something, because not a single ticket was correct, despite the visit to specifically clear up who ordered what. After deciding all the arrangements to get everyone's bill redistributed, our server came back with a bill that was "missed" the first time around (it was a reprint of one we paid).

My pesto ricotta pizza was fine, my boyfriend's lamb burger was uninspiring and served with kettle chips that clearly were poured from the bottom of a bag, the table we ate at was about 4 inches away from the couch and 2 inches lower, the bathroom ran out of paper towels, and every server I saw looked harrowed, our server clearly needed someone to wrap their ankle (i nearly offered), the rugs on the floor were taped down with electrical tape to the wooden floors, and they ran out of water cups.

I will, however, pause to speak about the bourbon balls, which feature a pecan that has a magical toasted flavor and texture and a very balanced flavor throughout. Save yourself and get these to-go, and...