Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom — Restaurant in Manhattan

I can tell you that this Old Chicago is not worth the trip, the wait or the awful service. My husband and I are avid OC'ers wherever we travel and live. The last place we lived, my husband did the world beer tour multiple times and nearly every mini tour that they offer. The previous OC that we lived near was amazing.

This OC however should be ashamed. Corporate should be ashamed at how poorly they're representing their brand.

The food seems to be what you would expect of OC. That standard is a pretty easy one to hit since they're provided everything they need to make the same food across all OC. The staff and management however are unacceptable. The first visit we had we were with friends. We were stuck off in the back corner outside (which was fine, no complaints there), ordered a bunch of food and kept ordering drinks throughout. However, after we finished the food and were just ordering drinks, managers kept coming around the corner looking at us, but only once ever actually saying anything to us, and made it really clear that they were wanting our table. They poked around the corner looking at us so many times without a word that it actually made us uncomfortable so we paid our bill and exited. We had planned to order more drinks but the unwelcoming attitude left us to retreat to a much more welcoming venue after paying our bill.

The one time a manager did speak to us, my husband asked about coming to watch the football game on Sunday. She gave a quick rundown of how early to get there, how packed it usually was, where the tvs were, etc. Good, check - we have a place to go to watch the games.

Fast forward to Sunday - aka football day. Husband shows up 30 min before opening so he can assure he gets a prime spot when they open and can request his team's game be put on. Heads to the bar upon open and asks about the game. The bartender, with an insanely out of line attitude, retorts she doesn't know and goes back to whatever she's working on. Twice my husband let's her know he wants to put in a food order while waiting for the game and twice he was ignored. But he managed to get her to pour him a coke from the fountain gun. He does manage to rangle her attention long enough to ask about putting on a specific channel to watch his team. This OC doesn't have NFL Sunday ticket. This is literally the ONLY OC we've ever been to that doesn't have Sunday ticket! She was extremely rude in replying that they only play what is locally televised and he'd just have to look it up to see who was playing. After that interaction he paid for his coke and left.

100% we will find another venue to go to for football. Clearly this is not where you go to watch football. We miss our previous OC. This one has lost...

The foods fine. The drinks are fine. Most of the employees are fine.

However, during our visit there was a man who was pretty intoxicated, minding his own business. An older lady who I can only assume was a regular due to the way she spoke to the employees, and they to her, began badgering the man loudly, that he should stop, he should leave, loudly calling out for someone to bring him water. Despite the fact he clearly and water and was drinking it.

The man explained his wife had recently passed and he was just trying to deal with it. The woman laughed and mocked him.

Now of course this isn't on the business or the employees. However, during all this the employees laughing and mocking him on their own. They invited the older woman to come to the bar and began gossiping about him. Once he departed they all gathered, laughing and making jokes. During this time I request a box and the check 3 times, each time the employee would turn around and start gossiping again. It took nearly an hour just to pay the check.

Truthfully the bartender seemed drunk, as she was serving drinks to customers who were falling asleep at the bar.

I probably won't come back, which is a shame because I like their food. But I can't imagine supporting a business where the employees openly and loudly mock a customer they over served (The bartender said he looked drunk when he sat down) in front of the manager and...

The service was top-notched. Our waitress took good care of us.

We had the deep dish Italian grinder pizza, which was very good despite lacking proper seasoning. I usually buy low sodium foods at the grocery store so it's saying something when both me & my son felt the pizza needed salt on it. I can't recall ever adding salt to a pizza before ... EVER! The fact that there was a salt shaker on the table, however, saved the pie from getting a negative rating from us.

Our pizza had a boat load of toppings on it, which we liked. Kudos especially for the amount of onions on it when most pizza places skimp on onions.

We loved the wheat crust, also. Yum!

I'm not a fan of restaurants that don't include the pricing of their soft drinks on their menus. It feels like they are hiding how over-priced they are.

Lastly, I felt their large deep dish pizza was way over-priced. At $24, they could drop it $5 and it still wouldn't compete well with other pizza makers. I think it should not exceed $15. As such, I can't see eating there more than once every six months, which is too bad because I'd love to order the same...