Hightopps Backstage Grille — Restaurant in Maryland

I arrived early to a private event and decided to order a cocktail while in wait. I ordered a Hennessy Sidecar (HSC) (whilst looking at the bottle of Hennessy on the bar) to which the bartender immediately responded (without scanning the bar), “we are out of Hennessy”. Note: I scan the bar prior to ordering as not to waste anyone’s time. He recovered immediately and apologized for misspeaking. He proceeded to make a fabulous Sidecar, Chef’s kiss. I also ordered a Strawberry Poppyseed Salad with Blackened Chicken. This salad has great potential, however it was ruined as they drenched it in salad dressing. Note to self: Ask for dressing in the side.

Fast forward to private event. I ordered two HSC from one of the event’s waitresses. She seemed to have not heard of the drink and I was not interested in explaining how it is made. In fact, I don’t believe it’s her job to know. I believe she just needs to give the order to the bartender and the bartender will figure it out (that’s what google is for). To my surprise, she came back with two tall half full glasses of Guinness Beer. She stated the bartender told her those were HSC. I’m wondering if her confusion regarding the HSC led her to miscommunicate with the bartender. I pointed her out to the patio to the bartender who could make a proper HSC. I later saw her take two shots of Hennessy out to the patio bar (same bartender who said he was out of Hennessy but later discovered that he was not) so that he could make a proper HSC. At this point, I’m losing hope in this whole operation. She returns with two proper HSC. Now we are out in the VIP, same waitress, we order two more HSC, after about 20 mins she comes back to say they are out of Hennessy. Fine. About an hour later, I am at a 3rd bar in the area (near the restrooms). I’m sitting at the bar chatting with a friend and she comes around behind us to take our order. I order one (1) HSC (again I scan the bar prior to ordering), she looks me dead in the eyes and says they are out of Hennessy, I tell her 3 times (I speak very clear English and English is also her first language), the bottle of Hennessy is right there (pointing to the bottle)… she’s still not understanding and I am frustrated. Finally, my friend pulls her closer to the bar and points directly at the bottle and she apologizes, seemingly takes our order and leaves without communicating what is happening. Given the loss of confidence in her, we order from the Bartender behind this bar, who googles the HSC and advises that they are out of Cointreau but they have Triple Sec, I give her the ‘green light’ to make the drink. The waitress returns with a bill (no drinks) for two (2) HSCs that are being made at the patio bar. Surprise.. Surprise! We tell her ‘no thanks’, she walks off with an attitude. Whew… I am exhausted. This experience definitely out a damper on my night out.

Was there a meeting at the beginning of the shift whereby management told the employees to state “We are out of Hennessy”? If so, the bottles should have been put away. There is a training opportunity here for the management team.

This was the most bizarre experience. All I wanted to do was order a drink and this young lady made it extremely frustrating and difficult. Perhaps it was her first day on the job. If that’s the case, she should have been far away from a...

Stay away. I came here on a Monday September 19, 2016 simply to play poker. As usual when in a bar I like to have a few drinks and a bite to eat. This was my 3rd time here on a monday in about 3 months for poker night.They have a wing special as well on monday 20 wing and a pitcher of beer for 15. I always ask for as many drumsticks as possible because I simple do not eat the flat pieces. That's my eating preference since youth. I've made the same request prior and the cook obliged. When my food came out there were 13 flats and 7 drums. If it came out even I would have even understood slightly. If they said its an extra charge I would have paid it and moved forward. Instead the waitress who serves the poker room (chubby with 1/4 of her hair cut off in some rocker style cut) became unhappy when i said that I ordered as many drums as possible and more than half were flats. Her initial response was to argue with me about how they are on special and thats just how they come. i said well i dont eat the flats so 75% of them I guess ill have to give away yet pay for. She grabs my box of wings (at which time I had all the flats put in one box) and says on I'll go give them to someone in a smart tone. I replied id rather give them to someone I knew or at least spoke to. I also said to her that she could have at least informed me that they couldn't fulfill my order or even charge me more she arrogantly yelled across the room in an attempt to embarrass me and cause a scene s stating WELL YOU DON'T HAVE TO ORDER THEM NO ONE CARES. As i was sitting there at this point with a loss of appetite and barely sipping my beer she comes back with my check and slides it down the bar from about 4 chairs away. I hadn't asked for my check. I hadn't even played one hand of poker. Its sad how this place does. I came in 3 weeks ago with a date sat down asked The male bar tender (in the inside bar who also was working this past monday night) if there were any drink specials or food specials. his reply was no everything is full price. I paused saying to myself that this bar has drink specials every night online why would he say that. I proceeded to order what I read was on special on the website and asked him if that was still a special on the menu he said yes. I then asked why he just told me that everything was full price. His response was the dumbest I've ever heard. He said if you knew there was a special why did you ask. I only knew because I pulled it up online while sitting there. Im really considering a hidden camera with a few friends because this place clearly discriminates. I can only speak from my experience here and I won't recommend this place to anyone though its a nice facility. I'd rather spend my money somewhere where they actually care about the people that keep them in business regardless of their color..... BTW. if either employee denies their action I can surely stop by point out the waiter and bar tender and repeat their ignorant actions back to them. Hard to deny the accuser face to face. I also brought the matter to the attention of the manager on duty Jason monday. These are the people you have representing you smh. well those are the same one running...

Had the experience to dine here on 6/25/21 because a friend had high suggestions of this place. I looked up the menu online and was impressed, so I invited 2 friends to dine here with me. Spending the whole week excited to dine here, I was QUICKLY disappointed. Upon arrival the wait time was 30 minutes, no problem at all since I knew it was a Friday night. We went to the bar and we all got a drink, by the time we all ordered our table was ready, GREAT!!! We sat down and our server, Jenna, said she would be right over. We are all understanding since we are/have been servers recently. We waited about 15-20 minutes, no water. Glad we got drinks at the bar….when she came over she immediately asked us what we wanted to eat. No introductions, specials, water, telling us the menu was online, NOTHING. We let that go, asked for water and told her we would look online to order food whenever she got back. Little did we know it would be about 30 minutes until she returned. Meanwhile we watched our server server, clear, and give other tables water. We ordered the crab dip as an appetizer, DO NOT GET ANYTHING CRAB FROM THIS PLACE. The crab dip was the worst I’ve ever had in MD. There was no crab in it. After taking one bite, my server made it difficult to return it, asking multiple times what was wrong with it, after answering it did not have crab meat in it she finally took it away. Onto entrees, I got the hot wings, extremely soggy and the sauce was gross! My friend got the fish tacos and crab quesadillas. The tacos were not seasoned and the quesadillas did not have crab meat in it, it was NASTY! My third friend got chicken tenders, they were okay. He had asked for ranch, which he never received and by the time our waitress returned, we were over being there. Although, he did not receive the ranch, we were charged for it. We let the 0.50 go because we just did not want to be there any longer. As we were leaving we heard our server suggest the crab dip to another table ($20), as I said earlier, DO NOT EAT IT, especially if you are used to Maryland style crab dip/cakes. Overall, my friends and I were excited to dine here, but were quickly disappointed. We decided 30 minutes into our experience that we would not dine here again. In the beginning, we wanted to order shots, drinks, and food. The drinks were watered down. Also, 20 minutes after ordering food/drinks, our server told us that they did not have Hennessy and coke…20 minutes after ordering. Which meant that it took her 20 minutes after taking our order to enter our order. Not sure if different servers make this place different or a different date/time, but none of us will be testing this theory. 2/10 for drinks, 1/10 for food, 0/10 for service, 4/10 for atmosphere. The band playing was too loud to have conversation and did not sound very well. Just a bad...