Sugar Maple — Restaurant in Milwaukee

I seldom give a 1-star review. I feel that doing so requires some explanation, which I will attempt to give here. In a way it pains me to do so. I was going to The Palm (Sugar Maple's sister bar) before Sugar Maple existed. Back when I was going to bars a bit more often, I often frequented Sugar Maple after it first opened, and almost always had a good time. Their selection is excellent. I hadn't gone in a while, and some friends and I were out in Bay View for a birthday dinner celebration recently, and we all (8 of us) decided to stop in at Sugar Maple at around 9:30 on a Saturday night. Knowing that it's a busy time of the evening we all filed in and started to look for a place to sit. It was full, but not overly packed, There was no place that we could all easily sit together, but we saw two smaller tables near each other that were free, and figured that with minimal effort we could all manage to sit together. We turned one long table 90 degrees without moving it, and relocated two chairs. This was all out of the lane of traffic, in a corner against a wall and railing at the far side of the room. We were just sitting down when one of the bouncers (owner?) walks up and YELLS at my (female) fiancée to "GET UP! YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO MOVE THE FURNITURE!!" and proceeds to slam the tables and chairs back into their original positions and then storms off and proceeds to stare menacingly at us from the corner. So, hoping that all 8 of us can end up sitting together, we're now standing in the lane of traffic to/from the restrooms, getting stared at by the rest of the patrons who are wondering what we did to piss off the bouncer. My fiancée, being a sensitive person, was about ready to cry and wanted to just leave right away. We convinced her to stay, and then proceeded to stand at the end of the bar and be ignored by the bartenders who were busy checking their smartphones behind the counter. It probably took us 5 minutes for the bartenders to get done with text/email/facebook updates and finally ask us what we wanted. All this time we were having to move back and forth to allow people to go to/from the restrooms since we were forced to stand in the lane of traffic. Eventually a group left and most of us were able to sit down, but a couple of us were left standing, as we were afraid to bring over an unused chair from another area for fear of prompting another tirade and scolding from the bouncer. I was originally going to chalk this up to the bouncer having a bad day, but after reading the other reviews, it seems that rudeness and poor service have become a common practice since I stopped coming here regularly. The bouncer could have said "I'm sorry, but fire code prevents us from allowing the tables to be moved, would you mind standing over here until I can free up some room for you" or "We prefer not to move the tables and chairs because it scratches up the floor, would you mind moving them back, please", or even put up a sign that said "Please do not move the tables or chairs". Any of these would have been better than yelling at a group of completely sober people that had just walked into a business establishment just looking for a drink and some friendly conversation. I’m not sure if we just weren't “cool” enough to “fit in” to whatever clientele the bar is hoping to attract (it’s turned from a friendly, laid back local bar into more of a “hipster” crowd), or if the bouncer/owner just has a chip on his shoulder and is surly to everyone indiscriminately as a matter of course. I sincerely hope that they can turn around whatever internal issues they are currently having, and seem to have been having for some time. If I ever do go back (unlikely at this point) I will update this review or post another, as I did truly like Sugar Maple at one point, and I’d like to have the familiar, friendly bar back that I...

Absolutely terrible service. Came in with a bar crawl around 8pm on a Saturday -- was the second stop on the crawl so we were all still very sober. Staff was rude and seemed annoyed that so many people came in at the same time despite the place being nearly empty. Worse offender was a guy who looked like a bar back who just stood sulking behind the bar the whole time occasionally shouting at us and being completely unprofessional.

Half of our group ended up ordering water out of protest for the terrible service, and the ones that did get drinks got drinks that were not what they ordered, and were charged inconsistently for the same drinks.

I spoke with a woman who identified herself as the owner. While she was the most polite person we dealt with all evening, she seemed completely disinterested in hearing any complaints.

Not only will we not go back, but I am certain the 20+ people we brought in will never go back either. We ended up leaving early and had a great time at other bars in the area who were very happy to see a reasonably sized group coming in and spending some money on such...

We have been living in Bay View for several years and never found the opportunity to stop into the Sugar Maple until this past weekend when a friend and her husband invited us to Bartendo, their Nintendo themed event. Seeing what a perfect opportunity it would be to finally check it off our list, we said yes! Prior to, I went to their IG account to scoop out the scene. The establishment, staff, event, and curated drink menu all pointed to a good time! That was not the case. The service wasn't great. Cocktails were just ok. I won't go into more details, but I can assure you that we weren't drunk, difficult or acting entitled. It was a mistake to say anything. As we were leaving, one of the bartenders made a mockery of us by yelling bye across the bar in front of all the patrons. Look, we know we aren't your usual patrons, but we were not rude, mean or pushy. Please be more respectful; kindness...