AVA — Restaurant in Minneapolis

If you order drinks here, check your tab before you pay. There is a scamming bartender downstairs. (Before this happened I had been standing at the bar with my friends for roughly 10 minutes before the bartender, even acknowledged me to take my order, but I had no problem winking at me several times, while proceeding to take orders of people who walked up to the bar after me) I ordered a vodka/Sprite and a tequila/Sprite, gave him my card before he showed me the bill. He ran the card and gave me a bill for $36 and the itemized portion said Casamigos Reposado 2 @ $16. He then proceeded to ignore me for several minutes until I shouted at him to get his attention. I told him this is not what I ordered and he motioned to the gentleman next to me and said they were doing shots - I said I don’t know that guy and I didn’t order any shots I ordered a vodka/Sprite, and a tequila/Sprite. He said OK and then goes to the cash register. He turns around and tells me that what I ordered would’ve been $34 anyway. So I might as well just pay for the $36 tab. There was a nice gentleman at the bar that overheard what happened and gave me $40 to pay for my drinks. So I left him a four dollar tip and moved on because it was the end of the night. Not sure what he/the bar gains out of that but there’s no way that those two drinks would’ve been $34 when I saw people upstairs ordering 2 martinis and their bill came out to $29. He seemed to be having more fun taking shots with other people at the bar then doing an honest job. Horrible first experience. All the other staff seemed...

fun place, the first bartender that helped me quick and made my drink perfectly (fuzzy navel), the second time I went to the bar I went to the other side, I kept making eye contact with a younger bartender and he was helping people who walked up after me, if it was busy and I was the last to stand up that I would completely understand but that wasn’t the case. I waited probably 20 minutes before being helped and my friends were not helped at all so they had to go to the bar downstairs. The second guy snapped at me and said he couldn’t make my drink (the same one I had gotten 15 mins prior) I offered to show him what was in it and he told me to get something simple and not to complicate it, when I chose a different drink he wasn’t too happy with that either but agreed to make it. It took another 10 minutes for him to make my drink and he still wouldn’t let any of my friends order. That experience didn’t make us feel very great but the rest of the night was very fun, great music! I’m just anxious about ordering at the upstairs bar again not knowing what service I will get. If I’m going to a place a little nicer and more expensive than other places in the area I would like to have the drink I actually want and not feel like i’m getting snapped at for ordering it then rushing to come up with something else. Not sure if the bartender was having a rough night but I’m hoping this isn’t my experience...

I was excited to visit after seeing so much hype on social media, but I left feeling underwhelmed by my initial experience. My date (44) and I (32) felt a bit out of place as the majority of patrons around us were in their early-mid 20s - definitely a younger crowd, which we weren’t necessarily expecting based on other reviews. Our wait time wasn’t bad for midnight on a Saturday - about 30 minutes or so. No cover, which was a plus.

The interior of the club was gorgeous, but difficult to fully appreciate with so many people packed inside (and the trash/empty glasses that come with them). Besides the house specialty cocktails (which I didn’t actually see advertised at the bar, just on Instagram), the selection of drinks left a lot to be desired. For a cocktail bar, I found it odd my options were limited to the same as what I can order at a neighborhood bar.

Last but definitely not least, the music was horrible - think 60-second clips of 2010s Top 40 radio hits blended together back to back. Some house or lounge would be perfect, especially for the disco ball room.

Ava has a lot going for it, so I hope they can learn from their growing pains and outlive the “hot new spot” hype. I plan on giving it another chance in a couple of months once the initial kinks have...