Norseman Distillery — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Some friends and I arrived around 11:15 on a Friday night. The hosts let us know that its almost last call but we were aware they closed at 12:00 so we knew would were only going to stay for one drink.

We were sat and ordered our drinks, there were 7 of us. There were 5 other tables of people. They came over to us for last call around 11:45 but nobody ordered anything else. I made a point to ask the host if lights come on right at midnight as is typical for bar close. She said no and that people are welcome to finish their drinks because the staff has closing duties. From this I gathered that people do not get whisked out at closing time as is more common and high end cocktails spots.

At 11:52 my friends and I moved to a bigger table because one person in the group was going to perform 7 minutes of a magic routine. I remember the exact time because I was told how long the magic would be and I specifically checked before agreeing to move. One of us tried to grab a water carafe but it was nearly taken from his grasp by a worrisome busser.

While our friend was performing (at this point there were 3 other tables still present) the same frantic busser came and took his water from the ledge behind him. Sort of weird but okay. We wrapped up just a hair after midnight. As we were getting up this same frail busser came and began pushing our chairs in before we hade even left the table space, with haste. It was past passive-aggressive.

This overanxious busser was rude, out of line and frankly unprofessional with the way he treated our group. The magician left a cocktail at our previous table that was 3/4 of the way full, along with a backpack. The $13 drink was gone and so was the bag.

As we were gathering ourselves he was asking us if anyone saw the bag, no one had. One minute later the same neurotic busser strolls across the room and plops it in the middle of a random table. Said nothing to any of us. We couldn't understand why we were being treated like this when there were still TWO OTHER GROUPS sitting at other tables.

I understand that everyone has a bad day. Service jobs suck, I've had them and working till close on a Friday night is the worst. However, its the job. That's why you get paid to do it. This was my first time at this distillery. We specifically went out of our way to ask how the staff handles the closing time and it was made very clear it was a relaxed attitude.

Also between the 7 of us we paid on one tab so its not like settling up was a long ordeal and it was taken care of before moving tables. This was such striking behavior that our group member who paid the tab went out of his way to go back in and approach this cantankerous busser and express his thoughts about how he felt we were being treated. "I'm just trying to get out of here man" was all he got as a response. Its still unclear why our group was targeted vs the 2 other groups who hadn't even got up yet.

We are fully aware that a distillery with 8 minutes till close on a Friday night is no place for a magic show which is why we began to leave immediately after. Calling it a "magic show" is a bit overstated. It was just a guy showing some trick to his 6 friends.

It is worth noting that we were not a bunch of stumbling belligerent frat guys. Each of us had had no more than 3 drinks before arriving.

This distillery smelled like a sorority kitchen on a Sunday morning. A palpable stench of a mix of hard liquors which ended up resonating as a stale cheap tequila. Really awful but I assume that's just what you get with distilleries?

Our cocktails were amazing so hats off to the bar staff. I am not comfortable giving a physical description of the Macklemore looking agitated busser but I would be willing to if management reaches out. I am not looking for retribution or an apology. I just want to inform the leadership of Norseman of our experience on 2/15.

Overall can't wait to bring in my girlfriend. Great atmosphere and like I said, our cocktails were...

Before I begin I want to preface this review as an attempt to give positive criticism with hope for positive change because I believe this place has tremendous potential but I do feel the need to give customers fair warning in the end.

Four of us went to the Norseman for the very first time last night for a small birthday celebration. We told the server right away about the birthday girl's special day and said that we'd like the check split between the two couples so the server would have a heads up. She responded that we could deal with all that at the end of the night and not worry about it while ordering which I found odd but whatever works best for her. The server proceeded to take our orders but didn't bother to at least say happy birthday or offer a complimentary dessert or beverage.

First area for improvement: A little recognition of someone's birthday goes a long way, even if it's not in the form of singing or complimentary menu items.

We shrugged that off and enjoyed some great appetizers from the kitchen, also 4 different pizzas plus guacamole and chips. We also ordered a variety of drinks from a menu that looked like an impressive lineup of mixed drinks and flights of different alcohols that they distill themselves. Most drinks are quite pricey but welcome to 2024. I personally ordered an Old Fashion which was delicious! Others ordered flights of a variety of pours and the driver ordered a 3 Leches Kombucha which was fantastic as well. We had a nice night out on the patio with a nice overall birthday vibe going. The server was slow and less than attentive but we were in no hurry.

The one thing I would warn people about and the second area for improvement would be in the drink I had with agave, "the Sexy Oaxacan." My understanding from the server is their distilled agave is their version of Tequila (although you can't call something tequila that's not made in Mexico.) As soon as I finished this drink, which was only my second AND last drink of the night, I felt weird in the head. Not a good buzzed kind of weird either. I realized my rookie mistake right away... I forgot to ask if they make their agave alcohol with 100% agave. This is something I ALWAYS look for in tequila because if the tequila is not 100% agave it's usually primarily grain alcohol with less than 50% agave. Based on the way I have felt for the past 18 hours, I suspect that this is not made with 100% agave. If you don't want to feel like crap for a day afterwards, I strongly recommend avoiding their agave drinks. There's simply no other explanation why I would feel hungover and a headache the next day from two drinks over 2 hours with lots of food and water being consumed during our time there. And I've had lots more water since then.

Second area for improvement: please use 100% agave so people feel good the next day! They'll want to come back if they know you're not skimping with cheap grains on expensive drinks.

Lastly, as anticipated, dividing the bill was a whole ordeal at the end of the night. It took quite a while to sort that out which could have been avoided from the start upon my request. The server also didn't bother to mention to us that the kitchen was closing and give us a last call for food. To her credit, she did go back and ask if we could get an order of.hummus at 9:02pm and graciously the kitchen delivered.

Third area for improvement: teach your servers to be more attentive and avoid issues with splitting cards.

Overall, I'd say that the experience was a 3.8 star experience but I rounded down, since I'm writing this review with an annoying headache that persists long after drinking the...

I emailed with the event coordinator to make sure we had room for my husbands 40th, around 16 people would be coming. There was another birthday party that had around 40+ people did say.

Aside from the birthdays it wasn’t busy at all before 9pm (both parties were there around 6-7)

Drinks took 20+ minutes and food was 30+ minutes. Food was delivered with no plates, napkins or silverware at all, no water was ever brought to our table - I went and got it from behind the stations myself. even if the bar and kitchen were behind that is unacceptable to not be attentive at all to the tables as a wait staff on the basic things.

After 7:30, multiple of our friends waited OVER hour for a small flatbread pizza, and drinks all took 30-45 minutes.

I’m not sure how they could have had a staffing issues knowing two large parties were coming, plus expecting normal walk ins…. But it was atrocious. It actually made my husbands friends leave early because people were just getting in a bad mood waiting around for so long and being hungry.

The drinks were decent it seemed. Food was pretty good but I would NOT recommend this place for any groups or if you at all care about service being anything faster than a snail speed. We’re a patient, understanding group and a lot of us have served and still could not understand.

The overall reviews were good, but after last night I read more in depth and staffing/slow service issues have been going on for years...