Upstairs Circus MPLS — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I wanted to love everything about this place! It’s a fantastic concept but could be executed so much better!

Things I loved: The number of options and types of projects, the interior design/aesthetic of the space, the music choice, the drinks we tried, the big selection of string colors, the fact that you can take home supplies to finish it at home, and nice staff.

Things I VERY much disliked: **Parking options (street only) which was tough on a Friday night **Only 2 hours to be there and do your project so you end up focusing on finishing so much that you don’t even talk to the people you are with much, and even if you could, it was very loud and hard to hear each other **You can get an IDEA of what you want to make from their website ahead of time, but a fair amount of time of your allotted 2 hours, is wasted trying to figure out what design you want to pick for that project (which you don’t get access to until you get there) because there are MANY (one of the positives because everyone should be able to find something they really like) **Every single project costs the same amount (like $46!), regardless of the amount of time or effort or supplies it might take to create it, which might limit people who want to come in as a group that have friends that are on a tight budget! **The options for art supplies were pathetic- all of the cheap elementary grade paint brushes looked like they had never been replaced and were all splayed out, making detailed painting practically impossible (you’d think they could afford to spring for new brushes as soon as they get bad, based on how much they charge), **The paint colors they had to choose from were primary and secondary colors (ROYGBIV), black, white, silver and gold only—so if you wanted a different shade of green for instance, let’s hope you know how to mix **You get seated at a table with other people, which is usually fine, but let’s hope you aren’t doing a project requiring a steady hand if you’re at a table with someone doing string art and needing to pound nails for 2 hours straight (also a bit annoying to listen to) **The flow of the place is strange and the art supplies are down a small thin hallway (also the route to the bathroom), so if it’s busy, you also waste time by waiting for others to finish up gathering what they need

Like I said, I wanted to absolutely love it! I DO love what I created!! And I will be proud to hang it in my home! I just wish creating it could have come with...

Staff was friendly and kind. Service was very, very slow because they seemed to be understaffed with one brand new person (with no one helping them, they definitely were trying their best on their own) and one more experienced person doing the check-ins, serving, and project distribution. We waited 5+ minutes to get checked in, 20 minutes to order drinks and another 15 minutes to receive them, 15 minutes to get our initial project supplies, and another half an hour to get the stencils for the projects that required them. Two people in our group (group of 8 people total) didn't get their drinks for over an hour (those two drinks were comped at that point, though). It took way longer than described on the website because of this. They need to have at least one more person working on any given night or say people should plan 4 hours instead of 3 and encourage people to wait to order drinks until everyone gets their projects.

The concept is really fun, it's nice to pick your own projects and have everyone do something they will enjoy. They have a variety of options and a lot of designs to choose from for each option. It can be difficult to decide with all of the options. You can view the project menu in advance, but you don't get the idea book until you get there. We may have been in on a bad night, but it wasn't well executed. I think most of us would be willing to give the experience another try because we all ended up with a nice-looking craft.

Expect to spend $60+/person with the mandatory 20% gratuity (if you book your reservation as a group, the gratuity is included automatically and you need to book as a group to guarantee seating at the same table) if you do 1 craft project and order 1 beverage per person. Materials for projects are mid-level quality, not a great deal, but really not terrible.

Parking: $20-25 for parking if there is an event in the area that day and you need to park in a lot or garage. Or search for street parking. Give yourself an extra 15 minutes to find parking and walk to...

some context, i’m a server at a full service sit down restaurant. me and my girlfriend went in for valentine’s day with a reservation. we get there, person says there was no reservation saved for us (?) but they brought us to our table promptly. we grab our supplies, start making our stuff, grab two canned drinks from the bar, finish our stuff, go to pay. we had a few questions here and there because we ran out of materials for our stuff.

i am an overly generous tipper at any bar or restaurant (or even coffee shop) that i go to. but i left 0% because i didn’t think 1. anything they serviced us for was out of the ordinary and 2. i didn’t think the workers there depended on tips for the majority of their pay, which is a whole separate can of worms.

ok, we leave, and as i’m about to exit, a worker walks up to me and my girlfriend and leads with “hey i noticed you didn’t tip, is there something we could improve on?” and i got SO embarrassed for her. if i EVER asked a customer this, i’d be written up or fired. even if i was in the wrong for not tipping, this is so incredibly unprofessional to do that i’m still mad about it the next day. if you want feedback, you should not base it on someone’s tip especially for a place that is honestly quite overpriced all things considered. maybe send out surveys/reviews to customer emails?? also this means the worker looked up our tab immediately after paying which just puts a bad taste in my mouth, they’re that concerned with the tip from ONE customer meanwhile they were fully busy with plenty of people.

all that being said, i wouldn’t recommend going. it’s loud as hell, you can make all this stuff at home, and the workers clearly have weird priorities. maybe the business should be paying them more so that they don’t feel the need to follow customers around asking them why...