Bar Louise — Restaurant in New York

I wanted to like Bar Louise. I love Pasta Louise and Bar Louise is right around the corner from me. I went there with my boyfriend and we ordered two drinks--both were very good! I HIGHLY recommend sticking to drinks here. We also got the house chips and the cheese-only charcuterie board. The house chips were potato chips. No complaints. The cheese board however was pitiful. It had some parmesan, provolone, and GOUDA on it (who is making these cheese choices, when has anyone ever asked for gouda?), along with 4 mediocre crostini, two dirty pieces of lettuce, about 4 grapes, and like 20 olives. I love olives, but don't feel like they're necessary on a cheese board. What is necessary is some kind of jam or honey perhaps? But no, there was just a random drizzle of olive oil on our board. Furthermore, our waiter said when he brought over the cheese board "let me know if you guys want more crostini". I assumed this meant more crostini was complimentary, but no, when our bill arrived we were charged an extra $2 for 4 (tiny) extra pieces of stale bread. This was supposed to be a fun stop for drinks on the way home and instead made a bad night worse. I will never be going back to Bar Louise. Their drinks are good but there are plenty of other drink places around. We ended up paying $77 for two good cocktails, some potato chips, and bad cheese. Do...

Beautiful new, high-end cocktail bar in Park Slope. We stopped in on a Saturday, early evening (April 13th). They had a nice crowd and the hostess was very kind so we tried it out. The drinks are extremely expensive ($18) but they were very well made with quality ingredients (still overpriced imo, but they were good). Our problem was with the service. Bartender was one of those guys that acts like you’re inconveniencing him for sitting at his bar. No eye-contact, zero engagement with the guests and just totally unpleasant vibe all around. Yes, he made a tasty drink. However I would remind him that he’s in the hospitality industry which does require some degree of being hospitable. This guy was straight up rude to every person sitting at the bar. Super entitled and unprofessional. It was a shame because both the bar back and the bartender handling the service well were great! If you’re going to treat guests that way (no matter how good of a drink you make) you are terrible at your job, period. I love the service industry, spent 20 of the most fun years of my life behind a bar. But it sometimes attracts people who have no intent on developing their craft and skills and just hide from real ambition and purpose by being rude to the people that spend their hard earned money in their establishment, and that’s what we encountered...

As a relative to Pasta Louise, we were excited to give this place a shot for some drinks. The staff were lovely, no complaints there. However, the rest of the experience left something to be desired.

The drinks were underwhelming. One (top left in photo) flat out tasted as though they’d left out the gin entirely. Somehow my first drink (bottom in photo), despite being effectively an espresso martini with fairly rich and strongly flavored ingredients was oddly watery. The second I got (All The Rage) had a properly strong flavor but still fell short of what I’d hope for in an $18 cocktail.

We did not end up getting food but, judging by what the table got beside us, the portion sizes were unfortunate.

The main seating area in the back was quite stuffy and has a strong smell of… something. Like off gassing vinyl or fake leather. I’d imagine this is just from things being new, but surely they could have cracked a window for some ventilation.

It’s not a bad spot and I’m sure things can improve with time while they get the kinks worked out. But there’s stiff competition in the area, where for the price you get a better atmosphere and...