Bee's Knees Provisions — Restaurant in New York

This place has a lot of potential and I hope it lasts a long time in the neighborhood. We were very sorry to lose Stinky Brooklyn and this is a welcome replacement.

First of all, it's very cute inside. There was a lot of thought that and money that went into this space. We loved the cozy booths in the restaurant.

There is a generous selection of yummy looking products in the takeout grocery store section of the space. Looking forward to checking that out during the day.

The menu has lots of choices on it which I love! Some of the dishes were hits and a few of them were misses but only for small reasons.

Very good ham sandwich, tuna melt, artichoke crostini, shrimp cocktail

I was unfortunately super unimpressed with Bees Knees. I've copied below the email detailing my experience with them. I emailed this to the restaurant a month ago and didn't receive a response. I went in the other day for a quick coffee with a friend who wanted to go and was met with the same weird attitude so I'm posting my email here in hopes that theres some accountability.

"Hello,

I wanted to reach out and share an experience that I had at Bees Knees on Friday night. I hardly ever think that writing a google review or a review on Resy is productive before reaching out to the management team so I wanted to address my concerns through email. I had heard from a few friends in the industry that I should check out Bees Knees. I walked in around 8pm. I observed 2 tables with checks down and one table that was gathering their things to go so I thought maybe my group of 2 had a chance at getting sat. We asked a bartender if there was a table we could take and if not was there a waitlist. Instead of telling us a wait time he simply replied “Its not a good time.” and turned his back to us. We thought this was an odd response but said ok no worries we’d come back another time. We went outside and checked to see if there were any tables available on Resy. Not wanting to book too soon we made a reservation for 2 at 9 pm, an hour later. As someone who has used Resy throughout my career to map out reservations, I know that sometimes the app allows a restaurant to slightly overbook. Nevertheless, I thought if we came back in an hour and there still wasn’t a table we’d just go somewhere else. We came back an hour later at 9 pm and saw an empty table as well as a check down on a table so again were hopeful. My husband went up to the same bartender and said we had a reservation. He responded in a really oddly condescending tone “Oh you have a reservation”. My husband asked if we could sit at the empty table or possibly a bar seat and the bartender responded, “we’re doing last call in 30 minutes.” I responded saying I understood we were interested in just having 1 drink. Instead of showing us to the table, he said “We close in an hour.” Message received. Another bartender intervened and tried to seat us but the environment had just been made too unwelcoming. We headed out.

I understand the pressure restaurants are under right now. I understand the staffing issues. I understand the stress of working long hours in a hospitality-centered job. But I also think this behavior was uncalled for. As someone who manages a team, I would want to know if my employees were treating guests this way. I mean this feedback with the utmost respect as I’ve heard from other friends that they enjoy Bees Knees Provisions. "

TLDR: Don't waste your time. The place has a lot of promise but isn't worth the attitude...

I never write reviews but this was an experience I’ve never had at a restaurant in my life. I don’t know if the server was just having a really bad day or what, but I came in to have brunch with my friend for the first time today at Bee’s Provision and experienced the following.

The server at the coffee counter was extremely nice. He welcomed me in and asked if I wanted to dine in, which I did, and told me to help myself to a seat in the back. The entire dining room was empty except for one couple. I saw a booth and sat down and immediately was confronted by the rudest waiter I’ve even spoken to.

He started yelling at me asking me what I was doing if I had a reservation (I did not) and said I couldn’t just sit wherever and do whatever wanted. I apologized and said that the coffee counter employee told me to find a seat. He yelled back at me “THATS NOT HIS DECISION, ITS MINE TO MAKE” rudely asked how many in my party. He instructed me not to sit at the booth (which is fine because I understand that it is for a party of four) and that I could sit anywhere at a TWO PERSON TABLE.

I remained calm and tried to be as nice and apologetic as I could. I’ve never been yelled at from a server like that in a completely empty restaurant. I was excited to try this place and I sat down for a second, but decided that this waiter was going to make my dining experience really uncomfortable so I left.

I told the barista, who look stunned, that I was going to go find somewhere else to eat because I felt so incredibly uncomfortable and unwelcome there.

I’m sad because everything about this place is cute, the food looked delicious but I don’t need to torture myself with a bad dining experience.

Hopefully that person isn’t the owner. Won’t be going back, a bit scared to have the same...