Sweet Afton — Restaurant in New York

My fiancé and I found this place late last summer. Ever since, we choose this place whenever we want a delicious Chicken Sandwich and a drink. Their food has always been amazing! We visit Sweet Afton at least once a month. We always come during the weekend. Last night, was our first time there on a Monday. We had dinner around the area and a friend of ours told us we could end the night there. So we headed there for some drinks. To our surprise there was a live band playing! They were putting an amazing show, we loved it! A drink in and I decided to use the bathroom. Having a LEEP procedure done the previous week, I ask my fiancé to come with me. I can't bend over without feeling pain. In your house-bathroom you have no problem holding on to walls and comfortably sitting down. Knowing I can't do that in a public restroom, yes I asked him to come in with me. I'm hovering over the toilet, as he is washing his hands and someone knocks on the door. Let's describe the knock, it was more of a SWAT - team about to break the door down - type of knock! I yelled out "one second, coming out." Feeling bad thinking - wow someone really has to use the bathroom. But the bashing of the door doesn't stop, needless to say the we hear the waitress yell "I'm going to open the door!" My fiancé helped me up and before I'm done buttoning up my pants has to open the door so that the noise stops. At that point the bouncer rudely asks us to leave and yells out that what we were doing wasn't right. I still couldn't get my head around what was going on. He was so hostile, and I tried to nicely explain that we weren't fooling around I just needed him in there with me and that he was my FIANCÉ ! Without letting me speak he rudely starts walking us out. I tell him I had a tab and to relax and let me pay my tab. I walk over to my three friends who are clueless to the situation. I apologized and told them that they could stay but we had to leave. The bouncer still hovers over us without giving us any space. We weren't acting out, at that point we weren't fighting or arguing with the bouncer. He could've waited a foot away or near by and let us handle our tab and our friends. My fiancé owning a business, we know it's not ok to put a show for people to see. Needless to say we have manners. We pay our tab and walk out. Our friend walks out with us to figure out what was going on. At that point we are in front of the place and my friend asks the bouncer why he was acting the way he was with us. At that point, knowing we are outside and no one else is around I tried to tell the bouncer, that he was rude, that he didn't have to knock like that, that "we weren't fooling around, we are engaged and have many more other civilize places to fool around in." We live together, a sh*tty bathroom is not on the top of our list for places to fool around in and definitely not after a LEEP procedure. He rudely interrupts again without letting me finish. RUDE, RUDE, RUDE. Just as much as the waitress who started the knocking and assumed that we were fooling around. She started knocking 5 seconds into me putting my pants down and hovering over the toilet, meaning she saw us walk in, what could we have possibly done in 5 seconds for her to rudely want to knock the door down. I wasn't even given a chance to explain the circumstance in which she should've probably had to apologize and start giving people the benefit of the doubt. Not everyone has a dirty mind like hers to go into the bathroom and fool around. Specially when it's a slow night and the place was almost empty. People need to be given the benefit of the doubt. Some people do have manners. Some people have way more exciting things to do, like watch the wonderful live band! Than to be fooling around. It was pointed out to us that there were signs on the wall that it wasn't permitted for two people in the bathroom at once. Specially of the opposite sex, but that shouldn't matter if someone needs the company for physical help. As I did in this situation. The situation was handled so...

First of all, Sweet Afton is my favorite Astoria bar no question. I've been coming here for 9 years now and here's my latest take:

Atmosphere is great and intimate without obnoxiously loud music. It's a good crowd of young professionals.

Drinks: the draft beer selection is good and modest. No frills and average NYC prices. The bartending team makes very good cocktails - haven't been disappointed yet! Their draft old fashioneds are weird though. I took one sip and was instant regret. I don't know why I tried it - curiosity got me.

Food: The burger (not pictured) is $16 then add $2 for cheese, $3 for raclette, $2 for an egg, $3 for bacon and $3 for avocado. Comes with fries. Really good flavor and cooked to perfection (I got medium) just on the pricey side.

Mac n cheese is listed on their menu as a main but it's definitely a starter/share. They sell it for $15, with broccoli for $2 and bacon for $3. Tastes great but the portion for $15 is really disappointing. Don't be fooled by the picture, it came is a maybe 6in diameter cast iron.

Fried pickles come in at $11. It's just about right on price and they're good. Not overly fried. Good chipotle dipping sauce. Nice portion as well.

Now, let's talk about the cubano sandwich. It's $19 and comes with a side of 4 pickle chips. The sandwich is highly underwhelming. It's not overly loaded with pork, mustard, ham or cheese. It's just not good and really sad for the price. You don't get a side of fries. No salad. Just 4 pickle chips. I would pay no more than $8 for the cubano and even that's a stretch.

So, in closing, Sweet Afton's food prices have skyrocketed. you can get similar foods down the street at bare burger or burger club or any other sandwich shop in the area for cheaper without sacrificing quantity and quality. I don't plan on ordering food from Sweet Afton anymore. The only thing that'll keep me going are live music Monday nights, the bar and wait staff being friendly and great every time and the good drinks as their prices are standard.

Latest night out we ordered: cubano, Mac n cheese, 2 cocktails, 1 draft beer, 1 old fashioned. $104 before tip.

Left disappointed and underwhelmed...

I will never go back to this bar. After previously hanging out at this bar and having a few good bourbon drinks that included drinks made with egg whites that were really great, we went back hoping for a repeat. When we asked the bartender about the egg white specialty drink he said they no longer served it so we ordered a Manhattan and Old Fashioned. The Manhattan was decent but the Old Fashioned was too sweet so I went up and exchanged it for a Macallan 12 on the rocks. When I got the bill the bartender had charged me for all three drinks even though I had only taken a sip of the Old Fashioned and he never mentioned he would charge me if I returned it. When I confronted the bartender about this he said the policy was that if they made the drink "right" the customer had to pay no matter what. We argued a bit but eventually I just said in all my years I had never experienced this type of policy. The bartender even asked would I have to pay for a steak I return in a fancy restaurant, to which I replied if I order a steak that comes out not to my linking if I am paying for it I better be allowed to take it home or give it to a homeless person, but I certainly am not paying for it if they take it back without saying anything and allow me to exchange it. Bottom line is I still tipped him appropriately on the two drink bill ( $6 on $24), but with the additional drink the bill ended up being $40 total for 3 drinks of which we only had two. I then called when we got home and it ended up that the bartender was the manager and OWNER! I have to say I will never go back here because this guy is clueless. If I am paying $12 freakin dollars a drink and I return it almost untouched because I think it is too sweet then it is crazy to charge for the drink without telling the patron you will do so. I have never had to argue like I did in this bar and have worked in the service industry myself and have never heard of such a policy. We will never go back here because the drinks are just OK and the prices are really high, especially if they do not honor the opinion of those paying and exchange a drink when a...