The Ragtrader & Bo Peep Cocktail and Highball Store — Restaurant in New York

I’m going to preface this review by saying that this is only based on the service and staff. We did not have the opportunity to eat the food or have any of their cocktails.

On November 8, 2024, we had made a reservation for 5 PM to have dinner and drinks prior to attending a theater production. The plan was to have dinner, followed by heading to the show in order to be able to have something to eat because the production is quite long. We arrived at the restaurant at approximately 4:55pm, 5 minutes before our reservation. They sat us down and were seated in the front portion, in clear view of all the waiters, staff, and hostess. We were given menus, and then we waited. No one came over to address us, fill our water glasses, or speak to us in anyway. If there had been some sort of a delay in us getting service, it would’ve been nice if someone could at least informed us. Instead, we still sat there for 15 minutes, waiting with no answers. At that point, we got up. We informed the two hostesses that we were leaving that no one had spoken to us and that we didn’t get any service.

We had been observed multiple times by the staff, they looked at us made comments to each other, and then kept walking. There seem to be an argument between the servers about either one having to do their job, and service the table. However, nobody actually made a motion to do it. It wasn’t until we were leaving and walking out the door that we were addressed by what we assume is one of the managers dressed in black to try and “make it up to us.” While we had appreciated the sentiment, it was far too late for that. We politely refused and chose to leave.

Approximately 30 minutes later, we got a call from the restaurant. It was their general manager, who called to apologize. He said that there was a disagreement between the waiters regarding their lunch break. One was “going on lunch break soon” one had “just come off their lunch break,” so neither one wanted to service the table. He apologized, and stated that he had spoken to both of them about how they were wrong. While again , I appreciate that, there’s no need for the manager to apologize. It wasn’t his fault. It was poor management by the hostess, and the staff. It’s a service industry, so because of that the service is built into it. Not wanting to do your job because you’re about to go to lunch soon, is not an excuse. If there’s a gap it’s required to be filled. That’s how service functions. It’s an agreement between the people that gets served, and those who serve them. That’s what makes the relationship so great. On this they really failed.

I told the general manager that the real letdown wasn’t that it was bad food, or bad drinks, or bad ambience; it was that you had a bad night of business. Thats the worst thing; because the people who come in are the lifeblood of...

The Rag Trader absolutely deserves their 5 stars no questions asked. Visiting Manhattan, it is truly hard to pick among such a huge variety of establishments, however, after a long research, their reviews and pictures made our choice. Atmosphere is outstanding, you can tell people put in a lot of effort and dedication in the design, decorations and all the little details that make this place so distinctive. The cherry on a cake are those dimmed lights that are set precisely to how they needed to be. Check out the pictures. Remarkable. Service was great as well, we were getting quite a bit of attention from the server, and everyone was extremely nice and polite (which appeared to be surprising in NYC). Everything was on time, no long waits or anything like that. When I asked for Mushroom Bolognese, the server told me it was the best thing on the menu; and I thought it was just a random phrase they would say regardless of what one orders. However, I was horribly wrong. It really was something out of this world, and if you read it to this point - just try it. I won't talk much, I'll just say I wiped the remains with a piece of a bread after I was done. My girlfriend went with the mussels and she claims that the stewed tomato sauce they were cooked in made those one of the best she ever ate. I tried the sauce later on separately, and oh, it was mouthwatering. As a cocktail fan, she decided to try tequila-based El Guapo, which seems like their kind of Margarita; though a very good one. She does still remember its name :) The only weird thing was, that during the dinner, two adjacent tables were occupied by a DJ dude with a laptop and this mixer thing, he was playing them right next to us, which I would normally complain about (and its not okay, c'mon make him a separate workstation!), but the guy was very nice, so I won't. In general, the Rag Trader left some very unique memories, and if we go Manhattan again, we are very likely to check them out...

The most amazing thing about this place is the hype. The restaurant upstairs, Ragtrader, is a nice place with a good cocktail menu. I expected the 'speakeasy' downstairs to have an even better menu with the added benefit of live music. The Ragtrader staff told us multiple times that BoPeep was super busy and it would take weeks to get a reservation. However, per Resy, there were multiple slots available at BoPeep that same night. When we finally got down there (after some small amount of drama associated with being told again it's not possible for us to have gotten a reservation, until they finally looked again and saw our name on the list) we were surprised by what we found. The space is small and was only about half full. Compared to the intricate decor in the restaurant above, the attempt at creating a 'speakeasy' vibe in BoPeep is best described as slapdash. Ragtrader is so nice (especially dolled up for Christmas) it's perhaps unfair to compare the two, but since you have to go into Ragtrader to get to BoPeep, the comparison is unavoidable. The BoPeep cocktail menu is uninspired. In a city where so many restaurants have creative and well-rounded offerings on their drinks menus (Rosedale kitchen, Ragtrader come immediately to mind) it's surprising to find a place calling itself a speakeasy with so little interest in cocktails. The music - well, what they lack in quality they make up for in volume. The pianist let his drum machine run the show, frequently playing songs comically fast and calling on the waitstaff to sing on many numbers, giving an overall effect of a bad karaoke experience. The most impressive part of that show was that the waitstaff could sing the lyrics so fast while reading them off their phones. BoPeep surely is exactly the experience some folks are looking for, but if you really enjoy an evening upstairs in Ragtrader, listen to their staff when they tell you it's impossibility hard to get in downstairs - they're doing...