Smugglers Waterfront Bar — Restaurant in Newport

I’ve been going to Smugglers for a year now, the experience has been ruined for me now by a bartender with a horrible attitude. He is tall clean shaven with brown combed pointed forward hair looks like a dirty cop. This gentlemen said to me “You can afford a beer but you can’t afford to tip” after I explained him my financial struggles and that I would tip generously the next week or two after hopefully receiving a job. I brushed it off as he was having a bad night, until about a week later I return. I try to order a beer and he asks me “are you gonna tip” I tell him I just interviewed today and was unable to afford groceries this morning luckily my friend helped me out. And what does he respond with, “well then you can’t get a beer”. I say that’s no problem thank you I honestly can’t afford it anyway so it’s probably better I don’t, could I have a water? He just stares at my with hatred quietly… So I tell him, knowing he was likely to retaliate when faced with the truth of the circumstances, “How can you expect me to tip you for good customer service after the rude remarks you’ve made to me?” And he responds by telling me to “Get out your never allowed back here again” I love the bouncers Eric and Eddie the rest of the staff is amazing people I’ve had nothing but good memories here aside from the bad experiences with this bartender. Just want to share in case anyone else has similar issues with him. I found out through the grape vine his name is Ronan I believe? and he does a lot of cocaine so I think is dopamine levels are out of balance and that’s why he hates people having fun and smiling around him. I returned a week after being banned and he just mean mugs me and comes up from behind the bar to tell me to get out, I start saying goodbye to the bouncers and he tries to cut me off and get between us and tells me “LEAVE NOW” very assertively. I told him “hey man I hope we can move forward past what happened earlier in the week, I have no issues with you man only a poor financial situation.” He just stared at me like he wanted to throw a punch…. I recently found out he is applying to be a police officer and i am very worried he is going to be not only power tripping behind the bar, but behind the wheel of a squad car as well. Be very careful around this bartender otherwise you may be banned. He also works at Fastnet so if you have issues with him at smugglers he will carry that beef to Fastnet as well and try to get you banned there because he doesn’t like you. I had a flat tire and my friends were inside so I had to wait outside for them to come help me inflate it, while doing so I was worried this guy was gonna put his hands on me for being in his vicinity so i propped up a camera in case this guy assaults me. Unbelievable all of this occurred over the tip of one beer. Hope everyone reading this has a blessed and beautiful day, stay safe...

THEY STOLE MY ID. BARTENDER HAD VERY CREEPY VIBES. Very many other comments about the sketchiness of this place, I would not trust them or go here again. My husband and I (28) were in town to celebrate a friends graduation from OCS and visited this bar with his classmates. We had to give them my ID in order to play darts and after about an hour we returned the darts and asked for my ID back but the bartender shrugged and (without even looking) said he didn't have it and there was nothing he could do. He then ignored us and helped other costumers. We had to flag him down and ask again about my ID and he then finally looked in the "normal spot" they keep IDs and confirmed that they didn't have it. None of them seemed to care that they either lost my ID or "accidentally" gave it to another costumer and emphasized that it wasn't their fault. The manager finally got involved and actually tried looking but still didn't have luck and just got annoyed that I kept asking them about it.

The other bartender refused to look through his pockets to see if he misplaced it which gave me a super weird feeling that he either stole it/sold it/who knows what else!

Definitely would...

Had the unfortunate experience of a strange man getting unnecessarily close to my drink the second I put it down on the bar and had turned my back to chat with a friend. It was also the same guy who had said “check that out” when I walked in alone and had followed me outside. So when he popped up next to my drink the second my back was turned, I got real nervous. I took my drink to the other end of the bar and told the bartender what happened. He took the drink and dumped it and poured me a new beer and gave me a coaster and said to use it as drink protection. I really appreciated him not judging me for it or making a scene, and for being an ally. Also shout out to the guy at the bar when I was explaining this to the bartender that made sure I had friends at the bar with me and wasn’t alone. Bad people are everywhere and I appreciate the good people who looked out for me at...