Thorpe's 903 — Restaurant in Penn Forest Township

As a musician I’ve had the pleasure of playing at nearly every restaurant, venue, and bar over the past 8 years that surrounds Thorpe’s 903. I’ve never felt the need to say anything negative about a place before, not until I performed here and worked for the owner on getting everything set up to perform. I asked if I could rearrange a table to create more space and said he and one of his employees would move it. As they were moving it one of the workers stepped on the back of the cables for a speaker. This wasn’t a very big deal, but I wasn’t really happy about cables being yanked out of a 600 dollar speaker. Which is why I suggested I move the table in the first place.

My music partner verbally negotiated pay and food with the owner ahead of the show. While the agreed pay was the lowest we’ve received in the area, we accepted it because we enjoy performing and understood it’s not a typical music venue. However, when a server told us we’d have to pay for our meals, the owner confronted our group, spoke to us in a condescending manner like we don't know how a business works, and claimed the agreed terms were incorrect. He offered less pay if we wanted food, so we chose not to eat. The situation felt uncomfortable and quite unpleasant, especially right before a performance. One band member calmly reiterated the original agreement and was threatened with removal for 'raising his voice.' The owner also claimed to have video evidence of the original deal but hasn’t shared it with us, leaving it as his word against ours. To make matters worse, he sent a personal text to our booking member saying 'counsel will be in touch' after a simple Google review, which feels a bit over the top.

I would like to point out to any future musician who would like to perform here is that the owner stated most people play at his establishment for free for the first time, which is something I have never experienced in my life other than at an open mic. This type of approach exploits musicians like myself and others alike where only the owner/business benefits from the performer. The owner also stated that we needed to advertise and they made this into a debacle. We created the social media event for the location in advance and the people who came to see us who paid for food and drinks pretty much covered how much we were already being paid. This is not a music venue, and it will never be an establishment that properly and professionally does business with working musicians if this is how things are conducted. If you are ever at this place and people are performing music, just know their many years of hard work and dedication to the arts is being underappreciated and undermined by the owner.

Again, I am not someone who ever has taken the time of day to write a review like this, and I know the owner may want to respond with something like “I’m sorry you had this or that experience, sorry about your speaker, or that is how they always conduct business for musicians who want exposure”, just so they cover themselves for their wrongdoing. Or the owner might want to respond and defend what was said between them and my music partner negotiating a deal, but we have been doing this for quite some time and I have never had an unpleasant experience like this before with an owner. If anything, it would be peaceful and mature of the owner to admit fault in this situation.

My reputation as a musician has consistently been valued by local business owners and I’ve always made a point to reciprocate their support. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with this establishment.

May your...

Arrived at restaurant. We were given menus upon sitting down. 30 minutes later Danielle, our waitress, came and asked us if we were ready to order. We asked her if if it would be ok if be order drinks from the cocktails menu first. 10 minutes later our drinks arrived. After we had our minds set what you wanted to order. I wanted the salmon and Marisa wanted the Lobster. Our waitress came back to us and asked if we were ready to order. Then informed us that they were out of lobster and salmon. Thanks for telling us ahead of time! That would’ve been nice to know upon the delivery of the menus. But again our server never showed up at our table.Never asked if we wanted a drink at all. Not even water. After we ordered cocktails. She came back some 30 minutes later. Didn’t ask how our drinks were. Just took our order. Some 45 minutes later she made us aware that our appetizers would be out shortly. Mind you our drinks were empty and we were thirsty. At this point my girlfriend was reminding me that perhaps they were short staffed. There were five other tables in the restaurant that were occupied. She is much more on the forgiving side than I am. As we were waiting to attend a concert at Penns Peak finally our appetizers arrived. Still at this moment she did not ask us if we wanted a refill on our drinks. We ate our appetizers which were extremely well-made and delicious. Finally after 2 hours I had to flag down our waitress who paid now attention to us to get our meal to go. We needed to leave to attend an event. Haha she asked if the issue was if it took too long. YES 2 hours for appetizers is too long. Asked for our check and to go boxes. I will give this restaurant one star because the food was phenomenal the next day after we reheat it in the microwave. Didn’t get the opportunity eat it at the facility because we only got it after asking for it two hours later. Danielle was a horrible waitress. The service was terrible. There was no attention to the customer. I would not recommend anyone go to this restaurant unless you’re getting takeout food. Next time I’m in the area I will...

I have to edit my post because after the past 4 or 5 times dining here. I love the food. I cannot emphasize that enough. And as a weekly patron I've come to be very upset with service. We come for dinner most weeks and each of the past 5 visits we have had to ask for bread when all other parties get theirs automatically. This includes all tables seated after us. Our most recent visit, three tables after us all had their appetizers and orders placed before we were even basically greeted. In all it took over an hour and half to receive our meal. All three of those tables also received their leftovers boxed for them. We did not, we were given our boxes and they all received checks without asking. We had to ask twice. My husband and I do appear to be younger than we are, which I feel may attribute to the poor service. The only reason I do not change from a 5 to a 3 star is the impeccable food. My husband and I have agreed we will give the facility one more chance as it is our favorite but are getting tired of having to ask for basic things like bread and utensils.

Every time I have been to Trattoria, the experience is even better than the last. The servers are friendly and attentive, the atmosphere is intimate without making you feel you need to "dress to the nines". The owner and chef, Hasan, personally greets and ensures his guests are genuinely enjoying their experience. You can tell he truly takes pride in his establishment. He isn't above cleaning a table to ensure his guests are attended to as quickly as possible. The food is absolutely delicious and at some of the lowest cost to the area. The tortellini in pink sauce is absolutely to die for. Both the lunch and dinner menus are superb. Definitely an excellent place to check out if you are visiting the area, or live here full...