Old Hickory Whiskey Bar — Restaurant in Pensacola

Left my keys here last night and made communication with one of the staff via Facebook Messenger, who was so nice as to confirm that my keys were in fact there by sending a picture of them to me. I am very grateful for the way this was handled. It was upon my returning to retrieve the keys that my experience soured.

I arrived just after 5:30 on Saturday evening, so while it was not crowded by any means, there were still probably a couple dozen customers inside. I walked in and took a seat at the bar at a small opening where there wasn't anyone crowded around, so as to make myself more easily visible, and also just avoid being up in other peoples' business. I waited patiently to be greeted, understanding that the bar can be a hectic environment and it can be tough to make sure that everyone is being tended to. I watched drinks being handed out on the other end of the bar, and told myself they had probably already been ordered prior to my arrival, or the bartender was simply working through us all in an organized fashion. However, when a group of maybe three or four guys showed up directly to my right (one stool between us) and were greeted immediately, I had to interject.

I leaned forward and cut off the bartender's greeting of them to state, "Hi, excuse me, I'm sorry but I have been sitting here for fifteen minutes now..", to which, I kid you not, I was responded to with, "Well, I've been here for eight hours." I'm sorry, how is that relevant to the level of service we receive? My response was "Okay, well, I've just been sitting here getting ignored.."

(I would like to point out that I am not someone who seeks out conflict. Quite the opposite. It is for that exact reason, that I allowed so much time to pass before finally speaking up. So I can assure you, my volume was not elevated and my tone was not overtly rude, though I am sure it is hard to not sound rude when you are intentionally interrupting someone)

At this point, the bartender walked over to be directly in front of me and said, "Well you're not being ignored anymore." and extended her hand to shake mine and introduced herself as Kelly and asked what my name was. I introduced myself in return and advised her that I was here to pick up my car keys and that they were holding them for me. She turned around to find my keys behind the bar and after a few attempted jokes about whether or not they truly were my keys, handed them over. I thanked Kelly and left.

I came here, to Old Hickory, feeling grateful to them for holding my keys and excited to enjoy a nice glass of bourbon in celebration of recovering my keys, but after that experience, I had lost any interest in staying there any longer. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful that they held onto my keys. That is not their responsibility and could be stated as negligence on my own part, so I truly am appreciative of this. But the service once I was there in person was severely lacking. I have had good experiences here in the past, but over the course of the last 12 months, things seem to be slipping, which I realize is a cliche, but truth is truth....

Great atmosphere don't get me wrong whoever decorated for the holidays went nuts. However, me and my partner got there around 1900. Got served water and order taken rather quickly, but this is where the good times start to turn. We were waiting on our drinks to come out for a while and start to look around for the server that sat us, I notice that the entire staff is filling shots with some of the patrons, this is fine if it's one time. (Also not to be that guy but they had a very small child taking mock shots take that with what you will) They took repeated shots while working during Friday evening rush. Their professionalism quickly went away. When they served us they spilt my partners drink and bumped into the table, later while I'm waiting on my partner to leave the bathroom she does it again and this time asked me in a very slurred voice if my order has been taken. my partner ordered a sweet spicy drink with spice on the rim and had lip gloss on so of course her lip marked the glass while she drank, mine was extremely strong, I've never had that drink before so I'm not 100% sure but it sure tasted like a normal whiskey on the rocks with an orange slice in it. We finish our drinks, and my partner orders a second of the same. This time when our drinks come out none spilt, however the glass was dirty with the same lip marks left from her earlier. You can do that in your own home, you cannot do that in a restaurant or bar setting. There are very clear and precise rules and regulations on this, I know because I've had to spend my Saturday mornings at work being talked at about these things. In my own conclusion the atmosphere and the overall setting are very cozy and nice, but I'm not there to sight see.

Tldr; nice bar, but unprofessional and...

We went here last summer and I just rehashed our experience with some clients. Selection was great. Atmosphere is as well. Some would say the drinks are a little overpriced, but I like this because it usually keeps the very young crowd out of the bar (I'm in my 30's). My issue comes with ordering a Weller Antique ($35 bottle) for 8 of us because the price was really good and it would give us time to read through the menu. We get the bill and are charged almost 4 times the listed price... times 8 drinks. The bar tender nonchalantly says "oh yeah.. the menu is wrong. This is the real price." So we argue a bit and finally the manager comes over because we refused to pay the additional amount. The manager makes it right and charges us the listed price. It was a printed menu (very easy to draw a line through the price, or print a new one, or even tell us before she poured 8 drinks). I kept it at three stars because the manager made it right for us. We had another bad experience with a male bartender later that night too but that's too much to go into to. Basically boiled down to the bar tender thinking one of the guys tipped him $0.25 for three whiskeys. He actually tipped $8.25 but one of the other bartenders must have put the cash into the jar (or someone at the bar grabbed it... but this is less likely). Bartender came outside, essentially threw the quarter at my friend, and told him he must need it more than he...