Kay's Bar — Restaurant in Portland

I have been to Kay's multiple times. Every single time I go I question if I am doing something wrong or if the bartenders/servers just have some sort of bias towards my friends and I for being young woman. My most recent visit sealed the deal that the employees just simply are not kind. We came in the Saturday of Halloween weekend. We were a group of 7 girls. We walked into Kay's around 11 and the place was pretty full (but definitely not the busiest I had ever seen it). Immediately a server addressed us with "How many" I said "Oh hi! We have 7". She responded with "We have nothing so you can go stand by the mural until a booth opens up." and pointed towards the mural in the corner of the bar. I was confused, since looking around I saw many bar stools open. "Could we stand at the bar and get a drink while we wait?" I asked. "No. You can go stand at the mural." I was confused again. "Are those the only options?". I could see her face was annoyed. "Yes. You can leave or stand at the mural." I was taken aback. I didn't think I had come with an attitude at all and wasn't sure why she was so agitated with me. I put my hands up and tried to tell her I wasn't trying to start anything, I was just trying to figure out what we could do. I said again "Okay I can leave or go to the mural." to which she responded "Thats your prerogative" and turned her back. I turned around to see all my friends were just as shocked as I was. We walked over to the mural to discuss if we should leave and go to the Limelight or Cosmo Lounge since we were already feeling embarrassed and rejected. I will admit she cleared a table quickly and we were able to sit down within 5 minutes, which was great.

The waitress came to take our orders. I can't say she was very warm or cheerful, but that wasn't very surprising. When someone asked for a menu, she flipped it around and responded coldly, "Here. This is all we have now". Later, she came back to scold me for taking flash photos with my camera of our friends' Halloween outfits, calling it "really annoying". Throughout the night multiple of my friends said they felt like her and the bartender were staring and laughing at us. Even if we were overthinking it at this point, the atmosphere was so hostile and condescending, we legitimately thought these employees may have been pointing and making fun of us. The place ended up emptying out and more of our friends came to join us at Kay's, sitting in the booth next to ours. I understand we may have been loud and easily excited, but we were at a bar on Halloween after all.

Over all, I am just confused and disappointed by the way the Kay's staff speaks to others. Even if we weren't paying customers (which we were -- spending close to $100 and bringing in more paying customers), there's just no need to talk to anyone like that. Looking through other reviews, I realize I am not alone. Many reviews speak of the "rude bartenders" or "disrespectful waitresses". I just don't understand why Kay's would continue to want to curate this kind...

I am disappointed to be writing this, since the food and drinks are quite good, but after multiple instances of being treated so horribly, I felt these experiences had to be acknowledged. My first time coming to kay’s, I met two of my friends who prefaced our outing by saying, “the happy hour food is really cheap, but be careful because the servers are easily irritated.” I couldn’t have anticipated how true that statement would be. Apart from the general lack of respect that my friends and I are treated with almost every time we frequent the bar, there have been several interactions that were just outright rude and uncalled for.

On one occasion, my friends and I came with a friend from another country who had only brought their driver’s license. When we were asked for our IDs, they presented their license and were met with a blunt “We can’t accept this.” They then looked in their wallet for any other form of identification, very flustered and confused, as they had never been to America and did not realize they would need to show their passport. We then asked if a picture would suffice, and the server said “No, you guys need to leave.” Fine, I can understand that this is a bar policy and that it could get the bar in trouble, but we were all very clearly not trying to cause any trouble and just wanted to resolve the matter without having to drive all the way home. Nonetheless, we drove home and got the passport. When we returned, our spot outside had been taken, and there was only a smaller table open. We moved to that table, and I pulled up an extra chair. The waiter then said “You need to go put that back now! That is not our chair!” in a very blunt manner. When I apologized for the misunderstanding, she walked off.

Another time we were yelled at for having someone in our party whose ID was expired. Which, again, I understand makes the bar liable, but the utter disrespect and tone was shocking and hurtful. Another time, when I asked if there was outdoor seating when the bar was full, the server said “We are CLEARLY closed outside.” I’ve also been reprimanded for going inside to order a drink when I was seated outside.

Every time I come to Kay’s I feel infantilized and as if I’ve done something extremely wrong. I understand someone having an off day, but this seems to be a problem with the whole establishment, as it has happened with different servers on many occasions. This repeated pattern is also evident in the way the owner responds to negative reviews. I don’t think I can support a business who calls their patrons “idiots,” “ignorant, knuckle-dragging imbeciles,” “ignorant, selfish members of the public,” and who finds it “enjoyable” to cuss at customers and tell them to “start taking their meds again.” I cannot understand why the employees are filled with so much anger, especially towards people who are giving them money and trying to have fun with...

I have to say I had a hard time giving Kay’s three stars because we are frequent customers of theirs but our recent experience there deemed it appropriate. My boyfriend and I go to Kay’s fairly often. We love the nachos and the bartenders are pretty good at what they do. Recently we decided to bring my parents there. We all had masks on when we entered. We’re all vaccinated.My father forgot to put his on. Yes I understand he should have but he simply forgot. The young lady who is a waitress there came at him while he’s literally about to sit down, and in a very abrasive way kept repeating “do you have a mask!, you need to have a mask!” It was very rude and unnecessary. I understand restaurant and bar employees need to tell customers at times to wear their masks as they are walking around but she should have either just let it go cuz he’s about to sit down and would have taken it off if he had one, or if she had to say something, could have been much more pleasant about it. You don’t talk to customers like that, especially your elders. I highly encourage the manager there train their employee in approach. She ruined the mood of our night. (Update: your response clearly showed your lack of integrity as a manager and you chose to make comments on other matters vs the point I was trying to make. We’re all frustrated and tired of the current situation. Doesn’t mean you can go around and be disrespectful to others, especially when it’s obvious they were not intentionally trying to go against your business mask rules. And just FYI, I did actually write you guys a 5 star review a couple years ago before Covid after our first visit there. Your response brought about the negative review. How you handle a customer complaint...