Historic Hofheimer Building — Restaurant in Richmond

Never have I ever, attended an event where I actually considered trying to find the manager and requesting a refund. That is, until this event. I have been going to every New Years Eve event they’ve had, since they’ve opened and always left feeling good about the event. However, this year, right off the bat there were price increases that didn’t seem warranted given that there wasn’t much new being added. That said there was ample food, which was new, however I’d prefer that be an upgraded fee accessible to people who paid for it. Many people go out to eat for NYE, so we shouldn’t be forced to pay for food we’re not going to eat. And either way, the food did not justify the dramatically increased prices. That wouldn’t have been as much of an issue had there not been additional problems. Firstly, upon arriving, there was a manager (I presume) who felt it was more important to chastise the front door man for a minute, than have him let us in. Given that there was no line, and almost nobody in the place, it felt like that could have waited. Said manager would later pull a bartender away while we were waiting for drinks and proceed to talk to him for at least 3 minutes. Upon entering the building (without advanced notice) you find out that both the roof is closed & the elevators are down. It had drizzled a little earlier that evening but by the time the event started it had stopped, even if they had closed the rooftop bar, for $80 minimum entry, the rooftop itself should have been open. Floors 1 & 2 were available, however with the elevators down, you ended up picking a floor and staying on it. Which is unfortunate, part of the fun of NYE at the Hof was checking out different floors, music, etc. Disappointing, especially considering everything else. Initially, since no one was there it was easy to get drinks, food, and your picture taken at the 360 phot booth. However, once it got to a pretty decent sized crowd, that changed. At around 10, took me over 30 minutes at one point to get a drink. Then when you finally got to the bar, in order to use your drink tickets, you had to haggle with the stingiest bartenders I’ve ever met on what constituted a drink. The drink tickets got you a watered down shooter of whatever was allowed. Trying to get multiple drinks for your friends (who were holding the limited tables in the place) was also like pulling teeth. I’m assuming since the upstairs bar was closed, the remaining bars were being overwhelmed. However, this isn’t The Hof’s first event (even though it honestly felt like it), they should have had contingencies in place for rain. Even 10 mins would have been too long to wait in line for a drink given the cost. The same could be said for the photo booth. I was glad we got there early. When you did get your photo, you couldn’t tag the Hof on social media. Literally the only place I’ve ever been where you got the message “this account doesn’t allow tagging” or something along those lines. Which, I don’t know why, felt shady and made The Hof seem grimy. Almost as if they knew things were going to be so bad, they didn’t want you mentioning it on social media. Very strange and given the price, I should be able to mention where I am. The next thing we began wonder was, ‘how are they going to do the balloon drop’ (as advertised), there were no balloons anyway to be seen. We ended up finding out that, “oh yea, no balloon drop this year.” Again, extremely disappointing given the cost given that there could have been no justification for this only poor planning. The one music performer was fine, however you didn’t really feel like dancing, as the single dance floor was one of the brightest dance floors I’ve ever seen. After the countdown, we ended up going next door to Bingo (which was $10 entry (though we got in for free)), no drink lines, balloon drop, no wait for photos, and their patio was open. Given that it had been a NYE staple for me in past years, I could not be more disappointed in The Hof. I doubt we’ll even consider returning next year, unless this...

This was my first time at  Hof's Rooftop for a friend's celebration.  He reserved as section on the roof . It was a slow start the food was good  chicken and waffles  chicken was a chicken breast ( boneless) which is always my preference  waffles are sweet almost biscuit like texture ? The "syrup" was a spicy molasses concoction  - was not bad but not what I expected . The empanadas  were vegan ? Black bean filling tasty but small  3 per serving we had multiple  plates of those but clearly an appetizer.  The stand out would have been the sweet Chile wings . I am not a big wing fan but these were delicious . But the TRUE STANDOUT was the service  from the bartender  WILL , he was fabulous .I have never seen a server work so hard . 2 other servers had told my friend no umbrellas were available  remember he has rented a section on a HOT roof top. Will shows up he finds an umbrella,  hand fans for the women, keeps our bucket filled with ice , orange  juice , cranberry juice , Tito's , etc . It is not about it being his job but how he executed it . He made small talk asked questions,  we never had to look for him , we looked up - he was there . The kitchen  is on the 2nd floor - Rooftop the 3rd he made sure the food servers got to our area quickly .Our party got to be "largish" Will was on it . If Will worked every place I went I would go out more frequently.  In fact I have been to many Rooftop bar and establishments in VA but I will return to HOF'S  because of the great service in hopes that all the staff is...

I have never been accosted so rudely before like my friend and I were earlier today at The Hof. We stepped into the lobby area where we were waiting to be served by the hostess, who was working with a group of patrons who walked in just in front of us. We had only been there for a few moments when the man behind the bar (assuming he is the bartender or another server) yelled at full volume angrily across the room of other patrons to put on our masks. My friend already had his halfway on when this occurred. Mind you, the room noise level was not loud enough to necessitate the violent, obnoxious, and vitriolic tone he took with us, yelling at full force. He accosted us in a completely unacceptable way for patrons that had just walked in and were barely inside the door. He could have come up to us and reminded us politely, or waited for the hostess to get to us and remind us. But to spew the way he did, all the way across the room and with such rage was completely unacceptable and out of line for someone working in the service industry - not the public beratement industry. We left and took our business to a brewery around the block where we were treated with respect, courtesy, and CUSTOMER SERVICE. This employee is an embarrassment to The Hof, and frankly to Richmond. My out-of-town friend was astonished by this behavior and being treated this way during his visit to Richmond. I will not be...