Cache' Cocktails and Wine Bar — Restaurant in Saint Clair Shores

Short review: this place is destined to fail, and an uber to the city is a better use of your time and money.

Longer review:

I went here once on opening week and was immediately glared at by the owner and management staff who were occupying a table. There is no stated dress code but I was business casual

Their cocktail menu is convoluted and unnecessarily complicated- they only list the price of the cocktail modification, but not the base spirit- they do not have a separate book that lists the base spirit pricing. "Well that's what I'm here for!" The bartender told me. Apparently they are also there to hand slice the charcuterie, as they have no kitchen staff (their job posting on indeed confirms this)

When I asked the bartender about the difference between the peppered and the spiced salami ( two separate charcuterie options with different prices), they had to ask the other bartender who then had to ask the owner sitting down.

"One is peppered and the other is spiced"

When I ordered a whiskey with a large ice cube, I saw the bartender handle it with his bare hands 3 times. The cut fruit garnishes all shared a single bowl, and were also handled without gloves or utensils.

I visited 2 weeks later with some friends who were also bartenders such as myself, to gather their opinion, and to give them a second chance. 5 glasses were broken by the staff within the hour we were there, and 3/5 chairs we tried to sit in were already breaking as well. The bartender did not serve our table the drinks, rather she left them on the service rail and told us they were ready.

As someone who just moved to st Clair shores 6 months ago and worked in wine bars for almost 10 years, I was really excited to have something within walking distance for the summer.

Now I don't know if this place will even stay open that long. Its a shame, because as it stands this business will only succeed due to no local competition, and not on merit of its products and services offered.

I also read the city charter minutes online where the owner was requesting over 50 parking spots for this establishment, despite less than 50% of the building being utilized for service.

To me this warrants concerns about the owner's business acumen. For weeks, the only web presence was a Facebook page that had 0 pictures of the drinks, no website, and no presence on Google ( i checked multiple times so I could leave this review). Even online, they misspell the company's name as "cache' " instead of "caché"! This owner seem more concerned about using this place a hangout for their friends, rather than running it as a legitimate business.

In conclusion: you're better off taking an uber to downtown Detroit for a craft cocktail- at least uber tells...

So, I posted this on FB and I will here as well. Normally I'm not very negative to new establishments if my first experience was less than average, but this place has issues. First, when people show up and sit at one of the tables you have (which are nice BTW) don't tell them that they can't sit there. If that will be a thing you need to hire a host or hostess. My party had three people and one (me) was coming later. They weren't allowed to sit because I hadn't arrived yet. You're charging $12 and up a drink, I'll sit where I want. This is St Clair Shores, not some swanky Grosse Pointe Park or Birmingham high end establishment. The people I was meeting moved to the bar, I show up ten minutes later and proceed to be ignored repeatedly, once we even flagged down one of the three bartenders to let them know I was present, she walked away. The guy with the apron on (looked pretty nice I must say) stood at the east end of the bar the entire time talking to his friends that were having drinks. I was intentionally being ignored, this wasn't a we were busy thing. Maybe I wasn't dressed nice enough, maybe you guys had an issue with the women I was meeting because they sat at the table with four chairs, who knows. But you've lost my business and the two women that I was with, I've never been treated like that any where. Again, don't tell me the bartenders were too busy because they would move down the bar asking people in they needed something and would skip me and my party (whose drinks were empty at this point) making sure to avoid eye contact, serving the next person. Your bar which makes what appear to be delicious drinks (I wouldn't know because I couldn't get one) is at 9 mile and Greater Mack, a blue collar city. I was rather excited that a place was so close to my home like this, and if you keep doing things like this...

I have been looking for a cocktail bar. One that can make good quality drinks. While that was accomplished, the guest service, and attitudes of the employees took a way from it all. Having bartenders place drinks on the bar rather than bring them to tables is absurd. Being rude and short with customers and mocking their bourbon selection is not an ideal situation to bring people back. Im not sure being open for a month or so gives you the right to act like an entitled upity high class establishment. Customer service and atomosphere ruin any chance of this place succeeding.

Secondly, the bar setup along with the menu situation is terrible. To not have a list of all the liquors yet not give a price without the said liquors is an odd and off putting choice. I have to walk the bar and see which bourbons you have before ordering on top of not knowing the pricing of said bourbon. This on top of rude staff is a complete miss.

You’d think being the only cocktail bar in town would be a can’t miss business decision yet they find a way to never make anyone want to...