Gabe's Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in Saint Paul

would NOT go here again.

I went in and asked if it was okay if I was seated on the patio.  They told me no problem so I went out and grabbed a table.  It took a long time but eventually staff came by with a menu.  Well now I'm thirsty, and I purposely stopped in to enjoy an adult beverage or two.  But no drinks are on the menu.  Eventually different staff comes by asks if I am ready to order.  I ask for a glass of water and the drink menu.  Am told I need to scan the QR code.  I do.  It's well worn by now so it takes quite a few attempts. Okay, I know what beer I want.  Now only if I had a waitress to order, and a glass of water to drink.

I wait.  And wait.  Maybe I should go to the bar and order.  Eventually she comes with my glass of water and I order a hard cider.  She asks me for food and I say not right away.

I am enjoying the weather, messaging a few people, now the water is gone and I'm really hoping my cider gets here.

Still waiting on cider.

Still waiting.

Okay here she comes finally with my cider.  She plops it down and is off to the next table before I can put in an order OR ask for another glass of water.

So I am leisurely sipping my cider and staff is no-where to be found.

Now the cider is gone, and the water is gone, and the staff are gone.

Finally, she goes by and I wave her down.  I ask for another cider, another glass of water, and the nachos.  Okay, off she goes.

I'm waiting and waiting and again contemplating going to the bar.

Now a different staff member shows up with my nachos....I point out to that staff I'm still waiting on a glass of water and a bottle of cider.

She heads back in to check on it.  Then the first staffer shows up, plops my beer down and a different staffer is behind her,  with my water.  Anything Else?

Yes, may I please have some silverware and a napkin?  I mean, I realize they are nachos which are a finger food, but they have cheese and other things all over so can be kinda messy, so a fork can be sometimes handy and a napkin, yea, that's kinda a must.

The rest is the same way.  Finish, wait and wait and wait.  Wave down ask for check.  Wait and wait.  Check comes put in credit card,  it gets picked up and then there I sit waiting and waiting.

To be honest, while sitting there waiting and waiting for my check, I contemplated leaving and then calling in my payment because it was so dang long.

Now, maybe this waitress was absolutely swamped inside or something and management is just doing a terrible job of staffing.  Maybe she was a trainee left alone too soon.  Maybe she just was having a bad day.  Regardless, that kind of service to me makes a place a no-go zone.

I'm not a demanding customer.  I sit there quietly minding my own business, rarely asking for anything.  Well, except for a glass of water then a refill, the part of my order that seemed to have been forgotten about, and a request for silverware plus a napkin.

In summary Gabe's

Silverware and Napkins should be brought to any table that orders food BEFORE the food arrives

If people order beverage and food,  deliver beverage before food

If people wave a server down for the bill, they want to pay and leave, please promptly return with the bill, then take card and then promptly return with the card.  There is no reason a person who has finished dining who wants to pay and leave should have to wait over half an hour

(time may not be exact, I didn't time my encounter but I...

I have been a loyal patron of Gabe's for years. I come here for the reliable bar food, the cold beers, and to catch the game in a comfortable atmosphere. I've always considered it my local spot. However, an incident last night has not only ensured I will never return but has left me feeling deeply disrespected and discriminated against.

I was sitting at the bar, watching a basketball game and, like many fans do, I was commenting out loud on the plays. I wasn't yelling profanities, just expressing my frustration with the game's momentum. Earlier, a white couple sitting near me had been eavesdropping on a personal phone call I was having, which made me uncomfortable. The guy even gave me a dirty look when they got up to go outside.

When they returned, the woman apparently did not appreciate my commentary on the game. Without a single word exchanged between us, she decided to go to the bartender. The next thing I know, the bartender—a man I've tipped generously countless times—is marching over to me with clear hostility. He didn't ask for my side of the story. He didn't inquire what happened. He immediately escalated the situation and told me I had to leave, based solely on her word.

As I was gathering my things to leave peacefully, he proceeded to put his hands on me and push me toward the door. I firmly told him, "Do not touch me," as I walked out.

The entire situation was a painful cliché come to life: a white woman falsely accusing a Black man of harassing her, and the authority figure immediately taking her side without a moment's investigation. I was not loud, I was not belligerent, and I certainly did not harass anyone. My only "crime" was being a Black man who was visibly upset about a game in a predominantly white establishment.

I have no doubt that if I were white, the bartender might have simply asked me to keep it down. Or, at the very least, he would have had a conversation with me before resorting to ejection and physical force. The automatic assumption of guilt and the aggressive manner in which I was treated was a stark reminder that my long-standing patronage and my money mean nothing in the face of a biased narrative.

This was my last visit to Gabe's. I feel betrayed by a place I supported for so long, and I urge the management to seriously review their policies and staff training to prevent this kind of discriminatory treatment from happening...

I stopped there after going to the Como Zoo with my wife and toddler son. When we first walked in we were greeted with a smile and hello from the bartender, but pretty much everything after that was terrible.

When we were seated, there were only 2 other tables that had people seated at them in our section. As we were looking at the menu’s my wife overheard the other table complaining that the server had not come back with the card in quite some time, so we should have taken that as a queue.

The server came back about 5 minutes later to take our orders and return the other table’s tab. We put in our entire order at once, telling her to bring the kids meal out as fast as possible.

It took a little while to get my beer, but we weren’t too concerned yet, About 30 minutes later, we still had no food and the table that left had still not been cleaned up. The server hadn’t stopped by to talk about the long wait or anything, she was non-existent. After another 10 minutes, the food runner brought out our fried pickles, but no kids meal. We asked the food runner about the kids meal, but was told that it was not done and they’d “rush” it. Also the other table was still not cleaned up. At this point I started to look and notice how dirty the carpet was, and there were other tables that were dirty from previous patrons.

After another 15 minute, we had enough. My wife and son went to get the car started and ready to leave. That is when the food finally arrived. Still no server, just the food runner. We had them box up the food and bring the bill. After I paid the bill, the friendly bartender came over to apologize. It was waaay too late. He offered to pay the tab, after we had already paid.

We will never be returning to this place. It is about as far from a family place as I’ve ever been to. Outside of the bartender, nobody was friendly or even seemed to care about the terrible experience we had.

Dirty, slow, and dark. ...