The District — Restaurant in Scottsdale

A business partner of mine wanted to have a night on the town with bottle service in a reasonably casual venue, and I recommended The District. What an embarrassment that was. He booked the table afternoon of Saturday, May 4th. When I showed up around 10:30PM, he had already arrived and bought a bottle. At the door, I told the bald, white bouncer (who later refused to give me his name) my Partner's last name we were there to join (we were the first guests to arrive). Bouncer confirmed the the table was there, and then stood there. I asked what we were waiting for? He said the person who had the table had to come to the front to retrieve us. I couldn't believe he expected the "VIP" client himself, there to spend more than 15 GA patrons combined, to push through the crowd and come retrieve each guest, while the hostess (who's job is to host) stood by idle. He said I should text my partner and ask him to come up. In disbelief, I did, and as my partner pushed through the crowd to the door, I asked the bouncer if this was protocol and if so, why? In a rude tone, he replied approximately: "Because I said so, that's how we do it here." I used to work in a high end Old Town club. I've lived here frequenting Old Town for years. I'm no stranger to VIP tables from Scottsdale to LA to Vegas and beyond. I have NEVER seen a table client treated like this. I let it go, I was there to have a good time. Maybe an hour later two more guests of ours arrived. They texted me asking I come retrieve them the same. Already embarrassed by having recommended this place and having my partner treated like this, I went to get them myself. Outside, our guests stood at the stanchion. When the same bald bouncer finished checking IDs for a group, I approached let him know those two were our guests for the same table. In a patronizing tone he said "Oh ok!" Then he stood there, and did nothing, again. I asked him why he wasn't letting them in? He said "The person who's table it is has to come retrieve them." I couldn't believe it. My face must have been red when I pushed my way back through the crowd to the table and told my partner, "They want you to go up there again." Irritated, he reluctantly went back to the front to got our guests in. It was about 11:30 at this point. We had a large group on their way at this point. So we considered, and then closed the tab and went elsewhere. On the way out, I asked the bald bouncer for his name, intending to report him to management; he refused. As a business owner myself, I thought, I would CERTAINLY want to know if an employee of mine was being rude, and undermining my key revenue source. Before leaving the table I had asked our waitress why the bouncer was acting like that? She said "Its so a bunch of people don't come in claiming they're with a table." Okay - if that's the purpose, there are MUCH better solutions to that problem than abandoning the fundamentals of the VIP experience being consciously over-paid for, especially when there are six competitors within a 200 foot radius. I feel embarrassed on behalf of the ownership and management. What a senseless loss of revenue. If this was in fact a policy passed down from management, and not a rogue door-guy with ill-intentions for his employer, then what ? Let's see - the more guests a table has: the more bottles of high-margin liquor they're going to have to buy... the more poppin your club looks = the more exclusive it feels.. more exclusive = even more patrons buying drinks & higher prices.. not to mention, the service you're selling is literally represented as VIP bottle service. What kind of "VIP" wants to push through GA to retrieve their own guests? Needless to say, after that offensive treatment and embarrassing personal experience, I will never again, under any circumstances, be recommending the District to any of my partners, associates, investors or friends. I will be explicitly recommending against it and sharing this story as a cautionary tale before they ruin their night out...

Do NOT spend your money here!!! I don’t like to post negative reviews, but I had to write one about my experience since I saw other reviews about the same thing and the owners obviously haven’t made the necessary staff changes. 2 friends and I visited this past weekend and spent about $400. Had a great time inside, with pleasant bartenders and music. That was where the good ends and the terrible starts… I lost my phone inside near closing time and didn’t notice until I stepped out. I immediately turned around, showed the location of it on a friends phone to security and asked them if I could go back in to look (15 minutes till close). A bouncer pushed me away with a hand to the chest (unprovoked) and said no one is allowed in. I pleaded with them and the 4 of them standing outside doing nothing laughed at me and said “too bad man”. I asked another and he said “I don’t care” . Meanwhile they stood outside catcalling girls on the sidewalk. No one offered to go check, any help at all, and barely looked at me. I was eventually able to ring it and a waitress brought it outside to me. Bless her. The bouncers seemed upset I got my phone back to be honest. I understand them not letting me back in , but as employees their job should be to take care of patrons. They were extremely demeaning and not doing anything useful at the same time. Hopefully something changes before this cool bar continues to earn a bad reputation and ruins more peoples nights. Worst experience with security at any place ever!! Would not recommend this club and suggest you go...

The security is racist, especially if you’re dark skinned. Horrible experience several times. My husband, who is dark skinned, has issues every time we go. Once, the security stated while checking his ID that he’s “seen this ID already tonight” and made my husband show him his Apple ID to make sure the names matched. He wasn’t allowed in on 2 separate occasions due to camo pattern on his shorts and the material they were made out of. He’s been requested to lift his pants up to show the tongue on his shoes to make sure they weren’t Jordan’s. He was turned away for wearing a sports team hat. He wore a purple, leaf pattern jacket but security said it was looked like camo and refused entry. We turned it inside out and one of the females in our group tied it around her waist, she was granted entry, but when my husband went to come back in NOT wearing the jacket, the bouncer claimed he “watched him throw the jacket over the balcony”. Several times during these occasions, my husband was the darkest skinned person in our group, and the ONLY one to have issues, even though our group was very mixed races. Horrible place, avoid...