Art Marble 21 — Restaurant in Seattle

I had a terrible experience when I booked their lounge for my birthday party. I wrote an extensive review with everything that happened on their Facebook page, so please reference that for more information, bc character limits.

In summary: I requested to book their lounge from 7-12. The event manager called me and said there's a 4 hour limit for reservations but she would just put me down for 7-11 and we could stay for as long as we wanted after. There was a $1200 minimum for 30 people to meet and she promised to provide us regular updates so that we could start ordering shots and more food/drinks if needed. She sent me a contract through email which was very nonspecific except to list the time of reservation and tab minimum, and didn't say anything about us having to close our tabs at 11.

On the day of the party, we were not given regular updates (only one at 11pm) and then at 11:15 they told us our reservation time was up and we needed to make up the shortage in the tab (about $300). They wouldn't let us order more shots although no one was acting excessive at all, because they said they had a time limit between shots. I let the server know that the event manager had told me we could keep going past 11, and everyone was still wanting to order more and still having fun. Most people didn't even show up to the party until between 9 and 10.

A few minutes a man approached me and started speaking to me very brusquely. His introduction was "I'm the owner of the establishment, what's the problem?" when I wasn't even aware there was a problem. When I mentioned that we were told we could stay and party longer he kept saying "I don't know anything about that" and referencing the contract. He kept asking "Are you intending to take advantage of us?" over and over because I wanted to order food to take home and he said that they weren't a catering company. When I finally said "if ordering food is taking advantage of you, then sure." he said, "Good, I just wanted to hear you say that." and walked off. I was so incredulous I burst into tears.

The event manager, Lorena, came to talk to me afterward and wouldn't admit that she apparently gave me the entirely wrong idea of how the establishment worked. She kept referencing the contract as well and said sure we could stay past 11 but we needed to close up our tab by 11. When someone in our party started recording the conversation, she left and got a security guard to take that person outside. The security guard told him that if he didn't delete the video off his phone, he wasn't allowed back in the establishment.

I ended up leaving the party in tears with my friends. They charged my card over $350 the next morning and I never got any other information from them. I guess they charged the 21% mandatory gratuity too. The event manager never even gave me a choice of reservation time when I requested 7-12 and simply told me she would make it 7-11. If I had known the four hours was such a hard limit for paying the tab I would have made it 8-12 and still told people to come at 7, because there were only like 3 people the whole first hour and I knew people would start showing up at 9.

When I posted the Facebook review, another owner of the bar contacted me and told me he wanted to talk. He then accused me of having all my friends lie by saying that they had a bad time at the bar, which wasn't the case at all since this really was a bad experience for everyone. He accused us of "ganging up" on him and "trashing him" when he wasn't even there, and was clearly disbelieving me. No one even knew there was more than one owner considering the owner that confronted me at my party just strolled up and said he was "the owner" without even introducing his name, but this other owner said that we did wrong by not talking to him first. He didn't say anything about the event manager's misrepresentations or the charge on my card and basically wanted to vent and blame me and my friends for posting reviews. I posted screenshots of the full conversation on the...

The place tends to attracts a young crowd, including many students. Every time I have been there I have also noticed a number of office parties as well. The place has comfortable places to sit, the food is not bad, and the servers and staff are friendly .

On the other hand, the menu is a bit limited and the prices are a bit high. There is no accessible parking garage or lot at the building and parking can get fairly tight in that area. In addition, at certain times of the day there is significant traffic around the location and driving around there is slow and and no fun.

Art Marble has a large gaming area. It is free to play the games and the games serve as a definite incentive to choose Art Marble. Games include Shuffleboard, car-racing games, hoops, air-hockey, pool tables, something like bocce ball, and a few others.

As great as the games are, an aspect of the place I find hugely annoying is that customers are unable to order food or drinks from the gaming area. Food and drink are definitely brought into the area and there are plenty of tables set up for people to sit and eat.

However, in order to get food or drinks, customers must walk to the bar area and form a line from the counter of the bar. The bar gets busy and the line tends to move very slowly. At popular hours, like happy hour times, the line can get get quite long. As a result people end up wasting 15 or 20 minutes just to order food and drinks. If you are not there with many people, you cannot both order food and drinks and also be in a line for games. Given that the menu items are not inexpensive, If the place gets even a little crowded, customers cannot both enjoy playing games and also enjoying having drinks, snacks or a meal. Having to wait in a line requires that a customer leave the game area, the line is slow and wastes too much time, and when you return to the game area you have had to leave the game you were playing or have lost your place in line t play a game. It is very inconvenient, and the system is a disrespectful way to serve customers. It may feel different if the food and drink prices were lower, but that is not the case. Art Marble should really offer a easier and more customer friendly way for customers to be able to order food and drinks from that area of the facility. I like the place enough, but there have been multiple times I have chosen to go other places because of this problem.

The food is not bad, but the prices are a bit high. There is no parking garage or lot at the building and at certain times of day traffic makes getting around in that area slow and it's no fun to be...

Not the spot to host an event

My friends and I can have a great time just about anywhere we go, so I wasn’t too worried about the mediocre reviews of Art Marble. They offer a no host bar, even if it was begrudgingly, and seemed to have a reasonable minimum for 40 people - $1400. Unfortunately, by the time I walked out that night they had collected over double that amount in fees and tips. The Director of Marketing and Events was quick to get the contract out, and take my deposit but that was about all she was responsive to. Questions about the venue were never responded to, and originally she told me the no host bar wasn’t an option… She must have forgot she added it to her marketing collateral.

The event space looked great online but in person the walls and space is beat up and not well maintain. Game tables were out of order, and the service was excruciatingly slow. I thought they might be doing it on purpose because I insisted on the no host bar, but based on the other reviews I think that’s just what you get. Later in the evening the bar filled with pot smoke and lingered, which didn’t bother me, but did a few of my friends so they ended up leaving.

At the end of the night the bill came and the server told me we didn’t hit the $1400 minimum, but after applying my $700 deposit that I only owed another $120. This was absurd – I knew we hit the minimum or were much closer. I asked for itemized receipts – yep, I was being a dick, because I was getting screwed over :)

Once the itemized receipts were provided the server let me know that I misunderstood her the first time and that we were just short a few dollars, and my $700 deposit was going to be refunded. I thanked her and gave an extra $200 tip because I felt bad for simply asking for itemized receipts… $200 on top of the $240 mandatory tip, plus all the individual tips they received because it was a no host bar. Stupid me! I’m known to be an idiot when it comes to over-tipping – It’s something I’ve learned to live with LOL

But my $700 deposit never being returned isn’t something I’m cool with, and again the Director of Marketing and Events is unresponsive – surprise!

For the added cost I’ll find another spot the next time I host an event that doesn’t feel the need to disclose their poor...