Doc's Tavern — Restaurant in South Carolina

There are some great things about Friars Tavern...

The food is always fresh, and considerably better than most bar food. Most of it is homemade, and really huge portions. Their food is spot-on. Also, there are TONS of televisions and pool tables, and that's nice. And finally, there are a couple of really good servers. Sam and Andre are very customer-oriented, and do a great job of taking care of their guests.

Now that we've got that out of the way, the other side of the coin. I've been in a few times for happy hour and/or dinner, and the one aspect that has always been missing is management. More often than not, the female manager would be sitting at the bar drinking beer, or hanging out with what appeared to be her friends. Or just not there. But always completely disconnected from the operation of the restaurant.

Recently, we stopped in at Friars after having dinner on Woodruff Rd., and wanted to have a couple of drinks before calling it a night. It was a Friday, so a little busier than usual. Within 2 minutes of sitting at the bar with my date, we were approached by an exceptionally intoxicated gentleman, who could barely stand, and certainly couldn't speak coherently. To spare all of the details, he basically harassed us until we moved to a table away from the bar, and harassed other guests until he almost started two different fights. To make it worse, there was an entire group of drunk bar bros raising hell, being loud and obnoxious, etc.

We complained to two different servers about the drunk gentleman, both who said they would tell their manager. Come to find out, there were two managers there that night... One of them sat at the end of the bar, casually smoking his electric cigarette, and never getting out of his seat for anything, and the other one, who we hadn't even seen until after the drunk guy nearly started the second fight, decided to go behind the bar and start serving drinks. Neither of them did anything at all to address the situation. Well, except one thing: The female manager served him TWO more drinks after we had moved to our table! The guy was nearly walking dead, harassing half the bar, and they continued serving him beer. Completely unsafe.

At that point, seeing the completely passive management (the one manager still never got out of his seat), and an increasingly rowdy bar crowd that was spilling into the restaurant area, we felt uncomfortable and unsafe enough to end our night early before something bad happened. The servers were trying handle the crowd, but when managers remain completely hands off and let the customers run wild, you end up with a really unsafe environment.

To summarize, if you don't mind old drunks, rowdy 20 year old bros, fights, and passive management, then this is a great place to have a beer and watch the game. Or you could go to any of the other dozens of places on Woodruff Rd. and actually have a safe and...

My wife and I are in our 60’s and there was less than 4 people at the bar. The waitress says “I need to scan your licenses to verify your age”. Well guess what? I have white hair and wrinkles - plus I told her that in this state all a person needs to do is verify their age is over 21 - NOT scan my personal data into some computer. I refused to allow her to scan my personal data when a simple look would be fine (plus we are old enough to be her grandparents!)

Another couple comes in - does she scan them? Nope she looks at the license. No scan

Another couple - obviously over 60 also. Does she scan both of them? NOPE! She looks. Then the guy asks her - why didn’t you scan mine? She says “I have to verify the expiration date and when it’s busy I sometimes forget” ( keep in mind that there are less than 10 people at the bar now). So he says - can’t you do that by looking at my card? It’s printed on there? She replies - “it’s policy”

So if you as a business owner can show me state law that authorizes you to scan my personal data without my consent to legally purchase alcohol in this state - I will apologize. But state law does NOT allow you to, it only states you must insure I am 21 and older. That a violation of my personal rights and personal identifiable information (PII). And with me being with white hair, wrinkled and obviously old enough to be your grandparent - then you should consider just “carding” me and not scanning my data into your computer.

Plus, you ruined our perfectly good evening with your non sense, so I do not recommend this place to anyone that wants their rights violated and treated unfairly with other patrons getting a “card check only”.

Scan and verify kids under 30 if you want - scan and look at the license. But folks obviously over 45 - seriously?? Really? 65 years old - come on!

The snacks were...

All reviews are addressing the same issue. Very weak pour on liquor. Very, very rude bartenders and staff ( one of the bartenders I was told she’s the owner) Very overpriced! Here’s my experience. “O” When you ask for a vodka cranberry and it’s nothing but cranberry, you take it back and politely ask,” could you put a little more vodka this time. This one is weak. See the color”? And I held up half of the drink that was unfinished. She asked me if I just want to go ahead and get a double and I said “sure”. If you know anything about pouring you either use a jigger or you count as you pour. She free poured a 3 COUNT for a double!!!! I hesitantly took it to my husband and he was like “well it’s a little better but not much.” The next time I went up the rude bartender waited on me. When she poured it was a 2 COUNT!! YES A TWO COUNT!!! I asked her to make it a double and she replied “ that was a double “ I said “ how is this a double and it’s this dark with cranberry?” She explained they use 100% cranberry juice so it’s stronger. HAHA! I said to her “ but you only poured two counts on this drink” she backs up throws her hands out to her sides and yells at me “SO NOW YOU GONNA TELL ME HOW TO BARTEND?” I politely said NO and walked off. (after giving her the evil eye) She is fully UNAWARE of who she was speaking to. Hahaha. Or my background. We will never go back! Our bill was over 100$!! THEY ADDED STUFF WE DID NOT GET AND REFUSED TO GIVE A RECEIPT! WORST BAR AND RUDEST EMPLOYEES EVER!...