City Winery St. Louis — Restaurant in St. Louis

Thursday night was our first visit to City Foundry, specifically City Winery. Each member of our group of 7 was very impressed with both. We look forward to visiting City Winery again as well as checking out the many other attractions at the foundry.

In preparation for our evening out, I read quite a few reviews (here on Google and in a couple of discussion forums). Several in our group are tall, plus size, and/or with bad backs, hips and knees, so I was worried to read all the complaints about the very uncomfortable wooden chairs along with how cramped the venue is.

No doubt in response to the reviews about the uncomfortable chairs, seat cushions have been added. I am often uncomfortable in chairs but am happy to report that, with the added cushion, I was reasonably comfortable sitting for over two hours (rare for me).

Also, the venue wasn’t nearly as cramped / crowded as I had expected. With enough reviews including “packed in like sardines” for the AI to list ‘sardines’ in the Google summary, I was expecting it to be significantly worse. There was enough room to adjust chair direction to enjoy the view of the stage / artists. Was it tight? Yes. But not uncomfortably so. With packed seats and the tables so close together (both ways), the bulk of the difficulty was shouldered by the many wonderful servers navigating the sold out venue while taking and delivering everybody’s food and drink orders.

Upon arrival, all the tables had a 750ml bottle of water with glasses, silverware, napkins and appetizer plates for each seat. Considering there is no minimum for food and/or drink orders and how reasonable the seat prices are, this seems generous. For comparison, the same artists which brought us to City Winery performed elsewhere last night. The other venue charged the same price for their general admission tickets (standing room only) as we paid for the reserve tickets. City Winery’s food and drink prices are a bit high, but the venue needs to make money somehow (it’s clearly not from ticket sales). It was odd that each part of our orders was delivered separately, but still REALLY NICE to have full table service during the concert.

All things considered, we feel we got good value for the total money spent. Intimate venues like this often charge much, much more per seat. The atmosphere at City Winery is great. The feeling of connection with the artists helps create wonderful memories of a fun night out. We got two rounds of drinks and one shareable plate for each of the 7 members in our group, and - including the optional tip - we ended up spending less than what other venues charge for just the table seats.

TIPS FOR YOUR VISIT TO CITY WINERY… City Winery is located at the west corner of the food hall building. The roundabout drop-off point off of Vandeventer is very close. There’s a small parking lot as you turn into that entrance. If that’s already full, you can continue to the garage entrance on the other side of the roundabout. The closer you are to the stage, the more crowded the tables are. We sat in the reserve section toward the back of the stage room and were very happy there. Be warned, though, that the speakers servicing the 2nd reserve seating section and large bar behind us were just above us. It was a little loud there. The other reserve seating is the dining room and not all tables have a view of the stage. Table service requires a card for starting a tab (it’s scanned right there at your table). Toward the end of the concert, the servers come by to close out your tab. HAVE FUN!!! Remember food and drinks are optional. Be grateful, not...

I am not sure where to start. My wife and I went to a closed event. The total cost for the evening was $300 (including tickets). We opted to pay for seating at the bar due to cost and accessibility. Other options would have cost more and have been on the floor at low-top tables. Based on what we saw, those individuals were crammed in like sardines. At first, we were happy with our decision to pay for seating at the bar. However, our experience will keep us from coming back a second time. The food was... food. It wasn't bad but it was by no means great. The wine was subpar. Take that for what you will. I am no wine connoisseur. Wine by the glass was roughly $5 and $40 - $70 per bottle. Cocktails and beer ranged from $9 - $16 per drink. At first glance the venue is very nice, and the staff seemed friendly. Once the seats were filled by the remaining ticket holders, that changed. Keep in mind, you had to pay for tickets to be at this venue for the evening. This means management knew the exact number of guests attending the event. There were two bartenders total serving and making beverages for the entire venue with 5 - 8 wait staff taking orders from the guests sitting at the tables. They could not keep up with orders nor the demand. Their soda lines went down at the beginning of the night and there was none for the remainder of the evening. If you wanted something other than wine or beer, you were SOL if your requested beverage or cocktail used any carbonated liquid. I know from experience that bars can be on the noisy side regarding operation. My wife and I expected that. Then again, we did not expect the wait staff to regularly argue with the two bartenders about prior and current drink orders behind us. Non-stop. Due to staff not keeping up with the orders, you had customers coming up to the bar trying to place their own drink orders, essentially cutting in-line, and toppling the whole system. Table guests order from the wait staff and bar guests order from the bar staff. It's a simple and easy system as long as your customer base isn't entitled beyond description. It didn’t help anyone that last call was almost an hour before the event was over. This isn’t a sporting event that has 20,000+ patrons and you need to get people out. This is a “wine bar.” To sum things up: the venue needs to communicate with its patrons the system they have in place. Either that’s via signs or at ticket purchase. Next, know the correct number of staff you need to cater to your guests. A third bartender would have made a huge difference with the demand but also maxed out the space you had available behind the bar. Two bartenders taking and making orders for the floor and one for the guests sitting at the bar. Finally, get your wait staff in-line with your bar staff. The divide was obvious. I am surprised that this is an established and franchised venue. Our impressions would have made us believe that it was something new and never done before. I guess, if you spend $300+ dollars for an evening of entertainment, you expect better and would get better anywhere else. I feel sorry for the guests that spent more than we did out...

While the overall decor, stage setup, choice of entertainment offerings, and especially the sound quality were all next level excellent, every other aspect of our experience at this venue was absolutely miserable.

The seating is not at all appropriate for watching a show or for anything or anyone ever, really. We were packed in like sardines, mostly unable to move at all for the entire show.

The waitress took over an hour to show up to take our food order. The wine we got wasn't grea. There were hardly any options, and none of the wines had descriptions offered. The wait staff didn't seem to know anything about the wine offerings. The water just sits in a jar on the table, room temp, and not once were we offered ice. Who doesn't serve ice with their water!?

The shrimp skewer tasted fantastic. The steak skewer was awful, extremely chewy, and undercooked. The last piece on my skewer was entirely fat and cartilage. I tried to chew it for several minutes before I had to give up and spit it out on my plate. Both my date and I had gastric upset later that night that was definitely 100% from the food here because it's all we'd eaten since lunch.

The prices are outrageous, and the portions are small for what they are charging. $22 for 10 pieces of sautéed shrimp on a skewer, no app, no salad, no side, just 8 individual shrimp.

Having to sit with our heads cocked sideways, with no room between the chairs for anyone to actually turn their body fully sideways, was absolute hell on the necks and backs of every person at our table, and I suspect most of the people at the venue in general. My date and I had to leave the show early just because of how uncomfortable we were all crammed in like that. It's amazing that people come back here. I would not sign up for that experience again, even if I was the one being paid.

Very poor planning with the way this venue is laid out. Feels like an unempathetic money grab trying to cram people in like that with no consideration to their comfort at all, and waiting an hour into the show for our waitress to take our food order is...