Pat Connolly’s — Restaurant in St. Louis

I used to love this place, came here for years when I lived in dogtown, was a super great bartender named Kelly, food was always good. I heard they changed owners but I could be wrong. That being said I was super disappointed in my experience this evening… had a friend in town for the weekend who’s stationed in the Middle East on rescue missions. Thought it would be a great spot to have a couple beers where we can play music we like and still hear each other in conversation. Before we even walked in the door I could see the lady behind the bar scowling at us before we even came in, I politely asked if they were still open, it was 11:30 on Saturday night, it’s posted as 12:30 as closing time. She rudely says that we can have A drink cause she was trying to close up. Then someone in my party orders a Guiness, in an Irish bar, and she huffs and puffs and insults his drink choice, because she already cleaned that area….I was over it at this point and decided to leave, there was one younger girl that was polite but the woman I encountered was the rudest bartender I’ve ever encountered, so I decided to take my business elsewhere and have no intentions on returning, it’s sad, I’ve worked in customer service for my whole life, and I would be fired for that type of thing, or if that’s her business,...

Horrible experience. Should have known when we walked in. Wanted to sit outside but had a sign saying to go inside for patio seating. Walked in and stood for a minute before a waiter rudely said “seat yourself.” Didn’t give us a chance to ask about patio seating. We sat down at a booth and when someone finally came over we asked about patio seating. Made us feel incredibly dumb for asking and told us to just go outside and sit. When our waitresses showed up we ordered our drinks and food at the same time. She repeatedly asked what we said cause she just couldn’t get it right. After about 5 minutes of waiting our drinks arrived and she asked if we were ready to order??? What? Excuse me? We literally watched her enter it on her little tablet. Then proceeded to ask if we ordered with her. Should’ve left then. I ordered another beer and never got it. About an hour later she came over and asked if we needed anything. I asked about my beer and our food. She told us she was going to check. When she came back she said she forgot to put our food in…how? We watched her put it in. We also watched her take shots with the table next to us. The entire hour we were waiting for our food she never would make eye contact with us to get her attention to ask....

My wife and I visited for the first time since shortly after the new owner took over last year. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement. The previous owners had developed a creative food and drink menu, and the place just had a unique charm and a neat atmosphere that really distinguished it from their peers. It wasn’t pretentious, but it was a place you could feel comfortable ordering an off-menu cocktail. No more! Food items are being crossed out in sharpie on beat-up menus, the liquor selection appears to be shriveling down to the dive bar basics, and the new cocktail offerings are a far cry from what was being offered under the previous owners. When I inquired about the old bar manager who we liked, the bartender said he didn’t work there anymore and she made a remark about how they used to have a bunch of “fancy cocktails” and that they had bitters she didn’t even know existed. As for the food, my burger was fine I guess, but my wife ordered a chicken salad and it came out missing the chicken, and she said the Mac & Cheese was barely edible. I guess we should have known what we were in for when we saw the iconic Grieisedieck Bros. painting on the side of the building getting covered up with a Michelob Ultra...