Local Whiskey — Restaurant in State College

Since Local Whiskey opened, I have been a somewhat frequent visitor. It (was) actually my favorite bar in all of State College. The atmosphere is amazing. I really love being there. I rarely feel comfortable in public locations since I am a bit shy at places that are loud or have a high maximum occupancy number. The food is darn good and well worth the wait. The fry tray is such a deal!!! The selection of spirits is also very good. The wait no matter what you are waiting for is long. But let me narrate my recent experience: Sit down. Wait for someone to notice you exist. A server sees you. Thank goodness. They check in with you and say someone else will be with you (since you aren't there section) awh. Almost. So close. five more minutes and someone else is like "oh man. those are living people not taxidermy" and they ask you if you've been helped. NO. PLS SEND HELP. SOS. Finally this person either helps you or gets someone who will shortly help you. Menus. That's a start in the right direction. The server rolls back around five(ish) minutes later and takes your order and puts it in at the bar. You start wondering if you just sent a letter in a bottle to the end of the earth and wonder if the earth is flat and that it just fell away into nothingness. The point being, I had 30 minutes and thought I could get a beer and a cocktail before attending a lecture. It took them 27 minutes for the drinks to arrive. And no, they weren't slammed. It was a Thursday around 7:30 pm. This is the first time in my life that I have considered walking out of an establishment before being served.I love this place - but not like this. I plan on giving Local a second chance because most everyone deserves a...

Came here around 8/8/24(not exact date) and got seated. We had a group of less than 10. Waitress with short blond hair came over but only half of us were ready to place drink orders. She was nice to half the table then switched when she got to us. We were debating on what to drink she she visibly got annoyed and the note pad hit the back of our chair as a sign of her annoyance, wouldnt be surprised if she rolled her eyes. She came back and We ordered asking about dietary restrictions and she was nice now saying she'd double check. We were told it was safe but even so we asked for it on the side since even if it was safe we didnt know what it was and didn't want our food smothered in it. When it came out it wasn't on the side like we had asked. I went up to her and mentioned it was supposed to be on the side. She got annoyed again saying basically "well it shouldnt have your restriction in it so..." as if what's the problem. Dietary restriction or not we didnt want our food smothered in it and didnt want to risk it setting off our stomachs due to tight food restriction. She didn't offer to take it back or fix it and made it seem like it was my problem since it was at the table. I just went to sit back down without anything being fixed. I was sharing the dish so the other person didn't eat and I just tried to eat a bit and just took it to go. My half of the table all noted how she was only nice to some of us and the rest of us were an annoyance to her. While the food was OK it would have been nice for it to come out with the stuff on the side as asked just in case. And her attitude was a no go....

It makes me very sad to leave this review...Local Whiskey has become one of, it not my favorite bars in the area, due to its atmosphere, selection and excellent bartenders. All of that being said, I had one of the worst experiences I have ever had a restaurant, period, last night. I went with some friends for a local tap takeover, as I usually do. It was fairly busy but I really wasn't concerned. We ordered a beer to start since the tap takeover had not officially begun at that point. After a long wait, we were told that they were changing the taps for the takeover - okay, no problem. We put in order for a flight of 4 beers, each. In the meantime, we ordered food. From the wait staff perspective, everything went wrong. We had to ask several times for water, she forgot the iced tea, there were onions on the sandwich when it was requested they be removed, and we had to ask for silverware twice. Because it was so busy, each round of asking took a long period of time and we even resorted to asking the bartenders directly at one point. Now to the beer fiasco. My friend ordered 4 very different and distinct beers, and when they arrived, they were all the same beer. When this was communicated to the waitress, she said she would send over a bartender, which never happened. We had to go to the bar ourselves to see what the issue was. He explained it was because they were so busy. By the way, none of my beers were correct either. Worst experience ever - it saddens me to say that I might not return....not for a tap takeover and maybe not ever. For shame, Local Whiskey, I thought you were...