District 249 Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Texas

Before this is taken out of context.. look at my review history.. I rarely leave bad reviews.

Where do I begin? Came from out of town for a friends and family dinner. Took a seat outside and waited for everyone to show up. The waitress begins to take our drink orders and asks if we want to start a tab.. we replied that we would only be having a quick drink while the kids played then would be ordering food after.. so a tab was not necessary. I was then told that it was best that I give my card to them "due to the many dine and dash" incidents at 249. As odd as it was after I was asked then said no thanks, I obliged. When our drinks arrived I was presented my tab/invoice and was charged for the drinks.. clearly after I thought she was starting a tab. No harm.. again, just odd considering we expected to eat there as I told her earlier. We then asked if we would need to have them "hold" our card to order food.. she was obviously confused and reluctantly said yes, took my card.. then quickly returned with a refund receipt telling me that my drinks are refunded and now my tab will just include everything plus our previously ordered drinks. Only making it more obvious that someone was instructing her on how to handle our table as our order progressed. I was compelled then to observe the other guest tables and noticed they were given tickets after their meal, presented their card for payment, and closed their tab like any other restaurant experience. It was apparently obvious that management or someone instructed them to "watch us" as if we were there to scam them out of paying for our food. I've never felt so embarrassed witnessing the lack of confidence in our waitresses answer and lack of trust they had towards the community that has supported them for years.

On top of that, the service was lax to say the least.. no refills until our food was eaten and we had to ask the bus boy to get our waitress. No salt or pepper on the table, we had to reach around an empty bar to get ketchup.. just terrible service from an establishment you would absolutely expect nothing less than a warm, welcoming environment.

Edit: forgot to add that our food order was literally brought out 1 plate/order at a time.. incriments of approx 3 to 5 mins per plate. I.e. one burger served, wait 5 mins, philly next, 5 mins later, nachos and cheese sticks..10 mins.. oh yeah.. mixed veggies they forgot to give us. We came to eat as a family but instead had to eat separately before our food got cold. Pathetic that the chef nor management had any control or system to ensure tables were served all their entrees at once.. as it should be. This is food service 101.

Rumors say they are under new management and it's been downhill from there. I cant confirm that.. it was my first time here. Food was good. Environment was great. But the paranoid management and blase attention given to my friends and family made this experience terrible.

Good luck, 249. If you're that burdened by "dine and dash" customers, try hiring security rather than alienating the honest customers just trying to support your business. Sounds like a big problem that management doesnt know how to handle. Yeah.. management. Not your wait staff or anyone else. It's your responsibility.. and you clearly have no options/solutions but to profile random customers and hope you become the dine and dash police hero you dream to be.

1/10 would absolutely never recommend. Organic marketing from your customer base always surpasses the benefits of any paid...

District 259 Bar & Grill is nice inside and outside, I'm sure it's even better when the gorgeous stage is going with live music. The first thing we noticed when parking is there are plenty of spaces to park. It's a huge parking lot. The second thing is there are a lot of high end cars. Mercedes, Jaguar, Audi, BMW, and Porsche. But it's definitely Texas so many nice trucks too.. We headed inside and found a spacious interior, .. which I can't say much about, since it was sunny and my eyes didn't adjust to the inside as we walked through to the awesome outside back patio and back yard area. But it's definitely big inside. The outside patio area was filled with lots of people gathering together at large tables eating, drinking, and having a great time. Our party was seated out in the back near the stage and multiple sand volleyball courts. I loved that they had put tall netting around the courts to prevent the balls ruining another party's dinner. Lots of well maintained grass between the areas. We ordered a few beers and they were delivered by the service staff very quickly. Soon after my wife and I, ordered food which also was delivered quickly. The quality of the food was good .. all hot and fresh. Large portion sizes . We had burgers and fries and they were delicious. Our friends in our large party ordered more food and then I wished I had explored the menu better. Everything looked really good. The Quesadilla looked amazing, .. and our friends loved it. ( We couldn't have had that since my wife is lactose intolerant ) but our burger came with the cheese on the side, with no questions. The wait staff is overall quite friendly and since it's outside and sports bar oriented, .. they are all darn attractive! This is always a plus, We had a main server, but many different servers came with food and drinks. Obviously to speed up the service and it works! It's pretty far from our house to this venue, .. over an hour. But we would definitely go here again basec on the experience. Probably for a large gathering ... Or if we happen to be in the...

Id love to give this place 12/10 stars simply as its become a home base and fun spot for weekend dancing. Its frustrating and SAD to have bouncers say to your face when you come to them with concern for your safety with someone who has a no contact order and assault charges pending is in the building, and the only response they give the one who's been abused is "thats a you problem" . Let me just say, since I could not find the GM to personally call this person out I will absolutely tell every girl I know not to enter that place without protection for herself because of the disgusting behavior of the so called "door men" associating with a criminal just because he does his lawn care. This is not a matter of business to me so weather or not I ever return won't stop me from persuing legal definitions should ANYTHING ever happen to me OR my friends while at this establishment in the future.

The food is delicious, the drinks are always on point , the dj is amazing and always keeps us Vining, But none of it is worth the price of feeling like less than a human when you try to bring safety concerns to the exact people who's job is to ensure your safety and they've already chosen to back the abuser & make you feel like trash. Im disappointed to say the least in how the staff has flipped their views of ME, a semi regular patron , all over very misguided information. I do hope management reaches out as I have court documents I can share, and would not like to add more on top of it...