Jeremiah's Tavern — Restaurant in Town of Penfield

I honestly cannot believe that I have to write this review. Of all of the places I've dined and drank at for years, traveling around the country for work and leisure, I have never been treated with less respect than I was at Jeremiah's in Penfield.

I went to meet an old friend of mine last Friday (05/22) and arrived at the bar just before 5 pm. The bar itself was crowded, with no available seating, but 80% of the tables were vacant. We grab a round and sat down at a high top 2-seater directly adjacent to the bar. A half hour or so later, we grab a second round. A waiter stops by our table and asks us if we want any menus. We decline, thanking him and letting him know that we were just stopping by for a few rounds. He tells us that we may have to move, as the tables are for diners only. Mind you, we both have a fresh round in front of us and an open tab at the bar. I look at him oddly, telling him that there is no room at the bar and that we intend to sit until we are done drinking. He says, "Well you still may have to move" to which I reply "Right."

A little background on my friend: He is a retired Vietnam veteran in his mid-60's. I am in my early 30's and have worked together through several business ventures for over a decade. He's been a wonderful friend and a mentor to me over the years. After the waiter walk away, we both agree that it was unbelievable that someone would suggest that a paying customer would have to move, but shrug it off and continue with our conversation and drinks.

Another 30 minutes has passed (about 6 pm). The tables are mostly filled up now. We each have about an inch of beer in our glasses left and my buddy says that he will grab the next round. While he's at the bar ordering, a waitress comes up and tells me that we have to move. I tell her that we are still drinking and have been here, steadily making purchases since before 5 pm. I told her that we have no intention of moving until we are done. She says "well there is a wait and it's not fair to them. Either move or I will get the manager." She was very curt and her tone was extremely rude. I raise my voice and say "are you telling me that two paying customers are being forced to vacate the seats they have been sitting in for over an hour? I have NEVER been treated like this!" She says, "That's it, I'm getting the manager." I said to her "Don't bother!" and tell my friend not to pay for the two beers because we are out of here.

Never in my life, even at the most crowded of establishments, has someone had the audacity to tell me to vacate my seat, ESPECIALLY when I am still purchasing product.

• Bottom Line * Jeremiah's kicked a Vietnam veteran who served his country and myself out of his seat like he was Rosa-freak'n-Parks on MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! I will NEVER dine at either of their locations again and will inform everyone I can about the lack of respect this establishment has towards its' clientele. On a positive note, we went to Don's Original right up the street for one last pint, where we received OUTSTANDING and POLITE service from a wonderful waitress. I wish that I remembered her name...

A long time customer of Jeremiah's, my girlfriend and I have an absolutely horrific experience. On a visit with a large group of friends, some from out of town, we wanted to take them to a really good, fun local bar and restaurant. While the night started out great, it did not end well.

When the food was being brought out, the general manager, Lynn Relyea, proceeded to pinch my girlfriend's cheeks and said "aren't you cute" after explaining that her food would be a little slower to come out. It is never appropriate or acceptable to touch a stranger, even more so a customer in your restaurant. After the incident, Lynn, proceeded to leave the restaurant. After having to talk to our waitress and another manager, he Lynn returned. He came to the table and made a very insincere apology to my girlfriend and asked to speak to me in public. After explaining to me that because he was trying to make a "quick joke" because the food was taking a long time to come out of the kitchen he said "now you can yell at me". His entire apology was insincere, he felt no remorse, and I don't believe that he actually did anything wrong. It is appalling that a general manager of a restaurant would think that this type of conduct is okay. His lack of caring about the incident shows what type of person he really is. Not once did Lynn ever make any offer to do anything to fix the situation. His actions ruined the entire evening for the entire group of guests that we had invited there.

Days after the incident, I was able to talk to the Regional Manager, Dan Keenan. Dan also gave an insincere apology and I don't believe that he actually cared about the situation (it also took days to find a time to actually talk with him). I asked if he would reach out and personally apologize to my girlfriend and he has yet to do so (3 days later).

It is scary to think that upper level management would think that these types of actions are okay and that don't seem to be taking the situation seriously at all. If management thinks that this is okay, it makes me wonder how far these thoughts and actions have filtered down into the rest of the staff that works there.

I would recommend thinking very hard before going to this location, or any...

I went in to get a table for myself and 3 friends. At 11:40 AM, it was FAR from busy in the dining area. I waited over 15 minutes for the hostess to come out of the bathroom to seat me. I told her we would need a table for 4, she grabbed the menus and silverware settings, walked me to the table and put them in the middle of the table. I placed them at each seat and only had 3. I asked her for another one and she said, "I didn't hear what you said." Then when she came back she basically flung the items at me. My friends arrived and we gave our server our drink orders. She was gone for quite awhile after bringing them before coming back to take our orders. The food runner or cook brought our food. Still it wasn't busy...but she came back only once to ask if we needed anything and disappeared again for a long time. She came back and asked one friend if she needed a box to go, my friend replied yes and the server disappeared again for awhile. When she finally returned she handed the box to the friend who asked for it, ACROSS THE FRONT OF our other friend WHILE she was STILL eating. We finished our meals and got our payments out to pay. She looked over at our table once and we didn't see her again, once again, for quite awhile. By this time it had gotten busy. I had to go over to the POS area to hand her our check and payment. We couldn't just leave because I was using my card. We are very patient and appreciate our servers and food service workers, but this experience was abysmal. I can say there were no complaints about the meals, the food saved the rating, making it 3 stars. Our server was tipped well, mainly because my friends didn't have payment closer to the amount of their orders... so it was no tip or a better than deserved tip. If it had been busy, we could possibly justify the less than satisfactory experience, but it wasn't...