The Kaatskeller — Restaurant in Town of Rockland

PSA TO ANYONE WHO IS NOT WHITE: Do not spend any of your money at this restaurant-it is not safe due to the local racist. My friends and I chose to leave after being confronted and belittled by a racist local that the restaurant staff clearly know. I’m an Asian female and was dining here with 2 white female friends since it was supposed to be 'dog friendly' and we had two small size rescue dogs with us. We had spent the entire day in the Catskills area going into multiple stores and establishments where locals loved and pet the dogs all day. When we got to the restaurant, I was using treats for positive reinforcement to manage my dog barking when the waiters approached the table as he’s scared of men approaching. He never tried to bite anyone and remained under the outdoor picnic table where I had tied his non-extendable leash next to me. My friend's dog was also barking at wait staff as well. Both dogs only barked when a waiter was approaching and quieted down when we spoke to them, it was not disruptive to other diners. After about 20 minutes, one of the older locals (wearing red flannel and a Catskills House cap, pierced ears) who was sitting at the bar and creepily watching me walked up behind me and leaned creepily in 2 inches from my face to the point where I couldn't even fully face them because then our faces would have been touching. This person then said to me condescendingly in a low enough tone only I could hear, "This is what you're going to do, you're going to put your dog at the end of the table or you're going to move outside of the table, okay? He keeps barking at the waiters so you're going to move him or you're going to leave." They intentionally made sure I was the only person in the group receiving this message by turning their back to my two white friends while speaking to me, not making eye contact with my friends, and speaking low enough so they wouldn’t hear what this person said to me. My immediate response was, "I'm so sorry, okay". I was not defensive, did not have any negative tone, and was immediately apologetic because I was in shock. They REPEATED themselves after I apologized, "You're going to move your dog to the end of the table because he won't stop barking or you're going to leave, do you understand me?" It was clearly a display of racial intimidation and this person was getting off on it. They did not say anything to my white friend whose dog was also barking. Once again, I did not argue back and just responded, "Okay" because I was in shock someone felt they could speak to me that way and assumed they must be an owner, manager, or someone that was part of the staff. Instead, it turned out to be the local creep (upon asking others, they are well aware of who this person is) who continued to watch me from the bar after this interaction. Keep in mind that no one from the restaurant ever spoke to us about our dogs barking or gave any indication that they were concerned. My friends were alarmed by the interaction and said we should leave based off the imposing body language and intimidation they witnessed. One of my friends went up to staff to let them know that we were leaving because of how this patron had just spoken to me. The staff's response was, "Oh okay". It was clear they knew who this local was and were supportive of them racially intimidating me. The restaurant staff’s silence is complicit in promoting this racist behavior and intimidation to a non-white female diner. As we packed up our subpar pizzas, I took a glance back at the bar and saw that the local was STILL watching us and smirking while bragging about it to the male bartender at the bar outside. I understand this was the PEAK of this person’s life because they got to intimidate an Asian female diner with a 20 lb chihuahua mix who stands a mighty 12 inches tall and they’ll share the story for the next 3 weeks, but the female staff will STILL not date you nor invite you to their house party. The male bartender you were seeking validation from is also NOT...

I had been wanting to try this place for a while as the food and atmosphere looked great! Went for lunch on a Saturday and was extremely dissatisfied with the service and the staff- particularly the attitude of the manager. Upon arrival we were informed that the food would take about 30 minutes to arrive after ordering. This seemed reasonable and we waited in line, placed our order of 3 pizzas and 1 salad and found a table. The runners came over and dropped plates and provided water glasses and a pitcher of water. About 20 minutes later, our salad arrived which was quite tasty. Shortly after, 1 of the 3 pizzas arrived. Although it was quite heavy on the onions, it was generally okay. About 10 minutes later, the 2nd pizza arrived.

This is where things went downhill. About 20 minutes after the 2nd pizza got dropped, we asked one of the runners when the 3rd pizza would be arriving. He said he would check into it. He avoided us for a while but we followed up 20 minutes later and said it would be out in 10 minutes. He didn’t seem like he was being honest and we asked if he asked the kitchen as we had received the rest of the food 40 minutes earlier so something seemed off. He assured us he had and that the food would be out in 10 minutes. Shortly after this conversation we saw him speaking with other employees and pointing to our table. (It seems he finally said something). Another person came to the table and asked what we were missing and we told them which pizza was missing. They asked us to go back inside and inform the people taking orders. We had to get back in the line and waited until someone came and got us out of the line and brought us inside to confirm our initial order and explain what was missing. They told us they would correct it and the pizza would be out shortly. It finally arrived (about 90 minutes after arriving and 60 minutes after the other food got dropped).

When leaving, we raised the issue with the manager and he said if we were unhappy with the service, we shouldn’t return back. He also said “I’m sorry your pizza was LATE Sweetheart”. I don’t know you and I’m not your sweetheart. A simple “I’m sorry for the service and I hope you give us another chance” would have been so much better than the patronizing way he handled it. If his goal is to drive away return customers,...

I truly hate (and very rarely) leave these types of reviews, but this was one of those circumstances that I just could not let go. My wife and I came here on the last night of our stay in Livingston Manor and had literally been looking forward to eating here all day. In our minds it was going to be a perfect experience at the end of a lovely vacation. We arrived around 6:45pm on a very cold June evening. Only 1 table was occupied outside. Inside they were busy but did have a few tables avail.

When we went inside we basically stood for over 5 minutes while the hostess ignored us, it got to the point where it was getting uncomfortable. Finally she looked at us and mumbled something about a system being down and they can't seat anyone else in a tone of voice that basically said she really didn't care. No apology and nothing professional about how she spoke to us. We asked if we could just sit for a drink outside hoping that maybe they'd be able to serve us food and if not we'd just have a drink and go somewhere else. Again the attitude we got made it seem like she thought we were bothering her. She mumbled something incoherent about 30-40 minutes before they could even seat us for a drink, then something about she was told not to seat anyone else, then something about the system, then something about how it takes a long time to process a payment.

At that point we left as we could not get a straight answer and the potential of waiting 45 mins to get 2 beers was not appealing. I'm not looking for Michelin Star level service. A simple apology and explanation would have gone a long way. I understand computers go down and it can create mayhem in a restaurant. The fact we didn't get seated was NOT the issue. The problem was 100% the lack of care the staff showed.

We ended up going to the Arnold House and had an amazing time. The difference in how the staff treated us could not have been more pronounced. They were slammed, no tables available, but staff immediately started working with us to stay and even got us 2 bar seats...