Nomad — Restaurant in Washington

So my sister and I were looking for a hookah bar that is 18+ near the harbor while we were in DC on vacation. So we look up some places on google and this one seemed alright with good reviews. While looking through the reviews, I was also looking at whether or not the place is 18 and over as I know most of these places are not. So I come upon one question asking if whether or not the facility is 18+. Although there is one comment stating that it is only 21+, there are two others stating that the place is in fact 18+. So I’m over here thinking “cool, sounds like a plan”. Upon arrival, everything seemed cool. The bouncer thouroughly reads our IDs to see how old we were. He even mentions how young my sister is (18) and how I just turned (21). The IDs have big red boxes stating how we are still underaged until a certain date. Knowing and seeing this, he lets us in and we are seated. It is an ok establishment. The hookah was nice. But we came on a bad night because the power kept shutting on and off, which was causing their system to shut down, so people were only able to pay with cash. This is not their fault, I understand that so it’s fine. Eventually, the manager I think comes up and tried to offer us shots for the inconvenience. We refused, knowing that we were underaged. But I knew something was wrong when she didn’t ask us for our IDs because we look young. Then she mentions how there is an ATM a little bit down the street. I wanted my sister to go with me because I didn’t want to go by myself. She then asked for our IDs. Which makes sense because you wouldn’t want anyone running off on a tab. So we give another waitress our IDs and we go look for this ATM. We couldnt find the one she was talking about so my sister finds one on her GPS and it’s just one minute away from the bar so we turn around and walk towards that one. The manager then comes out and confronts us about how we are underaged and how the bouncer accused us of giving him a different ID. Excuse me? Are you serious? So the manager is mad at us, talking about how she could lose her liquor liscense and stuff. And we are trying to explain that the bouncer let us in. I even offered to let them go through our stuff. Why would we give him an ID saying that we were 21 and give her a different one?? That makes no sense. So she has me stay while my sister goes to the ATM. But we give her $40 ($5 over the estimated price she gave us) to pay for our stuff. She then rudely dismissed us and told us to have a nice night. I understand that wasn’t her fault but she needs to understand that it’s not our fault either. The bouncer let us in. So he needs to be fired or they need a better system of checking IDs and checking their questions/reviews on google because whatever they are doing is obviously not working. Don’t be angry at the customers, you need to be upset with your bouncer that lets underaged people...

I just visited this place yesterday for the first time. My colleagues and I arrive at about 10 pm Tuesday evening. Upon our arrival, the place seemed to be nice however the waitress did not seem friendly at all. We informed her that we would have a large party to which she seemed indifferent about and proceeded to seat us at the booth closest to the door. We told her we would like 1 hookah and were not ready to order drinks yet as we were waiting for the rest of our party to arrive. After about 5 mins they arrived and she came back asking us to order drinks. I placed an order for 1 drink and told her everyone will not be drinking, she then asked us to order another hookah to which I informed her that everyone does not smoke and that we will be fine with just one for now.

It just went all downhill from there. She proceeded to take all of the menus from the table. I asked her if we could keep one because we had every intention of ordering other items later on. She handed it to me and just walked away. She literally turns right back around and tells us that if we are only going to order 1 hookah and a couple of drinks we will need to leave. I was appalled! She said that since we are a party of 7 we need to order at least 7 alcoholic beverages and 2 hookahs. I told her everyone one does not drink! She says " You have 2 options either get 2 hookahs and a round of drink or you can leave". I was so taken aback that I asked to speak to the manager.

The young lady (manager) informed me that the waitress explained it wrong and that they were at capacity, however, there was only 3 other table being occupied. (mind you this is a Tuesday Night it was dead in there) I asked how could you be at capacity if you were going to serve us as long as we spent more money? Then she back paddled and said oh no she misunderstood my issue.

She then told us she would personally take our order but we do need to order more drink because there were 7 of us. I refuse to let anyone pressure my friends into drinking or smoking if that is not their pleasure. They just came to fellowship with the rest of us and now were asked to leave if they did not order. Clearly, the waitress had an attitude from the door. Perhaps she had a bad day or because it was so slow wanted a bigger tip. If we ordered more the gratuity for the party would be more for her. No matter what her issue was that is NOT how you treat people patronizing your business. Thus, we ALL left and went to Apple Lounge (which was more spacious, friendly, and had no requirements on whether everyone drank or not).

If you plan on visiting this place with a large party be sure that everyone smokes/drinks and be prepared to order multiple hookahs. Honestly, I would never visit this place again. Just the worst! too bad I can't give...

So I tried this establishment again after Anis and Al who are both very pleasant men contacted me based on the below initial review. In December I had a terrible experience after spending over $600 plus dollars at a small hookah bar. Both Anis and Al repeatedly reached out to me and ensured that they had spoken with their rude, obnoxious, and unprofessional manager Coy. I was assured that after returning from my holiday travel that I would have a much better experience... I was hopeful SORRY it was still inconsistent and terrible. Al reached out to me earlier today to see if I would be able to attend and I stated possibly. I reached out to him and asked if he could accommodate a party of 10 and understandably on a Saturday he could not. My group of 10 walked by the establishment and noticed ample seating. We waited outside patiently for 15 minutes while a party of 6 and 4 were seated. Brittany stated that they could seat a party of 10 but we would need to purchase 4 hookahs and a drink each. I informed her that in previously speaking with an owner there was no set minimum on hookahs but we would likely exceed the drink quantity and 2 hookahs was sufficient... she stated we had to do 4 and I explained we only planned to visit for an hour and a half and that we wouldn’t consume 4 but definitely 2... we were basically told take it or leave it. I reached out to the owner Al who called Coy the manager and straightened things out well not really. She came outside and stated the rule was what it was despite what the owner said. I’m confused at this point because at what point does a manager override an owner. This continues to happen. I’m sorry I just can not be a patron of an establishment where the employees tell the owners what they will or will not do. Coy continues to be an issue and an example of terrible customer service at this establishment... how does she still have employment here? Al proceeded to text me and truly wanted me to go back again tonight but NEVER AGAIN. After writing a professional and honest review on the Instagram account for this business I was blocked... I guess my honesty had no place at Nomad. This business is clearly not accustomed to patrons that also own businesses within the community trying to...