Haymarket Pub & Brewery — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Have been to Haymarket numerous times, and today figure we could go have a pizza and watch a few games. I was in complete dismay on how an unfortunate event was handled by staff. There were two customers at a hightop table directly next to us, at a sudden point I heard spilling which made me turn to the table and witnessed this customer vomiting on their table and then on to the floor. This was followed by the vomiting customer falling over onto their back from their high top chair and hitting their head onto the floor and laying with their face up, gasping for air, eyes moving back and forth, which led me to believe she was having a seizure. My partner went straight to the fallen patron and asked to call 911, I shouted call 911 as I was fumbling for my phone and it seemed as if nothing was being done so I called 911 and announced I have 911 (later found out that 911 was called by staff). This lasted about 1 minute, and the customer got back up again and said "who are you" to their friend. Friend responded with their name and spoke with the fallen customer until they gained their memory again.

In this moment I communicated that I had called an ambulance and a staff member responded with "do not call, we will have to fill out paperwork" I'm sorry but if someone looks like they had a seizure, you as a staff member should be on board with having to fill out paperwork to potentially prevent this person from leaving your premises and make sure they are safe. This leads me to believe, was there an over serving problem? Was this customer drugged by their acquaintance that was maybe not actually their friend? Calling an ambulance would have led to a natural consequence of something not being completely truthful.

Staff member said they had things under control meanwhile I am canceling the ambulance, because I was told I shouldn't have had to call by staff members. (They were also on the phone with emergency personnel, but never okayed the emergency vehicle to come to the establishment). Fallen customer and acquaintance left, they did not seem drunk at all. A different staff member was cleaning the table and chair with a rag and bare hand, which again made me think they did not know it was vomit so we wanted to inform them in case they didn't know, we were met with a short cold "we know that already, can we move you to a new table?" We literally have puke on our shoes and thought this person was dying minutes ago. We say no we will just settle up and leave; and staff member returns with the full check, my partner spoke up to say "we were made to feel as though we were over reacting/ feel bad for calling an ambulance." Staff member shares small insight on situation and apologizes for the possibility of making us feel bad, asks to box up our food that was out on the table during the event. They said a couple things as we were trying to leave. Can we get your number in case medical professionals arrive. my response "we cancelled the ambulance (which sounds silly to say as if it was an uber driver), if that is your protocol I will give you my number.” This sounds like it was just another way to irritate the situation because they did not have a pen or paper ready or push the need to take my number down Staff member says can we make this right and not charge you or get a round of shots for you? We were directly next to vomit that is an automatic free of charge in most responsible establishments where food is served. I paid the bill. We ultimately threw out our left overs for sanitary concerns.

Overall this was a very callous and uncaring situation handled by staff and whom ever was assisting the potential victim of this event. I implore the brewery to look into video surveillance, one other detail I am recalling is when I sat down the "healthy" "friend" sounded like they were selling some sort of service to the person who fainted, and again the first thing that was said by the fainter was " who are you" to the "healthy friend" who seemed to want to evacuate the premise quickly. I truly hope...

Worst 👏 service 👏in👏history!!! Buckle up for a story because this was hilariously awful.

Me and my friend work in bars and restaurants—she recommended we pop into this place. I dropped her off and parked. When I came in, the place was relatively empty, yet my friend was still waiting to be seated. She seemed a bit offended, but when I entered, they sat us immediately.

As our time progressed, the whole experience grew more and more strange. Our server was very peppy and kept shooting us a little hang loose hand🤙🏽 which was nice, but outside that, he completely ignored us.

He took half our order, when I couldn’t decide, he walked away—no problem—but he never came back. Time went by and we tried to get his attention, but it seemed like he just forgot about us.

I got up to find him so I could give my order. But when I made eye contact with our server, he scurried away into the back. The host, perhaps seeing how perturbed I was, asked me if I wanted to use that bathroom—I told him no, I wanted to order. The host says “okay.” 😐 Sooo…since my server disappeared, I told the host what I wanted. He quickly interrupted me and told me to go sit down and he’ll grab our server.

I returned to the table and didn’t get to order anything until my friend’s food arrived.

When my friend’s food did arrive, the server placed the two happy-hour plates in front of us. I reminded him I didn’t order anything yet. He took my order similarly to how a sergeant drills his privates. “Tots or fries?” “Tots, sir.” Drop and gimme 20 😂 it seriously felt like that.

He made me feel so bad for simply ordering a meal. The place was really quiet, I didn’t know what the issue was. My friend took his behavior personally, but I told her, “maybe he has something in his mind. After all, you never know what someone is going through. Let’s not take it personally.”

Anyway, when my food finally came, our server slammed it in the table quickly and ran off before we could ask for more drinks.

Honestly, the behavior made me a little nervous. Was there something wrong with the food? Why did he run away so quick without asking if everything looked okay?

I was so hungry, I scarfed the food down and didn’t really enjoy it because the sandwich was really dry and I was so thirsty.

The food was average. It might have been better if our server check in so I could order some mayo or more drinks or at least have some water.

It got to a point where I couldn’t eat anymore because we were both really thirsty.

It took both of us waving at our server (and the host) for a while before we could ask for a drink, more water, and some condiments.

It took the server about 15 minutes to get those three simple items.

By the time they arrived, there was no need for condiments and I didn’t finish the drink. At that point we just wanted to chug the water and leave.

Again, it took a lifetime for us to get our bill. Up until this point, I really wanted to believe that our server was just having a hard day. My friend was furious.

I started to take it personally when our server literally SLAMMED our check on our table and refused to take our payment. He didn’t want to even run our card or take our cash. He said we could pay with the QR code on the receipt.

I’m sorry, but that felt so personal. It was like he hated us the moment we arrived and every moment he could have improved our experience—he just made it worse. Even when it was time to deliver the check—which is such a defining moment for your tip—he made it clear that, not only did he low-key hate us, but he certainly didn’t care about our money, either.

My friend and I have never, ever, left a zero-tip. Ever. We understand the industry and advocate for over-tipping servers and bartenders. We are nice customers and really easy-going. I just wish I knew what we did to make our server hate us so much. It honestly felt like he deliberately wanted to give us the worst experience and I just can’t understand why. What did we do?

We will NEVER...

PRE-COVID this place was the best place for fresh local/adjacent brews AND innovative food with fresh bread/bun/hoagie, homemade sauces & giardiniera that went beautifully with their food which changed seasonally. You can walk pass the open kitchen and see how hard and loving everyone works on your food as well as see their personal beer brew concoction on the left of the kitchen IN HOUSE.

My review is for Bar and Drinks only post Covid. I have not seen their food menu or eaten anything from their current menu so can’t rate that now. Had an appt nearby and it’s my first time visiting in years. Grabbed a few beers at the bar and all were phenomenal. Bartenders still care and know their stuff when you ask for a recommendation with a certain style or notes which I really appreciate. I believe my bartender/server name is Fix. He was an AMAZING person and I believe I’ve seen him there even years before COVID when I went there with my friends/coworkers biweekly which means 1) company takes care of him well or fairly and/or 2) he loves what he does. I really appreciate him being my first week out and about in downtown due to multiple stressful appts. The patron(s) I met next to me were regulars, cheery, happy, too.

Just love the whole ambiance and multiple tv screens as you sit and chill and JUST BE YOU… relax, no attitude, no rush, no judgement, no pressure in the mist of DT-Chi.

Appreciate this place and staff a lot. Hope it’s there for a long time. Can’t wait to my next visit. I’ll be trying...