Alcove Beer Garden — Restaurant in Wilmington

As someone who worked in the restaurant industry for years as a server and a bartender as I was completing college, I know how difficult the job can be and have dealt with enough less than polite patrons to make leaving a negative review almost unfathomable for me. However, my recent experience with Alcove, specifically Bartender Jake (I believe that to be his name- short and tattooed) working the evening of 7/2/24 was so poor and frustrating that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. My boyfriend and I went to Beat Street for Tacos, placed our taco order, then walked into Alcove to try to order some Margaritas. My boyfriend went outside to grab a table for us and I went up to the bar. I waited at the bar and was ignored by Jake the bartender thinking, “I’m sure he’s just busy or probably hasn’t noticed me” (even though I was the only customer waiting near him at the time) when two men came up and were immediately greeted and served by him. I continue waiting thinking at least he’ll get to me after he serves their drinks. But nope, he served them then continues ignoring me. I tried to politely say “excuse me” but was again ignored. At this point I’m thinking I have personally wronged Jake at some point in my life. My food order is called out and ready for me to pick up. I’m extremely frustrated and walk outside to my boyfriend and explain that I had not had my order taken. My boyfriend offered to go try to place our drink order and had the same experience. I sat outside waiting on him as our food from Beat Street got cold. My boyfriend came back and told me that Jake the bartender had again tried to serve someone else before him but this time the other customer had pointed out that my boyfriend was there first and had been waiting, so Jake finally served him after 15 minutes of waiting at a not very busy time, as if we were wearing invisibility cloaks. I don’t know what we did to you Jake, but I’m very sorry. We won’t return to Alcove. And for the reader, if you expect even decent bar service, I recommend...

This is a nice brewery in the cargo district. We belong to a local beer club and we had an event here on the 18th of September. There were probably about 50 of us that enjoyed some beer (wine for me), local shops to explore, and food from the Rude Bwoys Jerk BBQ (will do a separate review).

The beer garden is large with inside and outside tables/chairs. There's even seating upstairs that looks into the beer garden. There are planters on one wall and a cool spiral stair case.

This was a fun place, as you had the option to explore the...

Host/cashier was very polite and helpful. Bartender served us 1 round of drinks and never came back to until maybe 15 minutes after I finished my beer.

UPDATE: I appreciate the response, but to be clear, I stayed seated at the bar the entire time. At no point did I leave to sit elsewhere. After being served my initial drink, bartender did not come back until long after finishing my beverage. As someone with years of bartending experience, I know how important attentive service is, and...