The Two Cent Pub — Restaurant in Winslow

I stopped by one day at what seemed like a cute little roadside attraction with a friend who lives close by. When I walked in it was pretty dark, 15 degrees hotter than the hot day outside, and I literally felt like I was ruining the bartenders entire day when I asked her for a couple of Margaritas. She didn't even bother to ask if we wanted salt or not, so I hesitantly mentioned it before she poured the drink into the glass so it wouldn't be impossible to rim the glass afterwards. I noticed the guy next to me had a decent looking sandwich, so I asked for a food menu. She brought me one. Nowhere was this sandwich on the entire menu. Another lady happened to be behind the bar, so I said "I'm not seeing that sandwich on the menu, but it looked really good". She tells me " oh that's not even the menu we are using today, here's brunch (or whatever it was)." By this point we had finished our drinks and we were sweating bullets because it was hot and only one of the side windows was opened. So, I asked for the check. TWENTY SEVEN DOLLARS! Two margaritas, no mods, no questions asked, made with cheap margarita mix, and a very light handed pour, came to $27!

I've worked in the bar business for 20 years from New York to New Orleans, Miami to Malta, and lots of places in between. I have never had a bartender tell me what this lady told me when I asked if this was my bill or if there had been a mistake "oh yeah, we make all of our drinks top shelf unless you specify otherwise." I owned a bar, and would have fired a bartender for trying to pull some scam like that. That is simply not how bars work. A drink is a well drink. A vodka soda isn't a Grey Goose and soda unless I say it is, and a margarita isn't a Tres Generationés Anejo, Gran Mar, organic agave nectar, and limes delicately squeezed by hand unless I specifically ask for that. Had I, I would be happy to pay $27 for it. This was actually a short shot of Hornitos in a pint glass full of Ms. T's, reluctantly served with a bone dry lime and a few old salt chunks stuck to the glass by a rude bartender who didn't even give me the right menu. That is literally the exact price for an ENTIRE BOTTLE of Hornitos reposado in the state of Maine!!! Maybe the sandwich would have been alright, but I was already out the door when I finally saw a sandwich on the day's special board. Two bartenders and a cook couldn't figure out the sandwich a guy sitting next to me was currently eating without me reading the specials on the way out. Drive one mile and there are tons of decent restaurants to choose from. I...

I don't usually leave negative reviews, but this experience called for it. It took 20 minutes for the waitress to even acknowledge that we were there. Out of chicken, out of orange soda. Zero prices on the beer menu. The atmosphere alone was just hard to be in. Loud, 80 degrees, ACs visible but turned off. Handles taken off the windows so you can't open them. Visible smoke from the kitchen in the air. The first table we sat at was so dirty that we sat for ten minutes with our arms in our laps because it was too gross to touch. After waiting for almost an hour, just hoping thw waitress would come back and take our food order, we gave up, paid for our drinks and left. $31 for a beer, 3 root beers, and two soft drinks. I gave the food three stars because I can only guess what it tasted like. We will not be returning.

Since I can't respond, I'll edit.

Being "freakishly busy" is understandable. Everyone is short staffed. We all almost expect it at this point. Being in a hot, stuffy restaurant, when you could open the windows or turn the AC on, and being ignored by the waitress is not understandable. No attempt was even made to address the fact that we waited almost an hour to even order food before we gave up and took our now very hungry family somewhere else.

You can have a busy or hard day and still manage your customers. Even the ones that you can't serve in a timely manner. We wouldn't have minded waiting if it wasn't miserable to be in there, and if the waitress had even attempted to explain the situation.

Furthermore, not carrying a product is completely fine. Not even looking up from taking our drink order and curtly stating "we're out" doesn't exactly help me understand that.

Given that you feel the need to personally respond to every negative review to try to spin it says a lot. We are talking about "my standards". We're talking about basic standards for operating a restaurant.

I'm guessing you don't have any staff...

This place had the most amazing BBQ pork EVER 🤤 I don't eat much meat... But I will go out of my way ANY DAY to get over to this place and grub!! We had the pretzel with beer cheese and it was by FAR the best beer cheese I've ever tasted! Then there was the BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadilla with House BBQ sauce .. literally cleaned the plate! Perfect portions and the absolute best most mouth watering sauce... My word .. but the best part? What I really went for? Knocked my socks off and honest to God had me eating well past full .. BBQ Pulled Pork Cheese Garlic Bread. 🤤🤤🤤 WHOMEVER CAME OUT WITH THAT HOUSE SAUCE.. I COULD HUG YOU AND I WILL CERTAINLY BE BACK FOR MORE! Great greatttt food and a modern laid back establishment.. if you're in the area .. you definitely need to make it a point to stop here.. you won't...