Kate Sexton

Review of Chatham Bars Inn

I came here for a drink with three friends on a qu...

I came here for a drink with three friends on a quiet Saturday night. We walked into the bar area to look for a seat. There were only two seats at the bar, so we asked if we could be seated at a table in the bar area. Now, this seems like an easy request, but for some reason we couldn't get a straight answer out of the two staff members we asked. One of the staff members was sitting nearby, socializing with some of the hotel guests, ignoring the rest of the patrons. So, we sat at a nearby table, unsure of where to place our order. The hostess was nowhere to be found when we had come in, but after a few minutes she came by and told us we were fine to sit at the table and that someone would be out soon to take our order. So we ordered drinks a few minutes later, no problem. We got our drinks, and 10-15 minutes later our server brought us the check. We were not even a quarte of the way through our drinks. We said nothing, but looked at each other in confusion. We had given no indication that we were only staying for one drink or that we were in a rush to close out, and our server had not even asked if we would like another round. So we were a little thrown by this, and felt uncomfortable. We let the check sit, as we were not planning to leave for a while. A few minutes later, our server came back to collect the check and we had to stop her from taking it because we had not put a card down yet. All of this made us feel unwelcome, and we tried to figure out the situation after leaving - was it our ages (We are all 22), was it the way we were dressed (sweaters and jeans, but we had not been the only patrons attired this way)? We couldn't quite figure out why we had received this treatment, but nevertheless we were left with a bad taste. The drinks were ok, nothing to write home about - New York prices but not New York quality. The restrooms were sorely disappointing for such a lovely hotel. (The valet gets 5 stars; he was lovely.) Overall, a bit of a strange experience. I would recommend this place for wealthy, white 50-somethings who enjoy making small talk in hushed tones.