Emerson & Oliver 140 Cass Street, Woodstock, IL 60098

"My husband and I had a reservation at 7, and were seated right at the stage. It was perfect, as we were there to see the talented Stephen Schuch. He was incredible. The service was TERRIBLE. I had read about long waits so I was semi expecting this. But it was ALL night. First, we were basically forgotten about, and only after 45 min of wondering when our drinks might arrive, we’re told our ticket was lost. Drinks then took another 20 min. We had to flag down a server for anything; a second drink, food, the bill.. you name it. We had to build in this wait time knowing we may be ready to leave before it actually arrived. It wasn’t as busy until an hour in, so I was surprised that all the servers seemed to be scrambling. I very much wanted to NOT be annoyed but we were, which really sucked since it was our anniversary. It was ridiculous how poor the service was. Stephen Schuch was the ONLY reason it was worth the visit. Note: we were there last night, Dec 29, 2023"

"EDIT: I got an email very shortly after writing this review letting me know that they had actually let that server go shortly after our visit and they wanted to make things right with us. That goes a long way. We would love to try it again and I truly do appreciate the quick and thoughtful response. I made reservations here for a Friday night a little over a month ago (Sept 1st). It was for a girl's night after work. We got there at 7:30 and no one even came to greet our table for a good 15 minutes. When she finally did come over, she immediately had a bad attitude with us for no reason. There was no apology for the wait, no waters brought over, nothing. I get that it was busy, and they only had the one waitress and one bartender working, so I'm not normally one to complain with those circumstances. But one of my friends asked if they could get us some kind of shot of something sweet (a few of us had had a particularly bad day at work and were really looking forward to this night) and she basically scoffed at us and told us that this was a craft cocktail bar and they don't do shots. And that's also fine, but you don't have to be rude about it. We ordered our drinks and waited for an hour, never got them. One of the girls in my group finally went up and asked her if our drinks were almost ready and if not, we were going to go somewhere else. She responded "there are a lot of other people we have to get to before you guys" IT HAD BEEN AN HOUR. And for her to respond that way, instead of giving some kind of apology or trying to make it right, is horrible service. Get some better waitstaff - we had an awful experience. The only saving grace was the music. We never got our drinks and ended up leaving after over an hour of sitting there with nothing."

"Shhh... it's a secret. Gotta figure out the 'password' to this cozy basement speakeasy on the square. The deceiving entry makes it more fun! Fridays have live musical talent. Very small venue, but that makes it better. Interesting drink menu. Their Old Fashion with Tequila was outstanding, but then it was actually exceeded by their Queen Anne Chocolate Martini. Nice bourbon selection as well. Suggest eating beforehand, as their food menu is more snacks - their focus is their libations, and they do that well. Their staff is very friendly and capable. Won't be long till it's too popular to get in..."

"Our first time at Emerson and Oliver. I was excited when we were invited by another couple. They visited one time before and loved it so they invited us. We were greeted by a very sweet, energetic woman. Another woman by the door was also very welcoming and kind. Walked in and LOVED the vibe and it wasn’t terribly busy. We were sat on the stage, musician wasn’t play yet but we were happy to be right by him. We all love music so we were excited! A woman walked in right behind us at the door and proceeded to walk in front of us saying she’s been there so many times and she knows where to go. No big deal, didn’t bother us. We were sat and there we stayed over 30 minutes without a sole to come to our table. I looked over and saw the same woman who came in seconds in front of us, already had her drink. I then looked and saw a woman behind the bar keep looking at us. We just sat there enjoying our conversation. They may be busy I thought, even though there were only a few tables occupied. Same woman that was behind the bar I saw look over at us several times finally greeted us. Said she was sorry for the wait and took our drink order. We didn’t think anything of it and placed our order. One person got his beer 30 minutes later. Looked at the other person we were with and said “what did you want”. We then sat there for another 20 minutes without any drinks. Server came with one of the food items that was ordered. Still no drinks. We sat there for almost an hour and 1/2 and finally got our drinks. She came back once after delivering our food and drinks. We were there for over 2 hours and half of us got one drink. It was beyond ridiculous and incredibly disappointing. The musician was FANTASTIC! If it wasn’t for him giving us an incredible performance, we would have left. Reading through the reviews, I’m starting to think that is what she wanted us to do. One person from our group had to go up to the bar to get our check. She even acknowledged she was a “mess tonight” (her words) I have been in the food industry and when I had a bad night or bad moment. I would bust my butt to rally and make it up to my guests. She clearly didn’t want us there. I ordered the pineapple white lady, and it was delicious! I would have like another one but wasn’t interested in sitting there for another 2 hours for one drink. The horrible service is what will lose your customers. I hope you can rectify that if you want to stay in business. Or was the way we were treated intentional? Seemed pretty intentional. Hope I’m wrong."