Dined on February 22, 2025
- Overall 3
- Food 4
- Service 2
- Ambience 4
So, good stuff first: food is spicy and interesting, room is lively, drinks are strong and creative. We (ultimately) had a really good dinner.
But before it got good, it was pretty awful.
Five of us showed up for a 7:15pm reservation and got escorted to “the private dining room.” Spoiler: it’s not a private dining room; it’s a basement. 20-something other people were eating down there, surrounded by industrial boxes of toilet paper and paper towels. I get it: Bar Peached has gotten popular and there’s a ton of demand, but if you’re going to seat diners in a windowless basement, you should warn them.
We gently asked if there was something upstairs in the, errrr, actual restaurant. We were told it might be a few minutes, which was totally fine. We were there for a birthday and the ambience, happy to wait.
Went up to the bar, and night went from odd to embarrassing. We had just ordered a drink and settled in to wait for table, when hostess Alli launched herself our way SCREAMING. “No standing at the bar! Let’s go! Get out!” The two members of our party who were sitting in bar stools were allowed to remain; the three who were standing and waiting were marched outside, downstairs, and parked next to a dumpster while we waited for table.
I now understand: despite the name, Bar Peached REALLY isn’t a bar and takes that incredibly seriously. They want you ordering dinner at bar, not drinks. And they very much don’t want anyone standing and waiting. And… okay, I guess?
But Alli yelled at us, embarrassed us, talked down to us, and just totally ruined a nice evening. It was baffling behavior — unnecessary, unhinged, unkind. I gently said as much and the response was “I’m just doing my job.” Again, okay, maybe? But wow.
We were eventually marched in from the (literal) cold and seated. Dinner was lovely, server was great, food was inventive and delicious. But it’s hard to come back from a terrible and insulting start to evening.
Manager apologetic, so that… I guess.