Raoul’s

My personal opinion:
I have serious issues with this place.
#1 I don’t like the atmosphere.
#2 I don’t like the owner. He is the same guy who owns Fuel… Below is my Fuel story
#3 My husband is a former ‘regular’. Allegedly… A waitress reprinted his credit card receipt and wrote herself in a tip for over $ 100. I think the actual amount was $ 123.00 and wrote in on the side ‘Good Luck With Everything’ then allegedly forged my husbands signature. WE WERE PISSED.
We called the credit card company. They said that since we were actual clients and actually used the card there they wouldn’t do anything. Also, we threw away the receipt (I mean, who keeps the receipt… we do now. Which I don’t see why this matters since the tip is a write in on both receipts… but whatever).
So then, we went to the owner. He said it was the girls last day there and now no one can get a hold her. He refused to repay us the tip amount she put in. My husband was even willing to take gift cards and he refused that also. Basically he said if he doesn’t have to why should he.
We filed a police report… the police really didn’t seem to care and said they would ‘look into it’. Whatever that means. We were told we could file a small claims case against them but thought… forget it… it’s too much work for $ 100.
The police told us we would have to file against the waitress and not Fuel anyways. Which pissed me off since I feel the waitress is an agent of Fuel and Fuel should take responsibility for her. So it would seem Fuel chose to lose a regular rather than make this right. We will NEVER be back… NEVER!!!

I went to see Adam Lee and the Dead Horse Sound Company at Raoul’s Velvet Room last night and it was amazing! Although some of the art hanging crooked REALLY bothered me, the art was pretty badass so it made up for it. There’s comfy leather sofas and velvet covered wooden chairs. The stage set up was pretty rad, as well.
The bartender was really cool too. I had met him before at another bar, but he is an excellent bartender. The lady bartender was super cute and even tried to give me tips on Victory-​Rollin’ my hairs. And they were way willing to make whiskey-​pickle juice shots for almost everyone in the bar so… :)
There’s a TV for advertising in the bathroom that will trick you into thinking people’s cell phones are ringing too!
So… all in all, if you are clever enough to find out when the speakeasy night is, and you’re cool enough to get the password, that’s the place to go. :)

I was here for an event and they rented out the entire complex. They had music playing which I enjoyed, but I didn’t see a DJ. Did someone IPOD or laptop it?
The bartender was very responsive and I didn’t have to wait. He poured me up 4 rum and cokes and it came out to $ 18 with tip. WOW! Talk about inexpensive.
We watched the game and schmoozed it up. Plenty of space to walk around, sit and leave our coats. Good times.

So much about an experience in an establishment can revolve around who you’re with and what your goals are. In the event I was out with a lady friend and we wanted to meet people who could put together coherent sentences, this would not be the place. I’m pretty sure under any other circumstances than last night I may hate this joint, but it worked for what we were after. Fuel was somewhat of a fail, which is where we started. Having a large group of bday partiers who had already paid the seemingly silly $ 5.00 cover we meandered over here.
The space is nicely laid out, patio out front that is just tight enough to ensure you will get burned by some drunk that forgets they’re holding a smoke at least once, be advised. I have the reminder on my forearm. Indoors there are about 4 efficient bartenders that throw in a small amount of glass tossing flair to make even a multiple minute wait slightly more tolerable. Option to stand with the leering singles in the bar area or progress back to the tables. The place was relatively busy but even around midnight on a Saturday the stiletto clad dancing ladies could all find seats around a long table when we wore ourselves out.
It would be an overstated compliment to say the DJ was good. He remixed Journey’s «Don’t Stop Believing» on three different occasions. It wouldn’t have stood out so terribly but 80% of what he was playing was Hip Hop, primarily old school. Steve Perry’s vocals are an obvious out of place repetitive addition. Despite that I really enjoyed that he was playing a lot of old school jams. This is the kind of environment that I felt completely comfortable dancing incessantly, there is no way I’ll see anyone other than the people I rolled in with again so what the hell. The only two people I’ve told my alter ego’s name to can’t remember it, totally safe opportunity to be my fun drunk self. Burned a lot of calories, drank a lot of beer, walked out of it all with a smile on my face. Worthy of 4 stars for this experience although I get the feeling if I gave it another go under different circumstances that may not be the case…

Several of you saw my «hat incident» postings on Twitter last night and have inquired about what happened at Fuel/Raoul’s Velvet Room so I’ve decided to lay it out here in this blog. And yes, I’ll admit it isn’t the snazziest hat, but as you’ll see, that’s kind of beside the point.
First of all, I want to be clear that the staff at Fuel/​RVR were all reasonably professional except for the manager on duty who obviously didn’t know the first thing about the hospitality industry, which is simply to be polite to your guests. I wasn’t even given the obvious option of just taking off my hat; instead, I was flatly told that I had to leave immediately. Of course this was after my group and I had spent a C-​note or more on cover charges and drinks during the three hours we had been there.
I was utterly shocked at the manager’s rudeness but decided it was time to leave anyway so I headed toward the restroom area as my ride had gone in there a few moments earlier. At that time I was approached again and told once more that I had to leave, this time by the same manager along with another employee who (guess what?) was wearing a hat conspicuously similar to mine. I explained to them that I was waiting for my ride to get out of the restroom and had no intentions of staying any longer as I was obviously not welcome there. Apparently I was not believed, and my audacity at pointing out to the manager that the other employee was wearing a hat didn’t sit too well with him, as was evidenced by his continued rudeness. Once my ride emerged from the restroom she too was absolutely shocked at what was happening, so we left, along with the others in my group.
What confounds me is why Fuel/​RVR did not enforce their dress code at the door before taking people’s money or at least explain to guests upon arrival that there are different dress codes even though the two bars had a common entry point and a single cover charge. And just why is it that the dress code doesn’t seem to apply to their own employees? Fuel/RVR’s management created an unnecessarily ugly situation that resulted in several extremely dissatisfied guests solely due to their own ineptness and unprofessionalism. Needless to say, we won’t be back.

Oh dear god.
4 star average?
No. No!
The two times I’ve been here have been two times too many. Really crowded, skeezy guys, cougar central (and I hate to use that term but there’s no denying it)…all with a fabulous $ 5 cover.
Second star comes from the lady R O C K I N G legit tapered, stone washed jeans… not as a joke or as a funny 80’s costume or something. It was her serious Saturday night outfit.