Hidden Lake Winery, Illinois, United States

2Ms. Understood 5:00 PM Mar 27, 2021

PREJUDICE OWNER: BLACK PEOPLE BEWARE!
I will begin by listing the positive features of Hidden Lake Winery: beautiful scenery overlooking the lake with a spacious indoor venue offering many seating options, a stage for a live band, and a dance floor. The food was satisfactory however, the kitchen was backed up with food orders. I had absolutely no problem with that and I appreciated that prior to placing my order I was given a heads up that it would take 2 HOURS to receive my food. Again, that wasn't an issue for me and I understood. I was with a large party and my husband and I were the last of the group to arrive, everyone in my group already placed their food and drink orders, we all also bought many bottles of wine and other alcoholic beverages. When my friend's order arrived, she was missing part of her order. She notified the server of this immediately and instead of checking to see what happened and how soon she would get the rest of her food, the waitress rudely walked away from our table while we were still speaking and simply asking about what was missing. She never came back to our table. We ignored her poor customer service and resumed having a good time. Nearly 2 hours after I placed my order, my friend still had not received the other portion of her meal. She and I went up to the bar where orders were being taken and was approached by the female owner, Angela. We simply asked her about the status of our orders and explained that we understood the wait would be 2 hours for my order, we just wanted to know how much longer my friend should wait for the other part of her order because by this time it was an hour or more after she received part of her food order which was already cold by this time. Angela immediately displayed frustration, irritation and disrespect. She turned away from us, looked at her husband Steve (the other owner), rolled her eyes, and held her hand up in a dismissive manner. While my friend remained calm and polite in the beginning, Angela continued to be disrespectful which began to aggravate my friend, so I calmed her down and luckily, Steve stepped in, apologized on behalf of his wife and treated us with the respect and courtesy we deserved. It is important that I explain that our large group of people were the only African Americans there and this is the only reason we could come up with as to why Angela behaved in such a condescending way towards us. I am grateful for Steve's empathetic customer service as he offered to refund what I paid for my food and still ensured that we received our orders anyway. Even though Steve saved the day, I would forewarn any person of color, especially African Americans, to avoid Hidden Lake Winery due to the prejudiced treatment we received from Angela and advise you to spend your time and money at a different winery where everyone will treat you with dignity and respect. As for me, that was my first and last time going there and it's a shame because if it had not been for Angela's overtly prejudice behavior, I would have loved to visit again. BE WARNED! #BLACKLIVESMATTER

2Stephen O 5:00 PM Jul 7, 2019

Will Not Go Back
Planned on ordering a bottle of wine. Needed to taste to know what we liked. Charged a $1.00 for every taste. What a gimmick! Why would you buy a bottle of wine for $20 when you have no idea if you like it or not. Every place I have been to before would at least give you a small taste before you bought. Food prices our very high also.