Watershed

My husband and I met at the Watershed ten years ago and he decided to surprise me by taking me back.
Right away, I was blown away by the hostess Maggie who took her time with us and explained how to order and made suggestions. We grabbed a booth and had excellent service from JT right away. I had a lot of questions about the cocktails and he made amazing suggestions and was right on the money with my taste. Dishes were amazing especially the open Banh Mi and the Tuna Ceviche! All dishes came out in a timely manner. Water was never empty.
Logan found out about our occasion and personally came over to congratulate us and made it very special for us.
My husband a former server has a high bar for service when we go out and he was very impressed!
Thank you, JT, Maggie, and Logan for making our night the best it could be!

TLDR: Meh.

The booze, service and truffle popcorn were great but we were here on a Saturday night and the table next to us was a large group of early 20-something kids, so naturally it was super loud. Grandpa's chill basement quickly turned into a college frat party.

Note: it's not quite the speakeasy people make it out to be.

Had the most amazing experience at Watershed! The servers worked together very well and were happy to get something even though they weren't "our server". The drinks were great and the staff was happy to answer any menu questions, almost seemed like they encouraged questions. We were really impressed and have already made reservations to go back with some family next month!

The service was a nightmare. I was in a party of 6 and we were celebrating a birthday. As we were indulging in lovely conversation, the glasses-wearing bearded server decided to sit next to us without asking and try to engage. Fine. We kept it cordial. He had a good knowledge of the cocktail menu and we decided to take his suggestions.

Once he departed to take our drinks, that's when a roller-coaster started.

The birthday girl wanted to take pictures in this aesthetically pleasing venue. She takes out her 80's Kodak camera and snaps a couple of pictures of our crew. Flash.

The server, irately, shouts at us to turn off the to "turn that fucking flash off the camera!" He says that he is susceptible to seizures. The birthday girl apologizes and explains that the camera doesn't allow for no flash. He snaps back and says "There is an off button!"

My friends become so disappointed that this man is yelling and cursing at the lovely birthday girl. She becomes so uncomfortable that she wants to leave. No one has even took a sip of their drinks yet because we were confused if we were welcomed.

We didn't know that this man was susceptible to seizures. Had we known, we would've gladly accommodated our server to keep him in a safe space and to continue with our birthday festivities. But the language, unprofessionalism, and anger were uncalled for.

So we decided to leave.

As we were contemplating the decision, one of our crew wanted to make sure to try to smooth things over. He's non- confrontational guy who believes everyone is redeemable. He decided to gently explain to the server that we meant no harm and that we will explore another bar.

The server, while in conservation with my friend, starts screaming and making aggressive gestures with his hands. This is when our party decided that flight is better fight. We all stand up and attempt to walk.

The server uses himself as a human blockade and prevents our non-confrontational friend from leaving, saying "Someone is going to pay for these fucking drinks!" I reply no and tell him he needs to let our friend go.

That's when he shouts at me "Come at me bro."

Most of our party is upstairs by this time and I see my friend blocked from joining the rest of us.

I go to the server, look him eye-to-eye, and seriously asked "How you want this to play out? Because I'm with whatever you're trying to do."

He looks at me and says "Fine!" He moves from blocking the doorway.

We went to Freehand after and had a more welcoming experience.

Never again.

I'm always looking for a good speakeasy and I found another one! Watershed is a perfectly dark, swanky, comfortable night spot located in the basement below Pops For Champagne, on the corner of State and Ohio. We were greeted and escorted downstairs by cheerful staff and met with the question, "chess or scrabble"? Well...scrabble of course! We were led to a lush leather seating area surrounding a large swivel scrabble board! How fun and unexpected! The cocktail menu was fun and features seasonal drinks, classics, beer and wine that our group thoroughly enjoyed! What a great little find! Oh....and I won Scrabble

On the night we went, the prohibition style speakeasy downstairs had a menu that was created to play off the show "The Good Place." I watched enough of this show with my wife to know it's about people trapped in an afterlife they initially think is heaven, but turns out to be hell. I could not think of a more appropriate metaphor for our experience at The Watershed. From the immediate and pungent smell of urinal cakes, the rude staff, the overpriced (and terrible champagne), to signature cocktails so disgusting we thought we were just as likely to be on Ashton Kutcher's "Punk'd" as we were in The Good Place. The experience was so bad it was good, if only because we were laughing about the absurdity of it all the entire time. Fork this place.

The drinks and staff were amazing! Great space for a late evening sip with your boo!,

My wife and I came here for a night cap. We found the place on Yelp(obviously). I'm not sure what to think of the ambiance, it was a little off. That aside the old fashions were delicious.

Increíble food. Try their shakshuka. Drinks are amazing. Best bartenders in the city.

Fantastic cocktails and even better bartenders. A must go in Chicago, whether you're a local or from out of town