Paint Creek Tavern

WOW!!! The bartender is rude and threatening to customers to the point of insanity. I have been to this bar in the past many times. It has been years. Made a visit recently and could not believe the way the bartender was treating a couple of guys at the bar. I am a bit too aware when it comes the way a bartender/​waitress treats customers. (Was in the business years ago.) This guy was way out of line. I wanted to actually call the police on the bartender (my date said don’t get involved or I would have). I have never seen such rage against customers that appeared to be innocently inquiring about some product on tap. This guy just basically treated his customers like a nuisance. If you are considering a visit to this place wear your combat gear, you may need it. The service is poor as well. I always try to consider the fact that you never know what someone’s going through in life. I hope this guy is having a better day now. Although looking at the other reviews, it seems like he mayjust be in the wrong business.

I once loved this place for its hole in the wall feel, but after being threatened to leave or I’d get hurt I no longer feel the love.
You know those people that go zero to sixty too fast? Well the bartender there tonight did just that. After mocking my friend who was trying to cool down a situation with some regulars, I detected a hostile environment.
I am a craft beer aficionado, and when I see a beer I haven’t tried I usually inquire about it. Maybe even see if it’s available for a sample. After being denied, asking for a half pour, being denied, asking for a full pour, and again being denied, I sensed a little unfair treatment. The bartender stated that the «line was needing some tweaking.» I work a bar, tweaking a line is as easy as pulling a tab to bleed some CO2.
I admit it, I did set my glass down a little harder than usual, but not hard enough to hurt anyone or anything. At that he threatened me to leave before I get hurt. After I had spent quite a bit of money, and tipped generously, for pulling measly tap handles. After trying to talk and reason, being denied and threatened, I just left my friend’s birthday party, with a fully paid tab.
Who wants beer at 75% plus margins anyways?

Good specials on domestics during Tigers games and basket of tots soaks it all up pretty well in the end. Just don’t look up.

If there was a negative rating I would apply it to this «establishment»…I use quotes because there is nothing that resembles the respectability or professionalism that comes with the word «establishment». The owner is obviously completely unhinged based on his insane behavior of following my husband and me out onto the public, downtown sidewalk of The city of Rochester and spewing profanity, insults and veiled threats at us when we had the audacity to leave after abysmal service… our sin? Apparently, it was me telling him the professional thing to do when refusing to take our order at the bar for our patio table would have been to at least offer to take our drink order… Instead he followed me back out to the patio to ignore the at least three other tables that had been waiting for service even before we had arrived 15 minutes prior… no, he ignored everyone outside to saunter over and throw away a napkin only to return inside without a backward glance… didn’t even bother to bus the two disgusting tables that had been sitting there dirty… yes, since we first walked in. Stay away from this place and please, please, please… pass this review along!

I’ve been coming to the paint creek tavern since I was a kid, sitting out on the back patios in the summer eating burgers and fries, and as an adult I have spent many nights knockin back brews with my friends. It is an amazing location. That being said, the owner of pcyc is hands down the worst business owner in the area. Pcyc has continuously gotten worse and worse over the years due to TERRIBLE management.
This past summer, there were rumors of pcyc turning into a beer garden. «Oh this might be cool!» I thought. Not the case. They closed their parking lot, and put out 20 tables in replacement of PARKING (you know, how people get to your business). That’s not a beer garden. That’s drinking in a parking lot. They have the best deck in downtown rochester, so just… why? I can’t even recall one time in the past decade where pcyc would come even close to needing even a third of these tables.
We recently went in after a funeral, and it took me seven attempts to order a beer, as they were out of almost half of their selections. Liquor as well.
Laughing, I stated that this bar had hit a new low. But then I went in again to catch up with an old friend, because it’s a great place to talk due to there only ever being 5 or 6 people in the place. Not only had their selection gotten even smaller (over a month later!) their coolers were broken, so the bartender was serving up luke warm beer out of a line that hasn’t been cleaned in years. Disgusting.
As much as I love this place, and as many memories I have here, I’m done.
Atallah, do everybody a favor and sell this place to somebody who actually cares. You have ruined a perfectly good business.

My second time going to Paint Creek Tavern last Thursday for date night. We sat outside on the patio since the weather was beautiful. We ordered a round of drinks, after about 15 – 20 minutes our waitress informed us that the cook had walked out and there was going to be a wait on our food. They had to borrow a cook from another resturant and offered us free beers as we waited. We were not in a hurry so we said we didn’t mind the wait. Food was still good, serivce was alright.

Came here after a bike ride and was very disappointed. Service was super slow and horrible. My coke was flat and tasted as if it was watered down. On guy polished a wine glass with a napkin to get the finger prints off and poured red wine in the glass to hide the finger prints. Food took forever I could have rode my bike all the way home by the time the food got here. I will never ever go here again.

I went here a few years ago to have a few beers on the patio and had a nice time. I brought my boyfriend in recently because I remembered them having a great selection of michigan beers.
First of all the parking lot is now closed… Not helpful. When we walked in there were three other people in there who were asking about why it was so dead. Bartender’s response? I guess it’s the new ownership.
I asked about what Darkhorse beers they had and she honestly turned around and pointed saying «ummmm, that one and that one». I asked what kind they were and she just said «Darkhorse». She clearly didn’t know beer. When she poured me samples since she didn’t know the name she gave them to me saying «Here is the dark one and here is a light one».
I ordered a Poet… Which she couldn’t find the tap for even though it was right in front of her. She threw out my boyfriends Guinness so he ordered a Poet too.
The beer was soapy and gross. The service was awful. The bartender was on her phone. It was terrible.
I will not be back.
If there are new owners., get it together.

This is a simple bar, with a great deck in the summer. Tons of beer on tap (20 plus). The menu is limited, but the sliders are great! Be aware the parking lot is sometimes closed, which means you park in the hidden underground lot next door. Nice to have this option in downtown Rochester. And they have Final Absolution on tap!

Come for the beer, know what you want or don’t come. Some of the staff is great, others may not know the selection as well as we would like.
Hopsland on tap is a big plus.

What a dump!
I love a good dive bar but this is not one of them. This place needs all kinds of help. One of the last times I was there my buddy and I ordered a large pizza. After about 30 minutes the bartender told us the cook went home and one of the waitresses was trying to cook. She burned our first pizza. 20 minutes later she came out with a pizza that was literally burned on one half but under cooked on the other. They said the pizza oven conveyor was broken. The third try, and over an hour after we ordered, was ok.
Aside from that, the service was rude and openly complained about the owner. While generally I think it is in poor taste to gripe about management or owners within earshot of customers, their complaints seemed valid.
If you’re hungry, DON’T EAT HERE.
One the positive side, they have a decent draft beer selection, there’s a nice deck for good weather days and it has a small parking lot.

Went there for the first time and it took them loooong time to deliver drinks and food. Food was not great. Outside patio is nice, but I’m not going again.

This place gets a whopping 1 star «Eek! Methinks not» rating. The only positive feedback to give is that the seating on the patio by the river is nice to sit at. That’s where it ends.
Showed up to order lunch and have a beer after a bike ride. Ordered fish and chips only to have the server return back saying that they can’t cook anything because they had no gas. Really? I almost thought I was on an episode of punked. How do you run an establishment and wind up without gas service? Our server said our remaining options were chips and salsa and/​or salads. Since I was hungry (and had a full beer to finish) I decided to order a salad instead. While we were waiting for our salads, another server told another table the situation, and offered them free salads given the circumstances. Our table was not offered the same, and we were charged for ours (slightly perturbing).
Being completely flabbergasted by the situation, I thought, «well hey, at least we have a decent beer.» Not long after thinking this, I look over and notice my girlfriend’s beer is fizzing a bit more than normal from certain areas at the bottom of her glass. Upon further inspection of the glass, we find there is a bunch of food crust/​crap/​stalagmites on the bottom of her cup. I look at mine, and find the same thing. Absolutely disgusting. In essence, they can’t even get the serving of the beer right.
What I could gather from just the general situation there is that this place is a completely slipshod run operation. I won’t be going back, but I will be recommending to people I know to opt for a different place to go to when in the area. I would however recommend the place to be a good candidate for the Restaurant Takeover show.

Place has REALLY fallen off since management changes. Too bad, used to be a great place to go. Food & Service is average at best.

So, we asked around when we got to Rochester and were told this was the place to try! It did not disappoint! Cortney, the bartender, was super friendly and everyone at the bar seemed to know her. The people at the bar were nice too and the Tigers game was on so we were happy! We started with the mini tacos, a bar favorite if you ask me! So many beers to choose from too and that made my friends happy. I opted for the patty melt and it was perfect. The fries were hot and with just enough salt. Tigers scored a run and we get a jello shot? I mean, come on!!! We would have stayed longer if we didn’t have plans later!

This place is really chill and laid-​back, but I would only go here if my friends are already there. If they haven’t decided on a meeting place, I’d rather try to convince them to go somewhere else.
The patio out back is a nice place to relax with friends, but I would suggest ordering two beers at a time because it took forever for our server to come back to our table. My beer also tasted kinda funky, like the taps are not cleaned often.
Oddly enough, it was colder inside the bar than it was outside at night, so anyone whose body temperature runs hot will probably be happy here. Unfortunately, I tend to get cold all the time, so I quickly gulped down my beer and moved on to another bar that was warmer inside.

Wow, that was really bad. Went there for lunch cause Lipuma’s was so crowded. We were going to sit inside, but it’s 79 degrees today and there was no a/​c on in the bar and it must have been 90 in there, so we chose the patio. Only one table had an umbrella so we sat in the hot sun. Normally that wouldn’t bother me– if I’m at the pool. Not when I’m eating lunch and have to go back to work in a half hour.
Simple– we ordered 2 diet cokes and chicken fingers with fries. The diet cokes came out just slightly darker than regular water. We asked the waitress to tell the bar staff that they needed to change the syrup, as there was none left. SHe came back and said «the bartender just poured them out of a different soda gun.» They were exactly the same. We asked if we could just have water.
About 40 minutes later our food came out. We didn’t have silverware, salt, ketchup, nothing. We asked another guest if we could use their condiment tray since they were leaving. I squirted some ketchup in the basket and it came out bubbling and fermented. You could actually see the fizz in the ketchup. No idea how long it’s been baking in the hot sun.
The fries and heavily breaded chicken fingers were unsalted and bland at best. We each ate one chicken strip and a few fries and called it a day.
Waitress brought our bill. Just shy of $ 30. I about fell out of my chair. $ 15.98 for the chicken fingers, $ 6.00 upcharge for the tiny bit of fries we each got, and $ 4.00 for the diet cokes we couldn’t drink. We had to ask the bartender to remove the diet cokes from the tab.
If I could give zero stars I would. We should have gone to Lipumas.

The Yacht Club, as we like to call it, is like an ex boyfriend. We used to spend A LOT of time together. Then new management took over and we broke up. On occasion I have visited the Yacht Club to try and rekindle our relationship. Just like a date with an ex boyfriend, it seems good at first, then falls apart in the end. First of all, they don’t have air conditioning. Every time we attempted to visit the Yacht Club in the summer, we walked in the door and were choked by thick, hot, uncomfortable, bar smelling, air. We walked back out. The deck is always a good time. However, with no television (new management) it’s hard to watch a Tigers game. A few months ago we were in on the 4^th of the month. I inquired about the current monthly beer special signage on the wall. They were out of that beer. In fact, every single time we have been to the YC, they ‘run out’ of Coors Lite. It has become a joke to even request it.
On our last and possibly final go at PCYC, we tried to order food. The bartender stood in front of a disgustingly dirty bar (at 2pm on a Saturday) and was explaining to the couple next to us about ‘issues’ they were having with the kitchen and how she suggests they only order fried food. We finished our beers and went elsewhere to eat.

A few years back I would frequent Paint Creek for the beer selections and awesome burgers. Although the menu was very limited to typical bar food, there were plenty of people, the jukebox was kickin’, and it was a good time. Years later the menu expanded, the place drew in more people, and the beers selections was still great!
Then, BOOM. Everything went down hill. The service was slow, the burger was way over cooked and every beer I ordered, they were out of. I gave it a second and third chance and this was still the case. Maybe I will give it another shot sometime, but for now I’ll take my chances elsewhere.

Plain and simple… what this bar has going for it is a great location right around the bike trail, with a big deck over looking it all.
After that, it’s a dive bar and absolutely nothing special. Any reviews describing this place as «great» or «fantastic» must have some kind of personal connection with the place or the staff that you’re not going to get walking in the door your first few times.
The crowd generated by the patio seems to leave the servers overwhelmed, so if you get bad service, it’s probably not because they don’t care, but they don’t seem staffed to handle it. Anyway, your mileage may very on that point…
Go in with low expectations, for a few drinks and/​or bar food, and they’ll probably be met.
2.5 stars.
And to Sue, who’s review I just flagged for using it as a personal tirade against the place because your grand daughter did not get her last paycheck… get lost, you’re exactly the reason so many business owners hate Unilocal.I’m not saying it’s right, but if the bar is closing due to lack of funds, a lot of people will be losing their livelihood, so stop crying about your grand daughters $ 120.