Gather Bar

Terrific chicken wings! Sauces on the side give you opportunity to meet your personal needs. Bartender is seriously challenged… didn’t have a clue how to prepare a” Manhattan Up”…got it «on the rocks»…sheesh, must be a millennial!

Awesome bar again great hotel, with the most hardworking bartender. They’re great a making drinks even with all the pressure of all the people at the bar since the hotel seemed to be packed that weekend. They fries they also had was good nice and crunchy. If you do end up getting a room at this hotel I do recommend hitting this bar it’s a great place to meet new people.

This is a nice little hotel bar. The servers are so friendly but be patient because they seem to be spread thin. The drinks are poured well and the food is ok. Their Caesar salad minus the anchovies and minus the croutons is good. On another occasion I ordered the chicken sandwich minus the bread. It had way too much cheese on it which I had to peel off. The chicken itself had a nice grilled flavor. They skimp a bit on the French fries so don’t expect to share.
This is a decent place to grab a drink to hangout or eat a light snack.

Super fun place to hang with my fellow conference goers/​friends! Lost a star because it’s kinda ‘spensive.
Over the past week, I spent three evenings at Gather (had lunch there on Monday afternoon). Food was good, beer selection great and the staff was excellent — loved Kathy, she was outstanding.
Overall, I’m a fan of the entire hotel/​convention center complex. Nice drinking/​dining options there — Gather is a first-​rate bar.
4.5 stars.

It’s a hotel bar, and not too different from any other. I have gone there maybe thirty times over five years. The staff are generally affable and competent but the bar is often under-​staffed at quiet times with only one person covering the bar and also leaving to fetch and deliver food orders. Limited food menu but decent quality. I’d recommend the sliders which have a kind of bacon marmalade on them that is very nice.

Best occurrence while at Gather Bar: A [seemingly drunk] Uncle Sam running through screaming USA USA USA!
Strangest occurrence while here: Our waitress replying ‘Fo Shizzle’ to me. Twice.
Worst occurrence while at Gather Bar: Realizing a cocktail was $ 12 and a Goose Island Beer was $ 8. Half Acre was $ 8. Whaaaat.
Overall, I liked Gather Bar and if you’re staying at the Renaissance Hotel, it’s a completely acceptable and lively place to have a drink. I met friends for a drink here before an event & was surprised it wasn’t just full of married businessmen looking for a little fun as I expected. It was also full of dance moms & their kids with the little bun hairdos & sparkly studio sporting warm up suits. I kept my eyes open for Abby Miller but she was nowhere to be found.
For my first drink, I had Troy’s Nana Mantini. I don’t get the name really but it consisted of Chocolate godiva, crème de banana and mint. I didn’t get much banana from the cocktail but I sure did like it! I can’t say I’m sold on it being Godiva anything though. It sure seemed like it was Hershey’s syrup coating my glass when I got to the bottom and scraped it up. For drink two, I ordered a Sofie (then a Matilda), both were bottled and our server presented my beers alongside a frosty glass. That’s how I drink my beer at home and that pleased me greatly! Though the prices are inflated, they have a decent selection of craft beers, some inventive cocktails, and good food options.
Even though our server said some strange things sometimes, she was extremely attentive and so friendly it made my teeth hurt.
With such friendly service, great atmosphere and good drinks, I can see why this hotel bar was poppin’ at 5 on a Tuesday. Ohhh and they play good music! …and whatever is the important sports game of the day on their giant TVs.

I don’t judge books by their cover, but I often am intrigued by bars with lovely names. «Gather» gave me the connotation of warm, inviting, and even a little sexy and cosmopolitan. I like classy hotel bars and I like inspired cocktails. So I liked Gather Bar.
When I arrived at Gather Bar, I pulled into the Renaissance Hotel/​Convention Center compound. It’s not hard to find though, just be smart: park by Sam & Harry’s. It’s a restaurant. So the bar must be near!
The bar was packed at 5:00 PM on a Tuesday, but it was mostly men watching the USA vs. Belgium game and a group of dance moms with their young daughters.
Cocktails have a typical Chicago or hotel bar price tag: $ 12 a pop. I had a lavender cocktail with Prosecco. It was delicious, it was refreshing, and it was relaxing. I enjoy trying new cocktails with «inventive» ingredients like lavender. Sarah S. was a fan of her minty chocolate drink, and Taylor M.‘s watermelon cooler looked delightful.
However, my Mango Mojito was terrible. It reminded me of something I would have mixed up in college — super sweet and boozy, like jungle juice. I didn’t taste any mint either.
Even though I was heading to an event shortly, I was hungry (note: a large coffee for breakfast and licorice for «lunch» is not very filling) so I ordered some cheese curds. The cheese was squeaky and chewy like it should be! It was a huge portion and definitely worth the $ 9. The rest of the bar menu was pretty typical and it got more expensive from there.
The whole vibe I was committed to getting was ruined when we ordered and the waitress would repeatedly reply, «for shizzle!» I’m sorry, what was that? Oh, was I mistaken as one of Snoop Dogg’s ladies?
I wouldn’t mind lounging here as a guest at the hotel, and I’d surely come back, but I’d be more picky about what to order. Gather Bar is a 3.5 for me.

This bar was really nice for a hotel bar. I ordered a watermelon basil drink with vodka. It was pretty good, but came with a steep $ 12 price tag. I didn’t realize I ended up in Chicago! But I guess hotel prices are always high. Angela P. ordered the cheese curds and the portion was huge. I stole a couple and they were good! Our waitress was interesting and disappeared for a while when we were trying to get our checks. There was also a dance convention going on downstairs so the bar was overrun by 8 – 12 year old girls wearing booty shirts and toon much makeup. Creepy.

Horrible, rude service. Waited 1 ½ hours for food. The bar tender said that the cooks are overwhelmed. This is a CONVENTION CENTER!!!

Whilst staying at the Renaissance Shaumburg Hotel and Convention Centre, Gather Bar was truly the place where the members of our group would ‘gather’ at the end of a long day to regroup, have a few drinks, and grab a well cooked bite to eat.
Located to the side of the Renaissance’s massive lobby space, Gather Bar has a unique set up with long bead strands providing the barrier between the lobby and the bar/​restaurant area. Staff here are friendly for the most part, with one woman behind the bar being the sole exception (she was a tad condescending and little too unavailable at times).
Over my frequent visits I had the pleasure of having a Blue Moon Seasonal Ale, Sledgehammer wine and a cocktail to drink (I was a real fan of the wine more than anything it was perfectly balanced with little aftertaste).
For food I was able to try their shaved prime rib sandwich with au jus, the chopped salad, and best of all a killer French Onion Soup. This soup was definitely a medal winner and I actually found myself craving bowls of this perfectly cooked and flavored broth, packed with the perfect amount bread and topped with perfectly melted and cooked cheese. Unreal! A must have, I would come back to Gather JUST for this soup!
Overall a good spot to come when staying here, and given the weather this past weekend in suburban Chicagoland it was a safe option as well.

Great place for a casual experience if your staying in the hotel. The bartender recommended the rock shrimp. It was light, delicious, and full of flavor. Full bar, plenty of drink options. Awesome ambiance. The only thing which I found odd was when the good looking male bartender went off shift he was replaced by a 55+ year old woman. Yikes! Kind of changes the vibe when grandmas making your martini.

I was looking for somewhere different to grab a drink, so I suggested it to my friend. We went after work so we weren’t looking our absolute best and my friend wasn’t sure if we should go somewhere else.
We were so glad we went. It’s actually pretty casual, yes some people are dressed pretty nice (probably still from work) and some people are more casually dressed.
First of all, the smell when you enter the main hotel lobby… so good!
Then you go up an escalator and off to the left is Gather Bar. There is this pretty peach/​metalic curtain for the perimeter which gives it a weird throwback yet modern feel. They have a small drink menu, I tried the aviation gin based… it was interesting. My friend wasn’t sure what to get and our server mentioned how the bartender had made a mango mojitio for another guest and my friend jumped right on that.
We also ordered the prime rib nachos. How classy! Nachos seem to be my go-​to snack while out for drinks. I wish there would have been a little more beef on the nachos, but the chips were delish.
I loved the vibe here, and making up stories about where people were from/​what they did/​why they were in town. Very cool, chill hangout.

This cozy little bar is tucked away inside of the hotel, up from the main lobby. The serving staff has always been very attentive, plus the prices are reasonable considering the venue. If you get the chance, make sure to stop by and try the fresh baked potato chips with the cheese sauce. They are outstanding! I’m not sure why this was labeled as a dance club here on Unilocal,this is strictly a chill bar and lounge only. That’s not to say you shouldn’t visit it. Give it a try!

Great cocktails here! The bartenders take their cocktails seriously, and are willing to make custom drinks for you. They were delicious and well balanced. They were also very accomodating when a big group of us ordered food at the bar and wanted to sit elsewhere in the lobby to eat. It’s a nice retreat if you’re there for business.

This was at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel. We were freaked out by the fancy atmosphere of Sam and Harry’s and decided to eat at this semi-​open bar/​restaurant. The tables were kinda high for some reason, but nonetheless a chille and nice place to relax. The drinks and food were awesome! Not extremely pricey, and you would order from the Sam and Harry menu. Our server was this hot Asian girl who created the cocktail that I ordered from the menu. Her name is June, so it was called the June Berry. It’s a blueberry malibu and volka mixed drink, so sweet and easy to sip in. My boss had this Napa red wine, which was also delicious and oh, so flavorful! We both got seafood dishes. Mine was a seafood pasta. There were decent sized pieces of shrimp, lobster, and scallop. Oh my god it was so seafoody! We shouldn’t have been so greedy to order that calamari for appetizer because we couldn’t finish our main dishes at the end. Very good for a hotel restaurant.