text: Time for an update...\n\nWithin the past month I've visited Downtown Cocktail Room three times.  And whether it was through my personal experience or the experience of others in my party, things have left a generally sour taste in my mouth as of late.  There are a few things that have stood out in my recent visits:\n\n-The audacity of a specific bartender.  I always welcome a bartender/mixologists opinion when it comes to recommendations for spirits and cocktails, but this individual comes across as arrogant and presumptuous.  He offers suggestions for DCR-original creations, and then openly admits that all of his recommendations are his own creation.  This came up after a customer had inquired about a drink on the Spring menu, and the bartender said that he wasn't the one who created the drink.  In addition, he ignored a customers request for a cocktail made with a specific spirit, stating that he doesn't work with it; he then waited for the customer to suggest a different spirit base for a cocktail.  As a side note, this bartender also rang up my bill incorrectly during this visit, over charging me for a drink.\n\n-Service.  Waitresses were not immediately willing to seat my party in the back area of DCR.  This was brought to my attention by another member of my party, as I arrived after they had.  They were told that there was no seating available, and we only ended up in the back area because a member of our party asked about it.  Am I to believe we would have been out of luck if we weren't aware of the back area?  Maybe.  After being seated, ordering our drinks, and then receiving our drinks, the waitress asked if we wanted to start a tab.  Standard procedure, that's cool.  Some individuals were done ordering and decided it would be easier on them to pay their portion of the bill now, instead of having their total added to a tab.  The waitress then proceeded to bring out the bill for everyone at the table.  Later in the night, when another party was seated in the back area, the waitress took an empty chair from our table without asking us if it was taken.\n\n-Did you know there was a $20 minimum if you're going to use a credit card/debit card?  I sure didn't.  After going here for the better part of two years, that issue has never come up; I know this because I often don't carry cash, and also usually order only two drinks (which will keep the bill below $20).  However, on a recent visit, I ordered one drink for myself and another drink for a friend, for a total bill of $19.  First of all, the bill was brought to us right after our drinks were delivered.  Really?  You want me out of there that bad?  After handing the bill back with my debit card, the waitress stated that there was a $20 minimum and that they would have to add $1 to my bill so that I could use my card.  My card is Visa; if this establishment accepts Visa, then they also accept all fees due upon Visa transactions from customers.\n\n-Responses to Yelp reviews:  Eight out of the ten lowest scored reviews have received a response from Michael C. of Downtown Cocktail Room.  Not one comment or response, however, was given to reviews over three stars.  It's one thing to step up and address concerns with reviews that you feel are not a valid representation of your business; however these responses avoid the overall commentary of the reviews, and a number of them end with something along the lines of, \"Come by DCR and form your own opinion.\"  Normally I wouldn't nitpick and pull out a statistic like I did above, but it surprised me to hear about the feedback that people had received for their reviews (three stars or lower), while I had not gotten any feedback for my review (five stars).  It's a little disheartening to see all the attention the negative reviews receive, while the glowing reviews from regular customers appear to go unnoticed (until their rating goes down, in which case the deduction of two stars in a review prompted a response that ended with, \"Thanks for all of the past support!\")\n\nThanks for all of the past support?  Well, your welcome for all of mine as well.  We'll see how things go from here, as I'm sure I'll end up here again; probably just not twice a month as I have in the past.