9 Maple Ave

I have been to 9 Maple many times as a Skidmore student as well as an alum. I always look forward to going, and I was especially looking forward to the cocktails the night we went because I was with a group of girls, some who had never been to 9 Maple before; I was excited for them to finally try out the wonderful cocktails.  My memories of 9 Maple used to be positive: the service was great, and the crowd was a lot different than the crowd at the other bars nearby. My experience the other weekend, for my close friend's bachelorette, unfortunately, left me feeling differently than I used to. Not only were we not served because the bartender did not think we were of legal age (we were all in our late twenties-early thirties), but he made a dramatic, obnoxious scene. Throwing his hands up, and responding to each ID with statements loud enough for the other people at the bar to hear,  left us all feeling humiliated.  I am used to being carded, especially in Saratoga - the last time I was in Saratoga I was carded to get into an R-rated movie.  However, if a 16-year-old kid working at a movie theater is able to tell a real license from a fake, than I think a 40-something bartender needs to set higher standards.

Unfortunately, this is the first time I have ever given a 1-star review.  Until now I have only used Yelp to promote restaurants I love, but my experience at 9 Maple Ave was nothing less than appalling.

I was visiting Saratoga Springs for a bachelorette party.  It absolutely shouldn't matter, but we were not flaunting "bride to be" sashes or shiny tiaras.  To the average eye, we looked like a group of women dressed for a special occasion.

The bartender asked to see our identification. I am from Boston and live amongst many, many college students.  I expect to have my ID checked.  When I stepped up to the bar to show my ID, the male bartender  used a very abrasive voice as he repeatedly asked me to "smile" for him and "smile like I don't mean it." It was degrading and completely unnecessary.  

As the bartender took our IDs he insulted us and questioned our licenses.  We even offered other forms of identification from our wallets.  Before checking all of our IDs he said too many looked "fake" and told us to leave.  At that point, we wouldn't have given our money to the establishment anyways, we were too offended by the lack of respect we received.  We were all sober, in our late 20's/ early 30's, and had legal identification.

It's a shame 9 Maple Ave didn't work out for us. Based on the many positive reviews, it seems like our issue is with the bartender, not 9 Maple Ave.  Still, it was my only experience here and I cannot bring myself to forgive the restaurant for having such a condescending bartender represent them.

I graduated from Skidmore College in 2007 and never had a chance to visit this bar. I always heard people waxing poetic about the cocktails and the atmosphere. This weekend, I went back up to Saratoga with some college friends for old times sake. Our ages range from 27 to 32. We walked in at 7:00, there were only four other people at the bar.  We were not drunk, not underage, and not underdressed. We provided our IDs to him, which is were the trouble started. He was shockingly rude, loudly harrumphing at our "bad fakes". He demanded one of us smile three times while looking at her ID, and finally creepily asking her to "smile like you don't mean it". He told another one of us that she looked too old in her ID, which doesn't make any sense. Overall, he made a scene and attempted to humiliate us in front of other patrons, throwing his hands up and loudly accusing us of bringing fake IDs into his bar. He did not have a scanner, and must be incredibly bad at spotting a fake, all of us have been legal since 2007, some as long as 2002. It would have been flattering had he not been totally disrespectful, discriminatory, and obnoxious.  I would never visit 9 Maple again and I would not recommend it to anyone else. Very disturbing experience.