Austins Saloon & Eatery

Fun country environment. Good place for late night drink, reasonable prices. I enjoyed dinner, excellent gravy fries and tasty ribs. Don't come here if you're on a diet. ;)

I'll start with a summary. The management here does not treat their customers with respect. If you are in Libertyville and you want to have some drinks and listen to live music, go to Mickey Finn's. You'll get treated with respect there. No one should ever have to set foot in this place.

Austin's is a saloon in rural Libertyville. The decor reflects the saloon theme. When you walk up to the building, there is an outside bar and a fire pit which would probably be nice on a crisp evening. The bar usually offers a coat check, would be convenient on a freezing, busy night.

The Fuel Room is the room in the back where the bands play. They often have small national acts and large local bands that perform there. There is a large stage in the back and a bar along the left wall. The lighting system here is very impressive. The sound system is also very expensive but very poorly operated.

Parking can be a nightmare. You would expect there to be ample parking in rural Libertyville but the tiny lot that the bar owns is miraculously always full. There is another small strip mall next door where parking seems to be permitted but that can fill up quickly. If it's a busy night, patrons can park across Peterson Rd at another strip mall. Keep in mind that Peterson is a 4 lane, 45 MPH state road so if you have bad weather, ladies in heals, invalids or anyone with a leg injury it may be best to drop them at the door.

Our friend was performing at Austin's that night and we went to celebrate his birthday. They were scheduled to go on at 10 pm and the cover was advertised as $5. There was a Bar Mitzvah in the Fuel Room before the show and the bathrooms were filled with 13 year olds trying to get us to buy them shots.

We had ~60 friends that met us there for the show. 11 of us had a reservation for dinner. We were seated at a long "table" in the bar which was about 18" by 12'. We arrived at 7:30 pm and our waitress took our drink order. My wife asked to be on separate checks but our waitress told us they would not do that.

We walked upstairs to check our coats but the person working the coat check told us that it was only being offered for the Bar Mitzvah patrons.

After 30 minutes our drinks arrived and our waitress took our food order. Some friends of ours had just arrived and sat down at another table. They received their food in about 10. Our waitress was nowhere to be found. Another 30 minutes had passed someone at our table had declared that she had complained and soon our waitress appeared with our food. After that, no one saw her ever again.

The food there is typical bar food and it's inexpensive. Nothing on the menu can be considered fine cuisine. Just what you would expect at a saloon in Lake County.

At about 10 pm, someone in the band told us that the Austin's was going to let the Bar Mitzvah go another hour. We were finally allowed to enter the Fuel Room, I discovered that they were charging $7 instead of $5. Not a huge deal. I was able to easily cover the extra $2 for my wife and I but as I was playing, I made a point to tell the girl taking the money that the show was advertised as $5 and the band was starting very late. In a snotty tone she said, "I don't know what to tell you. It's $7, not $5." I paid for my wife and walked by. As my wife walked in, the girl blocked her and screamed "IT'S $7 TO GET IN! IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, I CAN HAVE YOU THROWN OUT!" My wife smiled and said "Relax, he already paid for me."

I immediately walked up to a security guard and asked who the manager was. He pointed me toward a man standing in the sound booth. The manager saw us but pretended that he didn't. I walked around to the front of the sound booth to get his attention and wave him over to the entrance of the booth. He ignored me so I waved again and pointed emphatically toward the entrance. He came over and we began to tell him about the confrontation with the girl at the door. He stopped me and said "The door price is contracted with the band." I tried to continue telling him what happened and he yelled "I'M DONE TALKING WITH YOU BECAUSE YOU DON'T LISTEN!" Just then, another manager walked up and calmly listened but I was surprised that he had a lame excuse generator for everything that happened. Here are some quotes:

1. (Talking about the girl taking money at the door) "Someone before you insisted they were on the list. But she didn't have a list and she was frustrated. When you walked up she just lost it so please don't look at her cross eyed." When he grew tired of us negating his arguments he tried to use comedy to divert our feelings toward the situation.
2. "Managing a bar is very difficult. Most of the people you deal with are drunk." Everyone's job is difficult and we were very sober because we had no waitress.
3. "I heard that you guys were causing confusion for the waitress because you were all taking pictures when she was trying to deliver your food." Yes, he even tried to blame us for the sucky waitress.

I come here often to watch sports games (bears, cubs, sox, blackhawks). Their food specials during the games are horrible - just order something off the regular menu. Sliders are nasty.

There's always some drunk almost naked regulars (girls) who go around flirting with customers and getting free drinks and cigarettes. That's annoying.