Been gone from the area for 11 years, and stopped by last week.
Boy was I surprised! Â The owner recognized me, called me by name, smiled, and welcomed me with open arms. Â Friendly place, and I got to talking with her, between customers. Â In this tough economy I think it is terrific that the Oak Door remains open. Â Most of the bar business is focused on first street (no parking), and the prices are double what Oak Door is. Â And they are franchises.
I was the DD so I just ordered Diet Coke. Â Never, ever have I been frowned upon for not drinking alcohol. Â Water and diet sodas are provided by the establishment with a smile. Â EVEN before I moved away, this has always been their policy!
If you are expecting to be catered to by unlimited amount of waiters and waitress's of the big chains, this is not the place for you. Â This is a down home, been in business forever, lot of locals meet up and discuss their week kinda place. Â If you want frou-frou drinks, constant attention, expensive drinks, go to the big chains. Â All they want is your $$$. Â The Oak Door wants your personality, your friendliness, and overall enjoyment of a small town bar.
This is horrible bar! The reason... The bitch owner/bar tender! As I am sure you have read in about 90% of the reviews, this feeling is mutual. This lady has the most haggard, evil, ugly personality of any human I have ever met. I live in walking distance of this bar and have tried it several times over the past 12 years. Â Each time I have been in the story is the same. Â The owner/bar tender refuses to make eye contact and or serve me a drink. It is incredible! The only good thing about this place is karaoke, however made less enjoyable due to the lack of any kind of customer service. I would like to give two pieces of advice:
1. Never, ever, ever, ever go to this piece of crap place.
2. For the owner/bar tender: You are are miserable! GET A CLUE! Listen to the words and feed back you are getting ( even from your regulars). Retire, move to Florida, close the bar, or let your niece run it! Your bar sucks! The only thing more miserable then your shitty bar... Is you!
I went to the Oak Door to celebrate my sister's 21st birthday. Â It was a fairly small place, maybe about as big as a double garage, and got crowded pretty quickly as we weren't the only ones there celebrating a birthday that Saturday. Â They did have a small dance floor and a karaoke bar that was manned by a DJ, which was the biggest reason we had as much fun as we did.
Their selection of beer, both on tap and in bottles, is rather limited, and they ran out by about 10:30/11PM of what a few of my friends and I were interested in drinking. Â They do have a large selection of harder alcohol, thought.
I went on a random Wednesday night quite a while back and it seemed to be only locals. Old dirtbags hitting on the older bartender. Even older people playing dice. It was like a convalescence home there.
The bartender did say on Saturday nights there's a younger crowd and they do karaoke.
Small and dark, danky bar which usually leads to a good dive bar. Maybe I will have to go back on a Saturday and try again.
This bar is complete crap. The owner is the bartender and she's basically the most unhappy person you will ever meet. You can be super nice and passive with her attitude yet she still just has this horrible look on her face and ignores you when you ask for service. I was in there the other day at around 7pm after a day of fun for my birthday, there was an older man in there super wasted, the bartender/owner gave him another beer after he fell over, he drank the beer then she let him leave (yeah drink and drive). THEN as the evening went on my step dad showed up (he's been sober 10 years) to drive my family and two of my friends back home safely once the night was over. My friend asked for another drink and the owner said "no, you're drunk" my friend stepped back and said she wasn't, and in my opinion she wasn't at all. We were all pretty much pacing ourselves and were just having a good time with the karaoke - which is the only good thing about this dump. I go to dive bars in the bay area all the time and never have a I been treated like that. She lets an old guy who she knows get plastered and drive but wont let my friend have a drink when she's not drunk and has a SOBER DRIVER.?!?! Â It was my second time at this place, and I tried to give the lady the benefit of the doubt because she clearly is just an angry person but that was the last straw. she also decided to over charge us by a TON so we left and went to another local bar where we were served and treated much better. My mom use to be a regular there and it just seems like a very toxic environment for the people that are regulars there (considering they can do no wrong but people she doesn't know well or feels threatened by can't get drinks).
Review Source:After living for a lifetime in Livermore and eating amazing breakfasts at Emil Villa's, I finally made it to the neighboring Oak Door.
Last night, my brother and I and a couple friends were on a hunt for karaoke. Â Let's put this in perspective: I had karaoke at my wedding reception and the karaoke machine was owned by my brother. Â This was pretty important to the success of our night.
Let's just say that the crowd is very old school Livermore. Â The music is heavy on country and some of the girls are, well, heavy.
I had fun, the drinks were cheap and I didn't have to wait a painfully-long time to sing. Â Yeehaw.
This place has awesome karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights; Â Honky Tonk Ted is awesome, and he has just about any song you could ever possibly want to sing. Â Most of the patrons sing country music here, but they're open to whatever you want to sing.
LOW LOWS however: Â The bartender is also the owner, and she is one of the meanest, nastiest women in the service industry; it's as if the concept of customer service (or customer at all) never existed. Â The bar seems to rely somewhat on "regulars" who are used to her horrible attitude, and those who have seemed to ingratiate themselves in her eyes. Â She sometimes sits down leaving the bar unattended and then doesn't even deign to get up on anyone's time but her own once she sees you would like a drink. Â She rolls her eyes if you order water, regardless of how many drinks you've purchased. Â It is just incredibly unbelievable that anyone still comes to this bar (I guess if you don't want to drive drunk, you go to a bar you can walk to).
I've tried this place several times, and again, I enjoy the Karaoke. Â However, I have tried numerous times to be polite to this woman, but have have gotten nothing but bile and incivility in return.
Thank God Ted does Karaoke 6 nights a week. Â Gallagher's in Dublin (Tues, Thurs) and Danville Bowl (Sun) are your best options on every level (bartenders to patrons). Â Don't give this other monster your money!
Honestly I wanted to give this bar a decent review and make it my local hangout as it is literally a 3 minute walk from my new home... but as others have noted the owner is a complete witch. Â I've been drinking in many different towns and gone to many "regulars-only" type places and have not felt near as bad about a bartender than I do this lady. Â She's just rude and nasty... straight up.
 I really don't know how they keep business, as the jukebox sucks, the beer selection is sub par, and the place is just overall depressing. I mean, don't get me wrong I don't mind a dive bar, but the bartenders better be friendly if I plan on drinking there. No more Oak Door for me.
Will never go here again. Bartender/owner needs to learn how to approach somewhat buzzed customers and should probably let the customer know who she is before rudely asking them to leave and placing her hands on them and then instigated on getting them escorted out.
.........worst experience I have ever had at a bar.
heather n's review from 4/2010 is spot on. Â The bartender (and if you would believe it, I think she's also the owner!!) Â makes it painfully obvious that she'd rather be pulling out her fingernails and then gouging out her eyeballs with them one by one, than serving you a drink. Â
One of her friends/ fellow patrons who steps behind the bar sometimes, I think - well, he tried to defend her to us one night stating that since it was our first time in there, she doesn't know us yet. Â HELLO!? Â
1. Â We HAD been in there about 3 times over the last month Just because HE wasn't there those nights, suddenly we're newcomers and apparently not afforded the same luxurious service as regulars. Â
2. Â Way to make return customers out of someone! Â Why would I want to return there if I am treated like shit on the first try? Â
the only reason I give them 2 stars is they are smart enough to hang onto Ted for karaoke- he has every song in the world! Â And if you can wait the 5 years for your drink, once you have it, it's a chill, fun crowd.
I have mixed feelings about the Oak Door... Â I have been here a number of times mostly because I have friends who like the place and I love Karaoke. Â A few of those times were when it was pretty empty and the bar tender was really nice, I had wonderful service and felt great about giving a 30%+ tip.
The other times, it was pretty busy, but not packed, I was the DD for the evening. ie I was drinking only water.
Those nights were consistently shitty for the following reasons.......
#1 Â The bar tender just happened to be the same woman every time and she would do the same thing over and over again...
*Standing at the bar, politely waiting for the bar tender to take notice of me just like every body else... we make eye contact and we both smile*
"Hi, what can I get 'cha?"
    "I'd like a water please."
*I smile, she breaks eye contact and quickly moves on to the next customer... minutes pass and I am still standing there watching her chat with other customers as she makes their drinks... still no water.*
4 or 5 drinks, made-for-and-paid-for-by-other-customers-that-Âplaced-there-order-after-mine, later... My water is placed before me and I request a slice of lemon which she always delivers quickly and with a smile.
You would think they would appreciate the DD's more than that... OH!.. Wait.. haha  yeah I just realized... it's a bar!! haha So they really don't give a shit. Â
#2 Â Often, when I sign up for Karaoke, I see the same people going over and over again. Â Some times twice in a row. Â
I know life isn't fair, but can't Karaoke be? Â God I sound like I'm 12. Â Oh well.
***This bar is very close to a police station. Â So be good.
A friend of mine told me about this place. . Â I did enjoy the drunk cowboy who kept trying to ask a question but his words weren't coming out in a way that anyone could understand him. Â His friends finally corralled him from our table and we ended up leaving shortly after.
I will try again and this time bring a few more people to see if there really can be fun had in Livermore.
i made it to the Oak Door....
We were with a huge group so my review is skewed based on the fact that I didn't really hob nob with the regulars.(except for the people near the dance floor that I spilled my drink on....So sorry!)
Small local dive bar...was empty when we got there but packed when we left. Â
Good Music, fast service, cheap drinks, cold beer and loads of people to stare at...Everything you could ask for in a good dive bar.
PS...there is no Oak Door at the Oak Door...
'Cause sometimes you just want to drink a lot of Crown & Coke* and watch drunk cowboys sing bad karaoke....
One of my hometown dives. Culture shock to the non-Livermorons for sure. In fact, you have not lived until you see Oak Door karaoke on Rodeo weekend. An inflatable sheep is guaranteed to make it out to the dance floor at some point in the evening.
*Yes, that's my call drink. Don't mess with the Livermore girls.
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