The Ranch Saloon

I went back again for another visit. Things have really changed. This place is now fun and not as stuffy. Good Job Ranch Saloon, you turned things around.

One of the best dancing venues we've tried. Great atmosphere, service, and MUSIC! Very danceable music all night long. Outstanding food items (Brisket Sliders!) at reasonable prices (early bird specials a real value). Good crowd, good people, good staff. Excellent facility, well planned, executed, and maintained. Thoroughly enjoyed our evenings so far (a Thursday 'Linedance' night and a Friday 'Live Band' night). We plan to go often.

Let me first say that I have been to many CW saloons over many years of dancing.  My wife and I are not professionals, but we are decent amateurs.  We are older, but very active and dance several hours most days.

On entering, a little before 8pm, our first impression was positive.  The interior was nicely lit and clean.  Then we tried to find somewhere to sit.  

It was still reasonably early and I have never had a problem finding somewhere to sit, or at least lean temporarily, in a comparable venue.  After all, if you sell drinks, clients expect to be able to put them down somewhere, and sit from time to time.  My wife and I searched around and, to our surprise, found that most of the tables and other seats were marked with names, although many were unoccupied.  We found one area with empty tables, all of which had reserved signs on them except for one.  We took the table that didn't have a "reserved" sign.  

After a few minutes, a waitress came around. I had just placed an order for a glass of wine when one of the staff came up and informed us that we had to leave the table because the table was reserved.  Apparently the sign had fallen off, so we hadn't seen it.  The waitress asked me if she should still bring me my wine, which I declined, since I had no desire to hold a glass of wine all night while dancing, and she had no idea where we would end up.  

We ultimately found a place to stand by a ledge, everything else being "reserved."  My wife placed a bag on the counter, so as to hold it while we went to dance.  When we got back, a group had placed their items in front and completely taken over.  We spent the rest of the evening standing, while not on the dance floor.  The "reserved" tables in front of us remained vacant for the entire time we were there, except for a large man who sat at one for some time.  He clearly didn't have a reservation but was never asked to leave.  Apparently size counts with the bouncers.

As for the dancing, when a "Denver Cha-cha" was called, my wife and I found we didn't know exactly the Cha-cha version that was being done, so we found an unused corner of the dance floor and were doing a regular cha-cha only to be informed that we couldn't do that and should leave the dance floor.  I was rather amazed, since we had plenty of space, the cha-cha doesn't move, and we weren't bothering anyone.  I've since looked again at the ample house rules and found no rule that says everyone has to do the same version of a stationary dance.  I suppose their argument is that a "Denver Cha-cha", even though it doesn't move, is a "Denver Cha-cha" and anyone who does any kind of cha-cha that wasn't specifically called should be deported.  This rule apparently doesn't carry over to the Two Step where people were crashing into each other with complete abandon, and various line dances where folks were actually doing different steps to the same music! Then again, I've never encountered dance police before, or been kicked off a dance floor, despite having danced at many places over the years, and done a long stint as a beginner.

We did quite a few two steps, and an electric slide.  The floor got extremely crowded and filled with more out-of-control people than any place I've ever been, to the point that it was dangerous.  Thank heavens I was wearing boots because the protection they afforded came in very handy, preventing any number of bruises.  I don't think I've had as many collisions in my decades of dancing as I did doing one two-step.  I'm amazed that you get bounced off the floor for doing a different version of the cha-cha, but it's ok to have many out-of-control dancers doing the two step, while packed like sardines and colliding with one another.

The final indignity was having a young lady crash into me while I was going up the stairs from the dance floor.

Unfortunately, our contacts with the staff were, at best, neutral.  Most contacts were negative. None of the the staff was helpful in the least. My impression is that this place has tremendous potential, but is so popular and makes so much money that they could care less about customer service.  It is clean and, except when dancing, feels safe.They need to make it more welcoming to folks who don't drop hundreds of dollars on a reserved table, and are forced to stand and move around while watching tables sit empty for hours.  They also need to cool down the dance police and either get a bigger dance floor or reduced the number of dancers to the point that one isn't getting constantly bashed. I'm still angry enough that I would give this place a one, but for the fact that it was clean and attractive, and I try to give entrepreneurs the benefit of the doubt.  Hopefully others will have a more positive experience than we did, but the next time we get an itch to go CW dancing, we are heading in a different direction.

P.S. Be sure to view the "Filtered" Reviews."  At this writing, there are 73 of them, many make mine sound positive.