The new husband and I planned a weekday downtown the day after the Fourth to handle some post-wedding business (and have some tourist-like fun). Yay for us that Groupon ran a few downtown deals the few weeks before this day, leading us to places we never would have found otherwise. One of those deals was for Gillespie's Map Room - $12 for $25.
We were psyched to think after we handled all of our courthouse/government business we could unwind with some lunch and a beverage or two before heading to our other Groupon find, a Lolly the Trolley two hour tour, spending only $30 at the end of the day. Sweet!
As other reviewers stated the vibe here is very "neighborhood bar". The room is narrow with a long bar to the right, and tables lining the wall to the left. We chose a table and ordered our drinks while we perused the menu. The menu is very Cleveland, even sporting a Drew Carey polish boy. It would have been MORE awesome if "Cleveland Rocks" was playing on the radio at that moment.
THE SNAFU: When the server delivered our drinks we mentioned that we had a Groupon. We were immediately disappointed when she indicated that the Groupon was only for food, not alcoholic beverages. We expressed our concern that the Groupon indicated only one food item had to be purchased and did not say "alcohol exluded". The wording implied very loudly that beverages were included as long as one food item was purchased along with. She brought the shift manager over and he apologized but agreed that drinks were not included and said it was a mistake on Groupon's side. We don't have a problem paying for our drinks, but the issue here is that the food is so stinkin' cheap that we hardly spent the $12 on two lunches and so the Groupon value would be wasted.
THE FIX: The manager was sympathetic and comped our drinks. To get the most of our Groupon deal we ordered a pizza to-go to boost our ticket total, hoping that it would be alright sitting in the car during the two hour trolley ride we were about to take. We ate the pizza when we got home and realize that THIS is where Gillespie's mojo is. We LOVED the pizza and if we're ever downtown looking for a cheap lunch away from the crowd - this is where we'll go.