Atlas Waterfront Cafe & Gathering Room

I'm not quite sure why reviews mention rude service by the owners, we had completely different experiences. It was our first time visiting, both owners were running the show, both are long time Appleton natives. We were delighted to learn that profits, to include tips, are given to nonprofit organizations within the community. The service, the wine, and our lunch entres were phenomenal. I'd have no hesitation bringing any friends or family to this establishment in the future, and I reckon that I will.

I had a horrible experience here and will never go back. I've lived in Appleton for 25 years and have never even heard of this place until recently. I decided to go in and try it out. One of the owners was extremely rude. I was appalled with how rude she was to a paying customer . If you want a nice view of the river, go next door to Fratellos or over to Pullman's. I can't believe this place is still in business. I highly recommend against going here.

We had our daughter's bridal shower at Atlas and had a wonderful experience! Very good food everyone raved about; excellent service from set-up to serving to clean-up. What we discussed in our planning meeting was delivered. Professional, kind service from all staff. The venue was lovely and the ladies in attendance had nothing but good comments afterwards. I would come back again for sure! Thanks for accommodating our group!

I sure wish I had read these reviews before deciding to meet a client for lunch here yesterday. The reviews that mention the rude lady who runs this place are completely true and now I know it just wasn't me who felt very unwelcome here. I arrived a few minutes ahead of my client and decided to go in and get a table right away as I was worried that the place might be packed due to lunch hour (it was 11:30am.) I was surprised when I walked in to find the place almost completely empty, especially as it is a very attractive venue. Although all the tables in sight were empty (except for one couple) there was a sign that said I should check in at the desk before being seated. There were 2 ladies who had just walked in ahead of me and they were standing at the counter placing their order (odd as this place appears to be a nice sit-down cafe but apparently that is how they do it there and I'm glad I noticed this or I wouldn't have known what to do once my client arrived and we were ready to order.) I patiently waited for several minutes while this went on (wasn't even acknowledged or nodded at by the owner who was taking talking to these women) and before I even got past this, my client had arrived. We waited some more and finally the rude lady (sounds like she's the owner/manager) handed us 2 menus and said she would take us to our table but then encouraged us to sit at the counter instead since there were only 2 of us. Although there was a nice water view over the counter and that might have been fine if I was there by myself but it seemed more appropriate to be at a table since this was a business lunch (and again, the place was almost empty) so we asked for a table. The lady seemed visibly annoyed by this but took us to a high top table at the end of the bar. I knew immediately that this might be an issue for my older client (who has a knee issue) and was about to ask for a different table but before I could, she had disappeared on us. Seeing as all of the tables were still empty we figured it would be fine to sit at the lower table that was right next to the one she had seated us at. We barely sat down when the rude lady (who had previously ignored us) came rushing out to tell us we would have to move as she had all of “these” tables reserved for a big group that was coming in. Again she tried to stick us at the window counter but after we asked again for just a small table even she finally allowed us to go sit way in the back at a small table. After figuring out what we wanted to order, we both had to get up again to walk up to the counter and place our order. They also make you pay right away and when the lady handed me her tablet to sign for my credit card payment, it automatically popped up a gratuity window with tip amount suggestions. Honestly at this point I wasn't feeling very tip generous but since my client was there with me and I didn't want to look rude (and the rude lady owner told me that all tips would go to non-profits) I did leave a tip. After this we went to sit back down and proceeded to have our meeting. At the end of our lunch a full 2 hours later, all of the other tables were still empty (including those that she said were reserved) and I realized that on top of everything else we were now expected to clean up our own table afterward. We did so and left. The only real service we received at all was at least they did bring our food order to the table for us and the food was pretty good overall but due to this odd experience and rude owner, I probably won't go back or recommend this place at all.

I will never go back to this place again. The owner is rude and obviously does not value her customers. Our first time at this establishment was during Mile of Music. We placed our food order and then asked for water. The owner charged us $3 a piece for tap water served in a paper cup. I decided to give them one more chance because my husband wanted to go back. I had him place the order because the owner is rude and I did not want to deal with her. When my husband came back to the table he proceeded to tell me that the owner added a 35% tip tax to the bill and this is at a self serve counter!!!!! Lucky I didn't place the order because I would have walked out. Believe me don't go to this place it will truly ruin your mood for the day.