Connexion Lounge

What perhaps some people don’t understand is this: Connexion is a bar lounge version of a Starbucks. It’s a perfect spot to grab a drink while getting some work done or for a meeting. There is free WiFi, just ask the server for the password, so feel free to bring your laptop or tablet. The service is slow, especially during the day, because most people here are staying at the hotel and just lounging. If you’re looking for fast service and a lot of attention, this is not the place for you. If you’re looking to chill out, lounge, and be left alone to do work, rest in between meetings while near the area, or have a meeting, or that kind of thing, this is exactly perfect. I love it.

NEVER EVER AGAIN IN MY LIFE!
Me and my colleagues stayed at Marriott’s Copley Place for the ASEEES Convention (international conference of Slavists). Usually at the events as large as this one, when you are tired after a long day of panels and talks, you just don’t want to leave the hotel, but want to relax and unwind with a glass of wine somewhere within the hotel’s premises. Assuming that the place called Connexion Lounge (2^nd floor of the hotel) should do the job, we went there for a drink. The result was disgusting.
Let me say that I never write bad reviews and I’m very patient with people who work in the restaurant business as at some point in my life I myself had to work as a waitress. I know it’s a hard and stressful job, and the customer is always right. But not in Connexion Lounge. That night I had to broaden my horizons in terms how BAD the service can get.
We were a group of 5 people, all in their late 20s and 30s, and we were asked to show IDs. I’m not a U.S. citizen and therefore don’t have a U.S.-issued ID. Since I’m a journalist and have an international press-​card — I always carry it around (instead of my international passport that I’m afraid of losing) and it works for me everywhere as an ID equivalent. It worked in the Champions, which is a sports bar 10 feet away and belongs to the same management company. But not in Connexion Lounge. The waiter who looked at my press card, just shrugged his shoulders and dismissed me, saying that it’s not an ID. My explanations were met with contempt, so naturally I asked to talk to a manager. The manager, a young kid who looked scared, still confirmed that he can’t except my ID either. By that time all of my colleagues already got their drinks — wine and a cheese platter (about these — later). But thanks to the severe ID-​check process, the mood was pretty much killed, and no one wanted to touch their drinks until we resolved the issue.
Finally, we decided to call for someone who runs the lounge — the man called John came up (He refused to give his full name, saying he is the only John here). He also inspected my press card and said that he sees that I’m 32 but there is nothing he can do about the law that requires a U.S. issued ID or a passport. He also gave attitude to my colleague who is a lawyer and who tried to reason with him that there are regulations, but there is also common sense and customer service. I can understand any regulations as I’m well-​travelled and have been around the world, but there was no need for the Connexion Lounge staff to be rude and dismissive to their customers. There was no need in pointing fingers and lecturing — we are not a bunch of high school kinds, some of us actually have PhDs.
The attitude was so offensive that we decided to leave, and only when we thought it can’t get any worse, John ran after us and shouted that we didn’t pay the tab (there was no tab) and then asked if we touched the drinks (we didn’t). I’ve never seen anything like this before. Way to go with the service, John.
And as for the food and drinks, even though we didn’t touch anything, it all looked really cheap but was actually pricey. For example, there was Mark West wine on the wine list for $ 10 per glass. s a cheap wine, and this is how much a bottle of this wine costs in a store. And the cheese platter was the saddest sight ever: 15 crackers and 3 little cubes of «assorted artisan cheese.» I think the word «platter» has been used very loosely here. Oh yes, it costs $ 14!
Just to sum up: HORRIBLE PLACE, HORRIBLE SERVICE, HORRIBLE FOOD AND DRINKS.

I’ve only had their breakfast buffet for $ 22, and it was just ok. Maybe I’m just spoiled by awesome Asia buffets, but I was underwhelmed. Service was also slow, which shocked me. Décor was good and food was fine though.

I typically dont bother rating chain hotels and their associated bars/​lounges becuase I dont expect anything sub-​par, nor extraordinary from them. In Connexion’s case, i feel compelled… and not just because it was really bad, but to inform folks that they are way better off just walking across the street, upstairs, or even across the hallway for a better $ 10-​drink-​experience.
I dont even have an issue with the prices at connexion… first of because its a Marriott, and second, that its situated in Copley Plaza, so its expected. My issue is the service. We stood at the ‘entrance’ to the lounge… which as the other reviewe notes, is kind of just a weird extension the bar, though not connected, and its upstairs from the lobby… so not lobby space either. It did have a cool flame-​out-​of-​a-​vase kind of thing in the middle which was its best selling point.
Anyway, we waited for several minutes at the hostess podium at which time one waiter walked up and indicated it would be «a few minutes.» We saw 2 or 3 tables of people leave at the same time, and waited another 3 or 5 minutes. At that time, I just went in and sat down at one of the now unoccupied, yet still dirty tables. The waiter came but another few minutes later to clear it. I hate to sound judgemental, but the hasty waiter barely spoke English, and despite us ordering only 3 drinks… asked my order 3 times… literally.
The wine was mediocre… the atmosphere was lacking… and the service was bad to awful. Go across the street, or get room service?

This lounge was part of the Copley Place Marriott’s recent $ 22 million renovation that also included the revamping of Champions «Sports Bar» (and grill) adjacent to it. To contextualize it, it is in essence a hotel bar, or, more accurately, a weird hybrid of an extension of the hotel’s lobby lounge space (which is situated a floor up from it) and an offshoot of a shopping mall corridor. It doesn’t have too much defining character of its own.
Anyway, the Connexion Lounge is less loud ‘n’ boisterous than Champions, and is littered with fewer TVs (but you still have a view of Champions’ mammoth flat screen!), but the two spaces seem to have a nice symbiotic relationship. It’s located where the Starbucks used to be, shortly after you enter Copley Place whether via the Prudential Center or the Huntington entrance. The Starbucks is still there (but in an expanded form, with far more seating than its former incarnation, and now even closer to the Prudential corridor!).
A friend and I stopped in while on our way home from dinner because the mini-​firepits on the tables looked nice and warm, and the comfy chairs were just too much to pass up. (It’s so rare for restaurants to have actual candles anymore, it was shocking to see actual flames of this magnitude! We had to sit down and stare, and make sure they were real!)
When we arrived at 8:15 it was pretty empty. There was a group of three women at one table playing Boggle, and a few other small groups scattered about, but by 9 PM the place was packed with only two empty tables in sight. We each had one drink – my friend a glass of Riesling and I a shot of Patron Silver, so nothing fancy. Connexion also has a fairly decent looking food menu (complete with skirt steak), although we didn’t test it out tonight.
Will likely end up stopping in again while passing through the Prudential-​Copley Place corridor on another cold wintry day. Nothing like a shot of tequila to delude one into thinking it’s a bit warmer out.