Me and my friends have been coming here for years, because Astrobar is a bar in our neighborhood, and the prices are alright. However, a couple weeks ago we had an experience that seriously made me lose respect for the bar and the bartenders.
When we walked into the bar a man grabbed one of my girlfriends genitals. After hearing about what he did we (a friend group of 7 female high school students) were shocked and disgusted. I decided to go tell the (male) bartender. After telling him one of the clients had grabbed my friends genitals, hoping he would kick him out, he went over and asked the man about this, who pretended like we had made the story up. The bartender came back to me and said that the client is a "Stammkunde", and he would therefore not kick him out, but he would if he touched one of us again.
This is incredibly unbelievable, to have two girls come up to the staff and tell them that one of them has just had an experience where a customer of the bar sexually assaulted her, and see the staff wave it off, half in disbelief of the 'story' and half wanting a paying customer to stay.
It's not only incredibly ignorant to the struggles and discomfort as women felt after the experience, sitting very closely to the man, but it also acted as an invitation to other men to act the same.
When we left about a different man came up to us and touched my girlfriend in the same area, and openly laughed while doing so. This is exactly why we need bartenders to kick those who sexually assault and harass women (and men) out, because if they are permitted to stay it sends a message to the customers that touching women whenever they want to is permissible and okay.
I really hope this message makes the staff at Astrobar set their priorities straight and act with morals next time a woman shares a traumatising experience, in hopes of support and understanding. read more