I have worked for GTP on three occasions over the last 5 years. While I'm thankful to have worked there bc it's where I met my husband and able to start a family, I'm highly disappointed in the progression of the establishment. How black staff and customers are treated as a black owned establishment is less than subpar!
My husband happens to the son of one of the owners, so consider that as I continue.
When I first started working for GTP in 2015, all of the servers where black or a POC. I do understand that having a staff of majority POC can sometimes be challenging and understand the diversity that they attempted to display to attract certain customers from the area which the bar is located.
In 2017, there were hardly no black staff besides in the kitchen. My husband and I would frequent the bar ourselves and receive piss poor service literally every single time we dined in, KNOWING that we were family of the owners. It reached a point that we either ordered take out or just refrained from visiting and supporting.
When asked if GTP was still black owned on numerous occasions and responding that it was indeed still owned by the two of the originals, people's mouths would fall open bc they felt that the establishment was very white washed. Many would tell myself and my husband how their service was horrible, how they were treated less than due to the color of their skin while whites seemingly had great experiences.
Now, in 2020, I'm writing this after my third attempt to help the family business and having one of the worst experiences in the food and beverage industry. I am currently 7 months pregnant and decided to go and work at the request of my father in law and other members of my in laws. I worked there a little over a month and can honestly say that I do not plan on ever returning to the establishment was a server nor a customer.
The management is HORRIBLE! They are drugged out/up idiots who are full of themselves and bask in white privilege. They are incompetent and only look out for those who share their skin color. I have had my time played with as it pertains to scheduling, although my availability stated otherwise. I have had my money played with, as an idiot manager, Kat, clearly and blatantly got over on me and the books did not reflect an error; not to mention at check/close out I mentioned that it wasn't right and she spoke to me as if there was no error. Later said it was an honest mistake but I know otherwise bc I'm no dummy and it's simple math. Lastly I was scheduled for the next three Saturday's for only 3 and half hours as a "pick up shift", but mind you previously I've worked full shifts for over a month. When I mentioned to manager, Taylor, she began lying AGAIN stating that I knew my shifts would be pick up shifts which couldn't be true based on my work history for the past month. Instead of fixing the issue or copping to giving someone else my hours she decided to take me off the schedule for those three hour shifts on Saturday's, okay cool. When I stated that I would be there for my full shifts the following week, she insisted on taking me off of those days as well bc she felt I was being "disrespectful" which I was far from based on the text thread. Basically she knew that I wasn't going to be walked all over for the third time and they'd been caught up once again being shady.
I found it funny how she was so ready to remove me from the schedule when there are literally staff that do drugs and are high ON THE CLOCK. I've even had customers tell me to tell the bartender, Travis, to go and "do a line" so that he could do a better job at making sure my drinks were made in a timely manner. To each their own but that is completely unacceptable for a CUSTOMER to state about an employee!
I have only tried to help my in laws and making sure that business continues to run smoothly and that they're not being screwed over by management or other servers. I've caught many of employees stealing money from the bar, giving away free food and rounds of drinks, etc and let my owner in laws aware of such things every single time it has happened.
This time, I attempted to let owners know about things that I've noticed in my short time working but they went unheard and unconsidered. Another black waitress also had concerns about seniority and why blacks seemed to be getting screwed over while the whites were looked out for.
Oh, not to mention that in the last 3 months, 4 black female servers were hired due to the BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT and due to the times we are living in to appear to stand in solidarity with their own people. It's honestly a damn shame!
I said all this to say, as a member of the FAMILY to the owners of GTP, I personally can not and will not in good conscious support this establishment any longer. I would advise that any black, brown or POC take their black dollar to another black owned business that actually cares about black lives. read more