Nothing chaps my butt more than being treated rudely/disrespectfully for no apparent reason whatsoever.
The mister lives a stone's throw away, so we decided to grab a bite and a beer and the second half of that horrid Packers/Giants game. We've done this at Hooligan's before and plenty of times. As of previous, service had varied from spot on to spotty (depending upon your server/bartender), though the food was always on point.
This past Sunday night ranks as one of the singular worst experiences I've had in a bar/restaurant, tho. Ever.
This is a diatribe of epic, Odyssian proportion, I'll keep it as factual and honest and (maybe) concise as I can, and then let you, dear reader, be the judge.
Enter, snag table, wait for server. Proceed to order a special not available 'til after 10pm. (Didn't realize this was the case.) She informs us it's not available. We ask if we can pay full price. She says no. All reasonable on paper, absolutely... but girl's tone. Mad hostility. I thought she was actually going to try and fight L. Seriously. I've never, ever encountered that kind of vitrol for asking a pretty normal question.
Move to bar to escape insane server: Miraculously, two seats were available at the end of the bar, so we were able to avail ourselves of said server. She transfers our beer order to the male bartender, who seems nice enough. He gives me time to choose a beer and doesn't rush me. Thx dude!
Order: I order a Nosferatu, and L's already's got his Downtown Brown. And bites... it's pretty much the only reason we ever go to Hooligan's, so... we order wings. To Jay S' point: When we asked the male bartender about the wings (regular versus hot) he informed us that, in his opinion, regular was sort of bland/didn't have much flavor + spice. Based on this assertion, we opted for the hot, since the former didn't sound so appealing. Easy enough. Packers are still getting slaughtered. Booo.
Wings: Inedible. Insanely spicy. The quality of the meat was not good to boot, but that wasn't even the issue. Inedibly spicy. Male bartender disappears and we're left with the female bartender who seems new/sort of inexperienced but nice enough. We both try to choke down one of the wings with little success, so the rest sit there as do we for a half hour without being checked on.
Now, when I was serving/bartending, if I noticed the customer not eating the food they ordered, I'd generally ask 'em if it was okay. "Oh, you ordered this thing and now you're not eating it? Is there a problem, maybe?" It's customary. Nope. I'm thinking that in this case I would either comp 'em or ask if the folks would like something else, as obviously this isn't working out for the wings - these chickens now died in vain - or the folks that ordered them. It's not like we ate them, guys.
Nope. Nothing. She asks if we're done, and dumps all of them out into the garbage, and presents us with a $22.50 bill.
That's not to mention the fact super mad server who hates job/life was slamming dishes down at the server station (next to my seat, which I understand just happened to happen) with an unmatched gusto.
Okay, so the lesson here: Don't go back to Hooligan's. I'd like to... we'd like to, as it's convenient and the food is almost always on point, but after Sunday night? After being treated so very rudely for no reason and then to be shuffled in and out without being checked on/treated as if our dollars and experience mattered one bit? No way, man.
(The only reason I'm not going one star is the positive I've experienced there before with other, gracious + attentive servers and solid bar eats.) read more