So I was going to dinner at Au Bon Acceuil last night and needed to find a bar to meet someone in for a drink before. Never that easy to find a decent spot for a drink around the Eiffel Tower, right? I found this nice review here and decided to give the place a try, but think it must have changed drastically or the guy behind the bar was having an incredibly off night.
I arrive and the door is kind of shut but propped open with/blocked by a champagne bucket stand. I wasn't sure if that was inviting me in or keeping me out. So, I slipped in around it and saw the place was dark, empty, the man behind the bar was completely engrossed in something else entirely and paid no attention to the only potential customer in the place. It also smelled like cigarette smoke - so I thought they must not be actually open and he was prepping. This wouldn't be the first time I've arrived in a Paris bar at what are 'officially' opening hours to find that they're not ready. And, then the bar staff are always a bit cranky when you interrupt prep, so I politely asked the man "are you open?"
His only response was, in a pretty rude tone "Why would you ask that?"
Instead of repeating all of the above as I didn't feel like getting into a pissing contest, I just nicely said "I know I'm here really close to opening hours and just wanted to make sure I'm not too early before I sat down and made myself comfortable."
His only response was, again in rather rude tone, "All glasses here are 15 Euros."
All of this now goes through my head: Do I not *look* like I can afford a 15 Euros glass of wine? Wait?! 15 Euros for a glass of wine in Paris is a bit crazy! But I'm meeting people here so let's just stick it out.
All I say is "No problem. I'll just sit down and wait for my friends. Can I see the wine list?"
All he says "It's simple. You want white or you want red"
At that point I figured I couldn't be bothered with the rude service, the lack of choice, the smelly room, the overpriced wine and the general attitude and just walked next door to a random terrace where the prices were half that of this place and the service - while still a little of the typical gruff that you can encounter in tourist spots around the tower - was still far above this guy.
While we were having a drink next door, we were still waiting for another friend. One of the people in our group went next door to see if she had ended up in that bar (mainly because I couldn't deal with going in myself). And, she got the exact some treatment, so it seems like it wasn't just me.
And, I think that's the kind of service - especially in high tourist traffic areas like this - that add to France's bad customer service rep. When, in fact, i've had plenty of lovely service here... read more