"Nosh & Bevvy Won't Forgive Me for All the Ways They Wronged Me"
That title is meant to be ironic. After more than fifteen years as a customer, I made one mistake: a four-dollar tab discrepancy on a day when I had just been turned away from a dental appointment because my blood pressure was too high for treatment. I was upset, distracted, and wanted to be around people I believed were my friends. That was the last day I ever stayed there as a customer.
Let's go down the list.
I have been accused of skipping out on my tab. The truth is that after fifteen years of faithful patronage, there was one incident involving approximately four dollars. I had added items to my order, paid cash, and made a mistake. One mistake in fifteen years.
After that happened, I became concerned that I would continue to be treated as though I couldn't be trusted. In my experience, comments about unpaid tabs continued to surface. Rather than create another misunderstanding, I made a point of being generous. On the very next occasion I tipped Charlie more than fifty percent. Instead of feeling appreciated, I arrived the next time feeling insulted when the entire amount was simply pocketed without so much as an acknowledgment. Maybe others see that differently. That's how it felt to me.
The situation became even more disturbing when interactions began taking place outside the bar itself. While standing in front of my own home, I experienced conduct that I considered harassment. As a result, I filed a police report and have the corresponding case number in my email records.
What disturbed me even more were stories that reached me through people connected to my former partner. According to what we were told, false rumors were being circulated claiming that my ex-girlfriend had committed suicide. Whether people thought this was gossip, entertainment, or somehow harmless, it was not. The psychological harm caused by spreading something like that is difficult to overstate. Shame on everyone involved. What you don't know is Satara an I spoke with witnesses that completely implicated Gilbert in the rumor.
What strikes me now is that I nearly forgave all of this. I removed earlier reviews because I genuinely wanted to move on. I thought it was over. I thought everyone could move on with their lives.
Apparently not.
If people insist on dragging the issue back into the light, then here it is.
The reality is that I don't even particularly miss the place. What I do object to is being disrespected. When a business chooses to disrespect a customer who supported it for fifteen years, there are consequences. One of those consequences is that customer telling his side of the story publicly.
A Message to the Staff: If I believe I am being harassed in public--whether at Night Owl or anywhere else--I will pursue every legal remedy available to me.
And Sam, for what it's worth, I am sorry that your employees have represented your business in a way that ultimately cost you a longtime customer and the loss of business from everyone else that read & took this review to heart as a warning & again, Sam & Charlie, for what it's worth I wanted to make all of this go away.
Fifteen years. One four-dollar mistake. And somehow I'm still the one expected to apologize when I feel like my partner and I were the ones most wronged.
Because I'm not a completely vindictive man. If I get an apology from every employee that works building that knows me, In writing, I will remove this review.
-- Mad Dashiell read more