Apologies for the long review, I'm just absolutely shocked and I feel like I need to outline this whole situation for it to make any sense.
I've been coming here for years and I really love it, but last night there was an industrial goth girl tending bar and she was extremely nasty for no reason. We'd just walked up to the bar and were reading the menu, she called us over and right away her tone was passive aggressive. Then she sighed at us for needing more time to look and seemed even angrier at us once we ordered cocktails off the menu (I guess she just wants to pour vodka sodas? IDK) and started slamming the shaker on the bar much harder than necessary while we stood there awkwardly. I wish I could better describe the way she was talking to us, it was cartoonishly bratty and ugly.
I tried to grab my drink as soon as she poured it because the interaction was making me so uncomfortable, then she snapped at me again about not being finished. I immediately apologized, which she responded to by continuing to lecture me. At this point I was just being berated and I'd just finished a long workday myself, so I decided I'd had enough and it was time to stick up for myself- I told her she didn't need to be rude, she told me she "thinks it's rude to grab drinks off the bar" ??? How else are you supposed to get your drink? Was I supposed to wait for her to have another tantrum? I never have interactions like this and as someone who gets pretty anxious in public I was absolutely mortified.
At this point I didn't even want the drink anymore, so I told her that. She said "I just ran it, I'm NOT taking it off the tab" even though I didn't say anything about taking it off the tab :) I don't know why I would expect that from her, that would require a minuscule amount of accountability to be taken for an issue she caused.
I again tried to apologize but also explained I'm both unfamiliar with what the drink looks like finished as well as these new rules of bar etiquette, I was pretty clearly upset and confused because the hostility seemed totally unprompted from my perspective. She laughed in my face and said I was "doing too much and making way too big of a deal of it". I laughed at her back and we walked away. I can understand not always having a sunny disposition when working customer service but I don't understand escalating things once a customer interaction goes badly. I work in a bar too and I believe part of your job is to not make patrons feel horrible.
Before leaving I told another bartender what happened, he was very sympathetic and heard me out which I really appreciated. He was skeptical at first, which I don't blame him for, it sounds made up! He made it right but I'm a little freaked out to come back for fear of getting chewed out again. read more