First of all, there are two things I never do: not tip and leave Yelp reviews. After my experience here, yesterday I can say I've done both. First of all, my girlfriend and I decided to stop by Reggies on Saturday after a beach cleanup in the morning. We wanted to hang out somewhere outside and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. We've passed my Reggies countless times as we've lived in South Loop for around 3-4 years now and enjoy visiting neighborhood bars and restaurants. We had some drinks and sat at the bar. The bartender was kind. He overheard that we were going to the Crosstown Cubs Sox game on Sunday and let us know they had a shuttle they ran to and from the game. We were excited to hear that and invited our friends the next day to do that.
Unfortunately, we didn't make the shuttle on time, but instead we decided to go back to Reggies after the game. There were six of us total. We got there and it was lively and a great time. We enjoyed food and drinks on the rooftop. The service was a little slow (it was a busy day for the game) but we didn't mind just hanging out and running to the bar for drinks if needed.
Our server, Sonya (sp) finally had time to take our order and we ordered nachos, wings, and mozzarella sticks. We also ordered drinks.
When it was time to leave, Sonya returned with our bill and she handed me the credit card swiper to sign for the bill. I reached into my pocket to grab my wallet, and forgot that I had one of those mini liquor bottles that people sell at the games. I simply placed it on the table, so that I could get into my pocket to grab my wallet. Sonya sees the (extremely tiny) bottle and says, "We don't allow outside drinks in here". I replied, "Oh yeah I'm sorry, it was just in my pocket and I wasn't drinking it. We were ordering drinks from you all day and from the bar."
The bottle was completely full and it wasn't like we were all talking shots from it or being disrespectful or loud. It was in my pocket the entire time and had forgotten it was even there. Sonya then says, "Well that's the kind of thing I would expect from your crowd." My girlfriend turns around and says, "Excuse me, that's really rude." I agreed and said, "Hey, this is just a misunderstanding, I'm not sure what's going on. I just placed it on the table for a second to grab my wallet." Sonya then says, "You guys can leave I'm going to grab the bouncer to kick you out." I told her, "that's fine. Go grab him I'd love to talk to him." The bouncer came over and I told him what happened and he was very polite and actually apologized. I gave 1 extra star for the bouncer. Otherwise this would easily have been a one star review.
Now, the thing that was upsetting to our entire group was that she referred to our group as "your crowd". I'm not saying it has anything to do with our race, but it's not hard to come to that conclusion because we are a diverse group of Hispanic and African American/mixed people. We also were well dressed, clean, and are in our 30s. We all have professional careers, bachelors and masters degrees. We're not "riff raff" or unreasonable people.
I live maybe a couple blocks up from Reggies in South Loop but will never step foot in this establishment ever again. I will also not be bringing anymore people there if we're talked to that way and written off for a simple mistake. This could have easily been handled by calmly letting me know and I would have gladly walked over to the trash and thrown the insignificant bottle of liquor that I had forgotten about in the first place, away.
If anyone asks me about Reggies I'll gladly tell them this story. I understand if you're having a bad day but subtle racist comments like that are the reason you're losing a customer and a group of people that were actually excited to go to Reggies as a new hangout spot for our group of friends. It's also why you lost your tip. If you really felt like making that comment, maybe just whisper it to yourself after we've paid and left--or, hey, just don't say it at all. It wasn't a smart decision to say that as I'm signing for the bill. Pro tip, Sonya.
I've read some other reviews on here and there are numerous other posts mentioning the racism and I'm not surprised.
It was fun while it lasted, Reggies. read more