Inexpensive drinks. Laid back atmosphere. Committed to local businesses (as seen in their partnerships with local breweries and restaurant including their neighbor, Saddleback BBQ). Since moving to Lansing 4 years ago, my colleagues and I often looked for places to go after a long week of teaching and meetings. We found REO Town Pub to be a place to get decent, well priced drinks, order some food (from other places which they encourage because they do not have a kitchen) and stumble into a night where the bartenders have a good 90s R&B/Hip hop playlist going. Last night, however, my colleagues and I had an unsettling experience with one of the bartenders. We walked in, sat and the bar, ordered drinks and listened to the musician who was performing. At the end of his set, we asked Sam (one of the bartenders who was preparing our drink orders) if they could turn on the music again and added, "if he needs help with the playlist, just send him our way." Less than 5 minutes later, Omar approached us and asked what we wanted to hear. We each said "Migos" and was met by a series of questions and puzzled looks ("Three amigos? Amigos? Is that the name of a song or a group? I don't know who that is.") We each tried to respond to his questions in which he interrupted with, "I only understand complete sentences." We stopped talking and I jokingly broke the silence with, "oh no. What? We need an Uber church van. We got to go." His response: "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya" (first and second mistakes)
He then walked away to retrieve his phone/iPad that he was using to play music. When he returned, my friend had pulled up the group and requested song on her phone and showed it to him. His response: "oh these guys. Y'all need to listen to real music." (Third mistake) Sir, we are at a bar, on a random Thursday, celebrating a friend's birthday. No one stops into a bar in Lansing and stays to buy drinks to listen to blues on their birthday. You weren't even playing blues between the musician's set (Aaliyah, TLC, 50 Cent, Biggie). The musician didn't sing any blues all night (interesting renditions of selections from Tom Petty, Stevie Wonder and The Wallflowers...but no blues). We have diverse music tastes (which he erroneously assumed we did not), but we did not want to listen to our usual rotation of artists. He finally played the request but appeared to be upset as he spoke with Sam, another bartender. We tried to enjoy the song, but because my colleagues and I were puzzled and offended by his snarky remarks, we settled our tab, tipped Sam and left. The part that was most concerning is that as 4 of the 6 women of color who were in the bar, we couldn't understand if Omar was usually that condescending towards Black and Latina women or if he was just having a rough night. For a while we stopped going to other bars in Lansing because we liked the bartenders and atmosphere at REO Town Pub. We may have to reconsider our decisions and move our patronage to an establishment with less condescending staff. read more