I just had the rudest/most incompetent service at this bar. I went in for to go food, and the blonde, very curly haired bartender didn't say a SINGLE word to me OR look me in the eyes once. She dropped the menu in front of me without even acknowledging my presence. I had to flag her down after ten minutes of sitting at the bar top of eight people, and I HATE flagging servers down. It just feels so rude on both our parts. She ended up transferring me to the other bartender so she could talk to her friends two seats down from me. And when she transferred me to her coworker, instead of being discreet, she kept pointing at me and laughing. I didn't go into this establishment, expecting chain restaurant, over the top perky service. I am very familiar with Sputnik actually and frequented the bar when I was in my 20s. However, acknowledging patrons is just common courtesy, and using discretion when talking about guests...well, that's just basic professionalism.
I haven't left a 15% tip in almost AGES. I'm super understanding of most bad service because I worked in restaurants for 7 years. I get it. Really. I do. Bad days happen to the best of us. However, never in my life have I felt so neglected as a customer. She didn't even ask if I wanted a drink...at a bar. I really wanted a glass of wine while I waited, but she ran away so fast after I ordered food that I couldn't tell her my drink order. The sad thing is I'm an amazing tipper, even with mediocre service. Had she at least said hi to me ONCE, she would have made bank off an easy to go item. And she most DEFINITELY was not in the weeds. I saw her working on her side work/opening duties, and she literally twiddled her thumbs for five minutes.
Needless to say, I will NOT being going back to this establishment. I kind of having been drifting from this place anyhow for various reasons, but this definitely solidified it for me. I understand that this bar is a super hipster place, but ignoring and degrading your patrons just isn't cool. I don't get worked up this badly about bad service because, well, I have a life and much better things to get butt-hurt about. Yet, this was the epitome of bad, and I feel a little insulted by how this stranger treated me.
The even sadder part is that I actually used to frequent this bar BECAUSE of the good service. Seriously, Joe and Spencer made me feel like I was part of a big, drunk family. They took the time to learn my name and say hi, even on extremely busy Saturday evenings. What happened to that quality service?? I really hope you take this review into consideration, Sputnik. While I don't want to see the young woman fired, she needs to be written up by a manager and retrained. Maybe having her work as a bar-back on a shift with some of your more experienced bartenders might be beneficial for her so that she can watch how others employ their customer service and guest relations skills. Or maybe you can just sit down with her and explain that one-top to go orders are also paying guests and worthy of being treated as such.
Thank you for reading this review.
Edit: I should also note she got my order wrong. Maybe actually talking and listening to me could have prevented that one.
Edit 2: I REALLY need to stress that I used to be a regular at this bar. I'm familiar with their service standards, and several years ago, most of the staff knew me by name. For me to complain about this woman should say a LOT.
I also want to stress that this is my first yelp review...EVER. I've avoided yelp like the plague, but she should not be working at a bar like Sputnik. And she DESPERATELY needs retraining. read more