"Have you ever been to The Bygone?" - Person 1
"Meh, if I wanna see racism, I can just watch that on TV" - Every person in our Party going forward
--Customer Service:
3/27/2021 - we had a reservation @5 for a party of 5 that we modified down to 4. We checked with the restaurant before we attended by phone and verified again upon arrival that it would be ok to change it to 4. The host downstairs modified the party size for us, and we thought everything was good to go.
Two members of our party were running behind, but two of us were there, were seated and ordered drinks. I've traveled a number of places during the pandemic Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, and I'm back and forth to California *often* as my partner lives there. In all of those places, we've eaten out where we could. We've completely complied with time restrictions on dining, as we understand the pandemic has caused special circumstances and other people would like to dine as well. We weren't told there was a time restriction on dining and wouldn't try to hold a table beyond a reasonable timeframe. We were done in 1 hr and 50 minutes actually with everyone having arrived and ordering drinks, appetizers, and entrées.
At 5:15 PM, we tried to order at least appetizers for the table, but were told by our server Anil that we would need to wait for the other members of the party before ordering so all the courses could be put in together. We said ok, and we'd be willing to give the remaining party members 15 minutes to arrive before we proceeded forward with dinner. A little under 15 minutes later, a third member of the party arrived sat down and ordered a drink. Enter Chris - the general manager.
Chris - proceeded into the following: "You had a reservation for 5 now its 4," "I've tried to be as accommodating as I can, but we have other reservations tonight" "You'll have to order because at a certain point, I'll have to instruct the server not to take any additional orders."
His tone throughout his remarks, I would describe as disparaging at best.
I was floored as I'd never experienced anything like this - and it took me right back to the events that occurred at another one of their restaurants in June of 2020. *Google Atlas Group Baltimore June 2020. It's some good footage there and articles too.
A few issues with this, the first of which I explained to Chris. We'd actually already tried to order but were prevented from doing so. He said there must have been a miscommunication and sent Anil back over to take our appetizers.
We're also aware the party size changed - as we told you before sitting down to dine. You'll direct/instruct the server not to take any additional orders - I wasn't aware such DRASTIC measures were needed as we'd already asked to order and had been asked TO WAIT by their staff.
It shouldn't matter, but I probably should mention by now, our party - all of us are Black. It's also important to note when we arrived, I noticed a table sat consisting of 4 White people. The party sat almost at the same time we were, they were there AFTER we left. I have to wonder, did they get the same "talk" about ordering, other tables waiting, etc? Actually, when we left at 6:50 PM, 1hr and 50 minutes after our reservation start time, they were still actively drinking drinks.
I had to wonder, did all of that happen because of the color of our skin? Certainly this restaurant group (The Atlas Group) has had documented experiences around customer service and race.
--The Food:
Crab Bisque
Pretty SUB PAR. I've had better bisque at Stoney River. Also, I didn't need to be explained to what Bisque was, It's soup. But maybe tables like ours get the extra explanations as it's assumed we've never been to a place that serves such mediocre delicacies.
Short rib
This was actually pretty decent. The short rib had kind of a hard sear on the outside which dried it out a little imo, but the flavors were there.
Manhattan
A bit on the bitter side, but definitely drinkable.
Old Fashioned
My drink of choice pretty much everywhere I go was really good here. I enjoy either Buffalo Trace or Woodford regardless of the upcharge, but buffalo trace was the house Bourbon so that was nice.
Really, the experience delivered by the General Manger Chris - well that was enough to have us write off The Bygone. Thankfully, it's not the only restaurant in the world with a view over water. We could have gone to The Food Market for half the price and 10x the customer service and FAR BETTER food. They actually have a SMASHINGLY good Cream of Crab soup that runs LAPS around the crab "Bisque" at The Bygone. We go to TFM a lot though and we wanted to do something special as we were celebrating a Birthday.
To the Atlas groups - I'm not sure you're aware of the demographic makeup of Baltimore, but according the last census bureau report, Baltimore is appx 65% Black, some of us are bound to show up in your restaurants. read more