Note: This review was deleted on Google, either by Google or by Tommy Joe's. I am posting it here because I must bring awareness to my experience.
The disrepect and lack of understanding from customers, staff, and management towards our group--a group of minority-background students--was frustrating and unacceptable.
In short, we were harassed by two other guests, racially and sexually. However, easily more upsetting was management's handling of the situation. We had expressed to the bartender our concerns, and he brushed it off, saying he couldn't do anything but would get the manager at his convenience. Unfortunately, the harassers were never removed from the premises. After they left (on their own after half an hour and disrespecting our group as laid out above), we confronted the manager again, upset that he didn't have them removed like we asked. We tried our best to convey the urgency and seriousness of the harassment, but he got in our faces and yelled that we had too much to drink. We each had one drink. He said he would kick us out. This was extremely infuriating. You said you didn't have the power to remove the racist and creepy men who threatened us but now you can remove us right away for being upset about it? Bullshit.
We later talked to the manager, Duffy, about our experience. I cannot stress this enough, both him and the bartender fail to understand the experience and emotion of being the victim of harassment, either as a minority or as a woman. Both the fear it brings you and the anger you feel inside. I could not believe it when he, as a white man, said "yea i've faced racism too", and that we need to stop being so upset. You cannot speak for our, a minority, experiences. You cannot tell us not to be angry when facing the type of disrespect we just experienced. You say we were aggressive but you fail to understand we were upset and expressing our anger at the situation in which we were genuinely prejudiced against. You also accused a young woman for being agressive when she had to stand her ground to ask for help when she was being harassed by other men on the premises.
When i expressed that it is the bartender's (and all of staff!) job to keep customers safe, he said "no its not his job. His job is to make drinks". This to me is extremely poor management. Yes his definition is to produce drinks. But as an employee of a public establishment serving guests of all kinds, there needs to be a standard upheld from ALL levels. What kind of establishment dismisses the safety of their customers?
The security lead, Keith, ensured us that if there was a problem, we should notify him on the first floor. This was a very kind gesture, but also begs the question: why didn't the bartender point us to security or call them? Clearly, that would have been more effective than doing nothing.
Not only was our group harassed unjustly by two guests, we were treated unfairly by the staff, who did nothing to remove the harassers and instead dismissed our pleas for help. It is their responsibility to keep customers safe from harassment!!! This is absolutely insane, and I hope the owners and management read this and UNDERSTANDS THE REASON FOR OUR COMPLAINTS AND ENSURES THIS CANNOT HAPPEN AGAIN, TO ANYONE. read more