Daniella B.
Yelp
I went to Beer Bar/Bar X Friday night, for the first time in a long time since the pandemic has been a problem. My friends wanted to go and I happened to have a Beer Bar voucher that I could redeem. I'm not a huge fan of Beer Bar / Bar X. The drinks are good but outrageously expensive while the service is rude and the ambiance is lacking. It's like they put up some velvet drapes, turned the lights down low so you can't see the uneven floor, and made some halfway decent cocktails and expect that to be enough to warrant $15 drinks. So I buy the vouchers, because I keep finding myself dragged to these places. I have experienced issues in the past trying to redeem City Weekly vouchers at Beer Bar and Bar X and my difficulty in redeeming vouchers there has been the main reason that I've avoided buying new vouchers during the pandemic, but usually after some persuasion, they accept the voucher. I thought tonight would be no different, that I might have to state my case but that eventually they would accept the voucher. Usually my husband is there to back me up but tonight we thought it unnecessary. We were so wrong.
I went over to the Beer Bar side to order drinks and redeem a voucher I had there. When I presented it as payment, the manager (who was drinking heavily with her friends) didn't want to accept it and rather than walk away from the drinks they already poured for me on the bar, I picked one up and started drinking it, which I guess requires 5 guys to kick me out. I made it very clear while I was ordering that I intended to use a City Weekly voucher. It wasn't until the manager got involved that I suddenly found out that I couldn't use them. The weird thing was that she kept going on and on about how bad City Weekly is for business. I don't know why she thought that was information that was appropriate to share with me.
The woman who later introduced herself as Heather sent 5 men to escort me (a petite female) out of the bar. The whole situation was humiliating. My friends tried to defend my honor but it was too late. Heather had made the decision that we were not worthy. She claimed outside that she was going to comp my drinks but I keep thinking, why not do that instead of denying my voucher? She made a clear point that my City Weekly voucher would not be accepted. She told me to take it up with City Weekly and she claimed that City Weekly was somehow harming their business.
To make matters worse, a large man with a beard braid tried to physically threaten me. He followed me outside and continued to give me the stare down as I waited for my friends. I was under the impression that this man worked as or was friends with the bouncers. The bouncers didn't notice or care about this. It seemed like he was helping them.
No other business has ever given me so much grief about redeeming these vouchers. If you care about supporting businesses that support a diverse clientele and doesn't treat their customers like garbage, I would avoid this business with a ten foot pole. I know these businesses are run by the honorable Ty Burrell but I feel like there must be so much shadiness happening if the employees treat their customers like this.
I have since spoken to the head manager at Beer Bar / Bar X, and he repeated all the same things that Heather told me. He claimed that my vouchers were invalid and expired. I double checked all my receipts from City Weekly, none of them came with an expiration date. The terms and conditions on the website do not list expiration dates either. City Weekly does sell vouchers with expiration dates but from my experience, they are always paper vouchers with the expiration date clearly printed on the voucher itself. From my experience, the vouchers in the CWikPay app do not come with expiration dates. I don't know why this manager wasted his breath to speak to me when he obviously felt his employees did the right thing and wasn't going to change his mind. It was like he called me up just to yell at me and make me feel bad. Turns out this entire business is run by bullies and thugs. When I asked about why he had a manager on duty who was drinking, he seemed to be okay with the arrangement. Personally, I cannot think of a supportive work place environment where this kind of arrangement is acceptable. At the very least, managing a crowded bar on a busy night after drinking with your friends is a set up for disaster. At worst, this employee is being asked to work for free and being compensated in alcohol. What a disgrace for a place that on the outside claims to support people who work in the service industry.
