Jiwon K.
Yelp
This one star review needs to be written and published so that no one experiences the embarrassing, demeaning, CLASSIST AND AGEIST behavior from an oversized bartender that my friend and I were subjected to last week.
Let me start off by saying that prior to this horrible and confusing experience, I had two great nights here at Hudson Malone wherein my party and I had spent at least 500 dollars on dinner and drinks; the owner, Doug, being kind enough to acknowledge how much we had spent on two occasions, definitely treated us well and brought out two rounds of champagne for us which I thought was a considerate favor.
Keeping the above in mind, let us forward to my third experience here at this establishment: my friends and I have a few bites and drinks at a table by the window before desiring to relocate to the bar area and that is where the drama ensues.
My friend, who is a bit younger than I am (and cautious around older males) politely asked the bartender working behind the bar if she could relocate from the table to a seat at the bar; she is given "permission" (since when does a bar area require permission to sit? You pay, you sit and you drink!) to sit at the far end of the bar near the dishes and workers whereas I preferred to sit in the middle next to the table with the hot guys having dinner! So naturally, I grab two OPEN seats at the middle of the bar and motion for my friend to come and join me; my friend, still being the overly nice and considerate, young female she is, asks the bartender if she may join me at the empty seat I had been reserving for her. The bartender DENIES her request and states that her moving to sit next to me would "disturb" the patrons in the seat over.
My friend comes over to me and explains to me what the bartender told her which immediately pissed me off for two reasons: first, the couple sitting next to us were wealthy looking, older individuals whom the bartender definitely categorized as the type who would tip him far better than us younger "millennials" would. Second, the seat next to me was empty so I could not logically put together why my friend would not be able to join me without "disturbing" the older, rich looking couple!
I immediately voiced my concern and asked the bartender why he had said such a thing to my friend and requested that she not sit next to me, to which he bitterly replied through his teeth, "don't argue with me".
Ok, got it- so you immediately have this perception of my friend and I that we are some millennial trash, that our money is not as good the people next to us, and since you've been working here for twenty five years (a fact that the owner Doug mentioned after he was called to diffuse the situation) you have every right to choose not to serve us for literally NO OTHER REASON THAN THE ABOVE (i.e. we are "millennial trash").
I was not going to accept this type of classless behavior from an establishment where I had spent my hard earned money- so I immediately asked to speak to the owner Doug, whom I knew, and the bartender scoffed in my face and questioned,
"Doug? Yeah? You know the owner? Then what's his last name?" To which I replied, "I do not know his last name."
"That's what I thought."
"Can you please just call him up here, sir?"
"Yeah, I will, DON'T WORRY."
I am by this point FURIOUS because this older, male bartender is being aggressive with me for absolutely no reason and announcing out loud to the entire bar area, "They're done! They're done!" being incredibly embarrassing and clearly wanting to assert his "manhood" at the bar because he has been working there for a long time.
While I respect the fact that this bartender has been working at this establishment for many years, his inappropriate treatment of us arising from his judgement of us was completely appalling and should have been handled by Doug, the owner, in an appropriate fashion; it wasn't. Doug stated that the bartender had been working there for a long time and didnt know why he reacted so strangely to my friend wanting to take a different seat at the bar next to me, but that he would have to stand by his bartenders decision because of how long he had been working there. It was a cheap excuse for an obvious case of an older, wannabe dominant, male bartender displaying his immature, classist and ageist biases of two younger girls at the bar and getting away with this kind of nasty behavior because of, "seniority".
NEVER AGAIN will I be giving this bar and restaurant my business because behavior like this should absolutely be ILLEGAL; being denied service for absolutely no reason? I should have called human rights watch on their bartenders despicable and classist behavior.
EVERY PERSON DESERVES TO BE TREATED FAIRLY REGARDLESS OF CLASS, AGE, RACE AND RELIGION!