Hello 3.
Yelp
I have been a loyal customer of Parisi since the day they opened their small Italian market to their current location on Tennyson. I've probably eaten here 500 times, but last night was a shocking departure from the service I've known.
We ordered at 5:22 PM. For the next 30+ minutes, we watched table after table - people who arrived long after us - receive their meals. I checked in twice and was told both times it would be "just a minute."
By 5:54 PM, I was upset. I went to the counter to ask for a refund. I'll admit I was frustrated, and it showed. I was again told, this time more emphatically, that the food was "almost ready!" That was the third time. I said, "If it's almost ready, give me the refund and the food to go; it's the right thing to do!" At this point, the staff member walked away and came back a few minutes later with the manager, Genaro.
Instead of an apology, or asking how he could help, or acknowledging the service issue - or even saying, "Hi, I'm Genaro" - he came out with a defensive attitude, stomping towards us, literally stomping towards us. He shoved the receipt toward me, pointing at the time and insisting that a 40-minute wait for three meals in a fast-casual setting is "normal."
It is not. Parisi is not fine dining; waiting nearly 40 minutes for three chicken dishes in a fast-casual environment is not normal at all. I told him that. I also told him, "Look around, everyone in here came after us, and they all have plates in front of them."
When I told him his dismissal of a nearly 30-year customer was insulting, he began yelling at me in front of the entire restaurant, first telling me to leave, then shouting that I was "banned for life." Banned for life! I should take them my picture so they can tape it next to their register: "This man is banned for life!"
Looking back, I could have just sat and waited for the food to arrive; 40 minutes isn't a lifetime. But after being misled for 40 minutes, my patience had run out. To be treated with such vitriol and aggression by management - after nearly three decades of loyal support - is staggering. I admitted my frustration, but a manager's job is to fix a mistake, not bully a long-time patron to cover up for a slow kitchen. A deeply sad end to a Denver staple.