Lulu B.
Yelp
I wish I could leave a no star review but here we go.
I went to college at UNH and graduated about 20 years ago. I now live in Colorado and I've been back to NH once or twice in the past 20 years.
My husband and I planned a vacation to the northeast this summer so I could show him around Portsmouth and Portland (he's a Colorado native and has never been to the northeast).
While in college I spent a good amount of time in Portsmouth and even worked at the old Blue Mermaid.
We spent more than we could afford taking our vacation but I was SO excited to show my husband around beautiful Portsmouth and the UNH campus I thought it was worth it.
Thursday August 24th we spent the day walking around the UNH campus with a friend and her 2 children.
We had our dog with us and since NO restaurants in Portsmouth allow dogs we came back to Portsmouth for dinner so we could drop our dog off at the hotel and enjoy a night out.
I've always considered The Gaslight a Portsmouth "institution" if you will. Knowing they have good live music options and pizza I suggested we go there.
We were both really happy to sit down since we were tired and hungry from walking around all day. We were REALLY looking forward to pizza, drinks and music. Neither of us had anything to drink that day and were sober.
We got to The Gaslight around 7:30/8:00 and went down to the Pizza Pub. I originally asked the hostess if they served pizza in the main dining room; she said no and directed us downstairs.
We sat in a booth across from the bar. We were the only ones sitting in the pub except for about 5 or 6 young guys at the bar. The bartender was also acting as the waitress probably b/c it was pretty quiet and a bit late.
She came to our table with menus and the first thing she said to us was a sarcastic "hi how are you guys this evening? having some drinks? driving around tonight?"
My husband and I laughed a bit because the idea of us drinking and driving is ludicrous. I'm an attorney and my husband sells breath alcohol testers so if either of us drank and drove we would lose our jobs. My husband told the bartender/waitress that we're staying at the Inn Downtown just a few blocks away, we had parked our car at the hotel for the evening and we were on foot.
She asked what we wanted. I ordered a vodka soda with a splash of cranberry and he ordered a beer. She then looked at us and said in the most condescending way "I'll THINK about serving you drinks if you eat some food, you were planning on ordering food right"?
My husband and I were really confused and thought she might be joking. I responded by saying, yes we were going to order pizza. She asked us to order the pizza which we did.
Subsequently, she brought over waters and said "drink these." We then realized she hadn't been joking.
The feigned superiority and utter contempt she exuded was made transparent by her tone, language and manner. It was inconceivable.
We spent the next 15 minutes or so waiting for our pizza and trying to figure out why she thought we were intoxicated.
While we were waiting we listened to her suggestively flirt with the guys sitting around her at the bar. They all looked like college students (my husband and I are in our 40s) and she was serving them mostly cocktails. One or two of them were drinking beer.
She was telling the guys about school and how she was thinking of moving. We got to hear all about her basic life as she tried to impress them.
As we began to realize that she was either ageist or trying to show off for her beaus at the bar we decided we needed to leave.
When she brought the pizza, we asked for a to-go box, paid and left.
We were not rude, argumentative or disrespectful. As Coloradans and good people we could never treat someone in such a manner.
My husband did not want me to complain to the manager. I attempted to but was told the manager wasn't there. The woman I did complain to seemed to be in a position of authority. She was apologetic but there was nothing that could be done to salvage the evening.
My husband was so upset and offended he didn't want to go fearing similar treatment somewhere else.
Personally, as a 40+ year old lawyer, I have never been spoken to in such a rude and condescending way, and I'm a former litigator.
For us to spend so much time, money and effort to visit a place and then be treated in such a fashion was really heartbreaking to me and my husband.
The cherry on the sundae was that when the pizza came out is was cold. After we heated it up in our hotel microwave it wasn't even good.
Because of our experience on Thursday August 24th, neither of us felt comfortable going to the deck to hear the music that night or the next.
I hope the owner of the Gaslight reads this and takes it to heart. To us the Gaslight is no longer a business that should be patronized.