Lago L.
Yelp
I went to Rusty Cannon last week to get a beer after a long day of work. The service there has never been particularly great, but I usually go there with a few friends, so it doesn't really bother me. This time I went by myself, so I got a better perspective at how bad it is.
On that particular night, they were having some sort of poker tournament. I sat down and for the life of me, I could not get any of the waiting staff's attention. Finally, one of them saw me and I ordered a Lonestar.
When I finished the first one, I tried again to get somebody's attention, but it almost seemed intentional how they were ignoring me. They almost refused to look in my direction. I kept on trying to make eye contact, I raised my empty bottle, I kept saying "excuse me," but nothing. At some point some big burly biker looking guy walked up to the bar and he was served immediately. So were a couple of gentlemen to my right. I finally got up and really raised my voice. I said "excuse me, can I please get a beer!" The waitress, I think her name was Lindsey looked at me in disgust and asked, "what are you having?" (even though I'm standing there with a Lonestar in my hand)
By this time, I should've just gotten out of there, but after I finished my second beer, I decided I was going to have one more. I started wondering if me being one of the only few hispanics in there had something to do with it, but I thought to myself how ridiculous that would be here in Austin, right? Well, then I noticed another hispanic guys trying to get a bar tender to refill his glass of coke. They refused to make eye contact with him and he actually followed one of the bar tenders to the opposite side of the bar to get noticed. The bar tender finally looked up at him in disgust and reluctantly filled his glass.
I decided I was going to have one more and close out. But here we go again. I kept getting passed over. I finally got the bar tender's attention and I said, can I please get a Lonestar and my tab. He got me my Lonestar, but did not get my tab. I figured, I still had some time before I finished my beer, so I didn't say anything until I finished it. When I was done, I asked him, "sir can I please get my tab." He said, "will you bear with us, we are busy with poker night." At this point, I just lost my temper and I angrily told him "I asked you once before!"
The next part, I am not proud of, but I am not apologizing and I am not taking it back... I was just very angry. I asked him " are you all not serving minorities tonight?" He shook his head and just walked off. He didn't even give me my tab. At this point another bar tender walked up and noticed I was upset. He asked what I needed. I said, "I just need to get my tab so I can get out of here." I think at that point he asked me if I was okay... I said, "you all have been treating me like I'm some [slur for a Mexican person] sitting here]. He seemed shocked by my reaction, but he kept his cool. He gave me my tab, I made sure to put $0 for a tip and got out of there.
I don't know what might have been going on that night. I will say that I will NEVER set foot in there again. Maybe I was completely wrong as to what happened, but perception is reality.