Thiago F.
Yelp
How on earth can ANYONE think that that hostess is fit for the position? The person who hired that woman really needs to rethink their evaluation criteria.
I arrived at the café with my family at 2pm on Memorial Day. My mother-in-law was not feeling well, and we took some time to decide if it would be a good idea for her to be outside in the heat. I smiled at the hostess and said we would need a minute, and she passive aggressively looked and let out a light sigh, as if we were breaking some sacred museum café rule. Note that there was no one waiting in line. It felt as if we were bothering her, or as if we were getting into a snobby rich playboy club in the Meatpacking, which I'm sure is not what the Whitney wants. After a few minutes, she asked us if we had reached a conclusion (again, passive aggressively), we said we had, and said she'd call us in 10 minutes.
Her attitude was that of an impatient 15-year-old brat. I told the woman who was showing people to their tables the hostess had been rude, and she apologized on her behalf and went back to her position, right beside the hostess. I believe she mentioned our conversation to her.
Because of that bad first impression, we decided to give up on our table, and when we were on our way out, both hostess and the other employee were giggling. I approached the hostess and said she had been very rude, and she responded she wasn't in a confrontational tone. I left it at that, went downstairs, and wrote a comment card, which is yet to be responded.
I will definitely go back to the Whitney because their collection is amazing, and all the other employees were not only very well trained and nice, but also super helpful when they overheard me complain about that episode. However, while the café insists on hiring spoiled, unprofessional people with a teenage attitude, I won't go past the 7th floor.
P.S.: Reading other comments here on Yelp, I noticed I was not the only one who thinks the hostess, who is supposed to welcome customer, is actually sending them away.
UPDATE: After filling out a complaint form at the museum, and emailing their HR, the only response I got was that my message was sent to whoever is in charge of the restaurant. The restaurant never contacted me, so yeah, I guess a one-star review is more than enough.