N M.
Google
This time, it was a one and done experience... and here's why:
My husband and I walked in celebrating our 5 year anniversary. We were excited because for over a year now, we have been looking for this place, trying to find an amazing arugula martini that we had two years prior. Back then, we came in after the flower show on a whim and ended up leaving without either of us remembering the name of the bar. Fast forward to yesterday, my husband is all giddy because he found the bar and saw that they still had this arugula martini on the menu. Heck YES!
The place just opened, and we go in and sit at their bar. We ask the bartender for two arugula martinis explaining how excited we are to have them and why. She makes a concerned face, asks us to wait, then returns to let us know that she would be able to make those for us. SCORE!
We are finally sipping on these martinis, taking in the moment. It was fun to think about how we had been on this lengthy journey of finding this bar from 2 years ago, and now here we are!
A young lady comes in and sits a couple seats over, so far enough that we all have space, but close enough to hear conversation. She asks for an arugula martini and the bartender says, "Sorry! All out. Honestly, the arugula isn't any good." My husband and I look at each other and look at our martinis. The girl then asks for a recommendation for which martini she should go with instead, in which this genius of a bartender answers with, "If it were me, I would go with one of our glasses of wine. This is a wine bar, ya know? And, if you flip to the front of the menu, you'll see we have happy hour going on right now." Now, as someone who has been in the customer service industry their whole life, who has worked in many different areas of the hospitality industry primarily food and beverage, I found all sorts of wrong with this interaction.
Is it a wine bar? Yes. Do you have drinks listed on your menu that are NOT wine? Yes. The martinis were no less than $14 a pop. The HH glasses of wine were $6. This young lady really wanted a martini, yet the bartender coaxed her out of her desired drink of choice, NOT because the bartender is passionate about selling her wine, but because she's LAZY and didn't want to exert any effort. Couple that with, her selling us our arugula martinis with shotty ingredients instead of being honest with us, and I was no longer wanting to stay. I did NOT want to give this person any more of our money.
What she should have told us is, "Hey listen, I know you've been on the hunt for these martinis however, today the arugula isn't looking so fresh. Would you maybe want to try something else instead?" Let US make our choice. We are chill and reasonable people who frequent the city often. We would have understood, ordered something else, and have tried again some other time. The mission of finding this bar was more fun to us, than the consumption of this arugula martini.
From a business standpoint, the house makes less money. My husband and I like to throw back a couple, and so we ended up taking our business around the corner. Not only was our tab WAY cheaper than it would have been, but so was the young lady's who sat by us. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the bartender and the business make more money if $14 martinis are sold over $6 glasses of wine.
Two years ago, when we wandered into this place, our server was amazing. Food was great. OBVIOUSLY, the drinks were great lol. The experience we had yesterday was absolutely horrible.
The bartender never came back to us. Not to check on our drinks. Not to see how we were doing. Not to ask if we wanted to maybe order food, or even if we wanted a second drink. I had to ask HER during one of the fleeting moments she was rushing past us for the check. Rushing where? To hang at the service area with the waitress and the manager(?).
Our check was just a little over $30. We paid and like I mentioned earlier, wandered into Oyster House where the service was AMAZING. We had 2 more drinks each and ordered a couple apps :)
