Dogpatch — Restaurant in Central Core

I had super high hopes for this place. 🥹 I read up on patios for dogs in this city and was excited to train my pup to get used to a patio. 😿

I’ll cut to the chase - unless the hostess is an extreme poor fit for waitressing, I can find no other reason for the lack of just treatment I received, other than myself looking like a youngish person of a visible minority. 👎🏼

NOTE I'm sharing only 1/2 of the issues that transpired.

I followed the directions of 2 signs: go to the main entrance to be seated. So there we stood, and Tamara barked at me “dogs aren’t allowed in here!!”

We then sat across from the door to the indoors i.e. we were very visible. I brought treats for my pup, and then fetched a bone in my car so that she would be even more calm.

Later I saw the 1st waitress have treats in her hand as she waited for another dog/group to come onto the patio. Weird, I thought… they couldn't possibly be Dogpatch's right? Why has such a "dog friendly" place had no one greet my dog? 🥺

Now, please understand this: I don’t care for extra treats.. What I do care for is a fair approach to guests.

I ended up being hungry, or stressed at feeling prejudiced against.. so I ordered 3 appetizers. Apx $55 before tips. At the point of payment, I asked my waitress if that 1st lady who had given treats was doing it herself, or if it was that the restaurant had treats? Ofc, it was confirmed to be the latter, and I was apologized to for their oversight.. since I had brought it up 🙄

As I was walking out, with my own bag of treats, and 3 food containers, as well as the leash in another hand, I asked the 1st waitress what her name was. Tamara.

She wanted to know if sth was wrong, and what she did? I responded yes but that I had to go & didn’t wanna make a scene (I tried heading out of the patio space).

She added “but I want to know what I did!! If you’re going to write an email, I want to know what it's about!!!” ..This defensive attitude = rake me into an aggressive altercation right in front of everyone?

When prompted a few more times, I said to her: “while you may want to know that right now, it isn’t necessarily in your purview to know right now.” (In other words, it’s not my job to explain it all to you RIGHT NOW, especially when you’re looking pretty defensive. I should be allowed to leave the establishment & speak to the manager later).

THEN, as I've begun walking again, she says loudly - "I can ask the manager to come out right now!!” ..when this was explicitly NOT what I communicated. Great job with the bait. People start looking.

She retorts further with “well what’s YOUR name then??” in a still louder tone of voice.

And additional heads have turned. And hey thanks for denying my REPEATED requests to not engage w you while you’re sounding defensive.

I turned and started walking again, & she continued attempting to get me to turn around. If her goal was to embarrass me in front of others, she has succeeded masterfully.

This has felt like a very pervasive lack of respect: I had verbally communicated & used several other social cues that I wasn’t up for joining her in w/e her escalated attitude was.

As I am sure she isn't actually lacking in professionalism & emotional awareness in ALL her interactions, then I am left only with the fear that all of this - ALL of this - could’ve only happened because I was by myself, and I'm a female of a visible minority.

Respectfully, please do not* just reactively retort that that isn’t the case. Don't reveal yourself in some way.

For I have not been so disappointed by any other establishment in a long time.

What privilege does she hold to think that her attitude towards & approach with me be above accountability? CONTINUOUSLY questioning me and ignoring my request to not escalate?

I have no doubt that Dogpatch will continue to receive good reviews, and that the owners might even feel sufficiently cushioned to dismiss this issue.

But I stand for behaviour of integrity and respect - and these things having been SO breached by this waitress, this review has...

This used to be a regular spot for me and a friend. Sooo disappointed with our last visit, it will probably be our last. Ordered the French onion soup bread bowl and asked for butter for the sourdough bread. It’s made by Bread and Butter bakery. Server comes back, puts the butter on the table and leaves. My friend asks me to try the butter and I did. It was margarine. Pretty gross and considering “Bread and Butter” made the sourdough, who wants to ruin it with margarine? Anyways, server comes back, my friend asks if it’s margarine and she replied that it was, and appeared to be very embarrassed about it. So she took our plates and the margarine back (we were finished our meals, the bread wasn’t so enjoyable anymore) and the manager came over. The manager tried to tell us that the server “didn’t know”, which we knew wasn’t true because of her response and reaction. When we told the manager that she knew, he insisted that she didn’t and when my friend asked if there was butter in the kitchen at all, he defensively replied “no, have you seen the cost of things lately?” They did offer a $4 discount off the meal to which we declined but they did it anyways but the way this situation was handled was pretty off-putting. I always thought this kitchen used good ingredients so finding out they completely substitute butter with using margarine for their cooking and to serve with the bakery items from “bread & butter” (ironic right!?), I’m not sure I want to come back. It’s a shame, very...

This place is busy! We waited for a few minutes to be seated, and once we were seated didn't receive any introduction or set up for the service.

They do not have paper menus, or at least we were not offered any. There is just a metal QR code to scan. it was difficult to access the menu, though, because both my partner and I experienced a lack of signal in the area. When we did get a signal, my partner's phone wouldn't load it anyway and we had to share my phone.

Our server was very brisk and due to the layout of the restaurant took our orders over my shoulder which made it awkward.

We weren't informed that it was brunch only, and didn't realize there even was a brunch menu as it was located at the very bottom of the menu.

I ordered the eggs benedict. The bottom half of the benedict was incredible - loved the crunchy biscuit and thick bacon. However, the biscuit really needed a good amount of sauce to not be dry, which we didn't get. The eggs were over done and didn't run, and it was more of a hollandaise drizzle than a hollandaise sauce. It made for a dry breakfast.

I also tried to order a Ceasar, but our server had turned to leave before I could ask, and despite trying to gently call her back over as she walked away, she couldn't hear me over the loudness of the space.

Overall, maybe not my choice for a brunch spot. I would try it again, but would recommend going out on a warm day and sitting on the patio for a less awkward...