Meadowlark Bar — Restaurant in Denver

Friday night one of the bartenders was acting like he was intentionally ignoring me. I had been waiting for a while. Every time he looked my direction, he'd turn around to serve a group that had just walked up to the bar. When he did it a third time, I had to say something: "I'm sorry, I've been waiting. We were here first." I've done this before, I've seen lots of other people do this before. What I haven't seen is a bartender get belligerent, unprofessional, and rude.

"This isn't a DMV," he growled. "If you want, I can just not serve you." I get no one likes being called out, I've worked in the service industry for years and there is never an excuse to treat a customer with rudeness.

I don't know why he felt I didn't belong at his bar, or if he intended to give me that impression. His behavior from the moment I walked up to the bar gave me the impression he didn't want me there and his comment cemented it. I'm a brown mixed race woman, engaged to a white man. I'd like to believe this bartender was just upset I questioned him. But, it's hard to ignore that at the time I was these only brown person waiting at the bar; the only person he actively ignored, and the only person he got belligerent with. I know my ambiguous racial appearance can make people uncomfortable; I know it can make people treat me differently; I know some people are uncomfortable seeing a white guy with a brown woman. No one is immune to acting on implicit anti-black biases: not my father, nor my fiance, not even myself. But we all have to try and do better, to challenge ourselves to see each other on our own terms.

In the end, it doesn't matter if his belligerent rudeness was racially motivated or not; his behavior was unacceptable. It cost his co-bartender part of her tip and it lost the Meadowlark a customer.

I will never go to the Meadowlark again. I'd rather hangout at the DMV, the...

The Monday jazz jam is run by this little keyboard guy who is a control freak. A nice man, who is a pro Latin jazz drummer came to jam. Two weeks he waited. A friend who has seen him play finally asked, why cant he jam? The skinny little keyboard guy say's " Don't want this to turn into a chucky cheese jam. Well, to the surprise of all,, when they let him in,, he was incredible playing that Latin Jazz. The place applauded, and you can see the keyboard guy acted like he was mad at him. The drummer comes up to him and said, " I was honored to have played with you". Keyboard guy put his best BS smile on,,, and " yeah dude cool. Its a shame how this jam host, acts like its all about him. All he does is let the same people, who know the same songs, play all the time. Its like if you want to jam,,, you have got to play songs I know. Its a jam!!!!!!!! The drummer asked them if they could play in 7/8,, or Afro Cuban 6/8 or anything, but the same dam songs they play week after week. They looked at him like,,,, what? you mean free jam? Its a shame. The drummer guy said that all the house band guys are nice people, But keyboard guy is a little control freak. Be nice to new comer's, you never know how good...

Before I was racially profiled I went to meadowlark, once if not twice a week. The day the horrific incident happened, I was there for their Goodness Sundays which is the main reason why I go to that establishment. I was accused of stealing food from the establishment. What boggles my mind is the fact that if I did steal food, how come they didn’t confront me then and there?! I stepped outside of the vicinity, yet still in front of the bar, so If I did take food, they had every opportunity to stop me. Instead they took a lie from two random persons who supposedly saw me steal food. Sadly, they got me confused for another black woman. I am disgusted and hurt by this establishment. You would think they would conduct their business fairly and civilly. That they would find a way to resolve an issue that should have not gone this far. As an alternative, they treated me like an animal, like my money and energy spent there was worth nothing. Can’t imagine coming back to this institution. I tried contacting the Owner/Manager, and gotten...