Standby — Restaurant in Detroit

My name is Nicole Moss. My client is a New York Best Seller's Author that I arranged to attend your establishment on March 26, 2022, visiting from California. Please forgive me for not revealing her "pen name", sure can understand why. She was treated horribly by two of your staff members. "Standby" was referred by a well-known business owner in your immediate community. After being told of how comfortable the venue was, and how delicious the drinks were, a decision was made to add, "Standby" to her itinerary for the evening. Upon her arrival the security guard stopped her and guest outside and said they were to capacity. She announced that her assistant had made reservations, the security guard went inside, and they followed. The security guard held the curtain up blocking their way inside to speak to who was in charge. She told the security guard not to touch her with the curtain that he was behaving unprofessional and very racists because there were other people coming inside without any resistance from your security guard. Your security guard then told her she needed to "calm down". He is assaulting her with a dirty curtain on five figure mink fur jacket during a pandemic, and she needed to "calm down"? She then began to speak to the woman up from with the blue hair who was very rude, sassy, short, and disrespectful. Management or an owner was requested, but access to either was denied. The woman with the blue hair asked which Owner she was referring to my client did not know. The woman in the blue hair, "well I don't know if an Owner is available there are 3 of them, and I don't know their names!" She then asked for a Manager or a General Manager and was told by the woman with the blue hair, "they are not available, they are handling crisis at the other 3 locations they own and do not have the time to speak with you". My client asked how would she know if they were not available if she didn't even bother to check their availability. The woman with the blue hair was asked her name and responded with, "I don't have to tell you anything!" A request for management was made again and denied a second time. The woman with the blue kept telling my client how many locations the owners have as though she was talking down to her. As though my client is not extremely well off. As though speaking to my client was not an important priority because she is Jamaican and W. African. Finally, after the all of this my client was added to a wait list at 10:12pm. She was told that the wait would be at least one hour. Never was there a text that her table would be available after guests who came after her were accommodated. Although your host did not know, but there were other guests there who were at the bar and confirmed that new guests were coming in and she was never giving a table. She went down to Mootz Pizza + Bar and informed with her wait staff that should be getting a text from "Standby". When text never came, waitress asked was my client still going to "Standby" before she put in another drink order. My client said that the lady with the blue must of given away her spot on list. She then informed my client what an awful attitude the lady with blue hair has and, that she has and that she use to work at Mootz Pizza + Bar.

I have waited patiently response from and have received known to date, March 28, 2022

UPDATED RESPONSE FROM NICOLE MOSS IN PICTURES BELOW...

Somehow, in all of our Detroit food adventures we had never been to the Standby until this past Saturday night. Finding out about Matty Matheson redoing the menu had a large part in our making a point to and let me just say, it did not disappoint!! I’ll be honest, I wasn’t super excited about going. I thought it was going to be cool concepts that weren’t able to be followed through on and that was not the case!! It was all fantastical. Every. Single. Thing. We had:

Crispy Pork Belly - this is the best dish I’ve had in a while. All of the flavours are there and I said I needed to bring my daughter for this dish and this dish alone. Coconut Shrimp & Jerk Mayo - this was so so so so so good. The shrimp were huge and perfectly cooked and breaded and the jerk mayo was really cool. In my opinion there was a mistake made on this batch as it tasted crazy heavy on the nutmeg and we have a deal that we have to go back and try it again and see if I’m right. Bluefin Tuna - this was awesome and all of the flavours and textures were perfect. Loved pistachios in there. Great call. Smashed Cucumber - this had all of the flavours I love. Like: chili crisp, cilantro and a soy cured egg! The size of the chunks of the cucumber were sort of strange as they were ginormous and took away from the flavours being involved in every bite. But anything with chili crisp and cilantro are a win in my book. Bistro Burger & Fries - this one is a sleeper hit to me because I never care about burgers and got this solely for my partner and the fries looked like what I called “basic hoe” fries but they tasted EXACTLY like perfectly done McDonald’s fries and that blew me away. Size. Texture. Saltiness. Everything. Crazy. And the burger was perfectly done and cooked and the bun was perfect and crispy from the grill on the inside and super soft and wondrous on the outside. To impress me with a burger is tough and it was accomplished. Spaghetti a Limone - yeah. We decided to finish off our huge meal with pasta. Lol. I was honestly scared of it and thought I wouldn’t be able to have more than one bite and want to die after it but it was so damn good and perfectly done that I ate my half no problem. Fairly light for a cream sauce. Lemon component was just enough and the pasta itself was exactly right. Like exact el dente masterpiece. Drinks: Spicy Margarita - fantastic. the second Mezcal drink in the “radiant” section - it was SO good. Like so good. I could have had 3 of those. The Last Man (or something like that). The one with shawarma spice in it. Had to try it because of that and it was a really cool drink. I loved it. This was maybe the best meals and drinks and atmosphere and service combos we have had all year. Our server, Sky, was the most knowledgeable ever. She knew everything there was to know; about the dishes, the drinks, the new vs old menu, the chefs, all of it. Sky was the most fun and kind and attentive and she had the best way of wording what we had just experienced, that the food had now risen to the level the drinks were already at and we couldn’t agree more. Spot on.

The funny thing, the only reason I can’t say it was THE best all year, was Prime Seafood in Toronto (also, Matty Matheson’s) was probably better, but standby has it beat on drinks fo sho.

Yadda yadda, you have to eat at the...

If walking into an ambiance of high class society with someone condescending your every statement, Standby is the place for you. If you enjoy a wonderful spirits served with a side of third world service, Standby is the place for you. If you believe the establishment is always right and the customer is always wrong, Standby is the place for you. I’ve never been treated so poorly by an establishment with such rave reviews. I used to frequent Standby often when they were still establishing their name. They used to serve pheonominal cocktails with great finger food. They used to treat every customer as if they were their last. I’ve now realized with the Standby I used to love is no more. I’ve come to understand it is a place where you’re just another number on a waiting list with no regards to their own mistakes. Unfortunately the hostesses don’t care about the quality of service they’re SUPPOSED to provide. Instead they care about demeaning you even if the mistake made is their own. I will never go back to Standby as it’s turned into another corporate establishment, hell bent on only making money. It’s sad to see such a promising speakeasy go down in flames by the level of service they provide.

My party of four showed up, walked in, and put our name in for a reservation. The hostess assured me the wait was at least an hour and a half. She sent me a text confirming our reservation wait time was 90 Minutes. She also made mention I’d receive a text when my table was ready. My party and I decided to visit another establishment to kill the time. As we were thirty minutes into our wait, I received a text message and a phone call notifying me our table was ready. The message read, “We are ready for you at Standby! Need a few minutes? Text us "2". Decided not to come? Text us "3"!”. My party and I just ordered drinks and weren’t ready to leave yet. I texted back “2” TWICE to let Standby know I wasn’t ready yet and needed more time. I received no text message back but thought it was normal. My party and I left the establishment we were at and headed over to Standby. Upon arriving, the hostess informed me they had a ten minute no response rule.(This means if they don’t get communication within 10 minutes they will give your table away.) With this information, they had mention they gave my table away since they hadn’t heard any respond. I mentioned that I texted the number “2” TWICE and even showed them my phone. The hostess’ proceeded to not do anything to remify the situation. They told us to wait another ten minutes until another table’s party doesn’t show up. Ten minutes into the wait, my party went up to the front to claim our table as we felt we were wronged and they were making it right. Come to find out, they gave our table away to a larger party. The hostesses assured us to stay as she made promise of another table coming up. At that point my party and I were so disgusted we decided to leave and all wrote reviews to shed light on how you should never visit Standby. This place is a garbage dumpster where you’ll have better luck spontaneously combusting before you get treated right. If you made it this far you’re a trooper and I applaud you. Seriously don’t go here it’s the third time I’ve been treated like this...