The Rusty Melon — Restaurant in Erie

I will have to think long and hard about going into this place again. I am a 100% disabled veteran who lost friends during my tour in Afghanistan. Today is Memorial Day. In their memory, every year I go to a random bar, sit down 1 seat from the end and order 2 beers. 1 for me and one for my fallen brothers. I sit there quietly and drink 1 of them, and then I leave the other one on the bar top and lean the chair in front of it against the bar so nobody can sit there, because that seat is taken by my fallen brothers. So I went in there and sat down wearing veteran attire from head to toe, minding my own business, the bartender came up to grab my order and I ordered 2 beers. She said she could only give me one and when the other person arrives she can check their ID and give them theirs. I kindly said,” I’m sorry ma’am, there’s nobody else coming, and I’m only drinking one of the 2. She then proceeded to tell me that regardless of my intention, if I don’t have 2 ID’s I can’t have 2 beers at one time. So I took off my fallen soldier remembrance bracelet with all of one of my fallen brothers information to include date killed in action and said,” here’s his ID, I think he deserves a beer, don’t you? She still refused. So I ended up having to order a water and a beer which she reluctantly brought me. I stared directly at her as I set the beer aside for my brother and drank my water. On Memorial Day, that had to be the most un-American and disrespectful experience I’ve ever had while trying to honor my fallen...

We came in with a group of seven people to celebrate our friend’s birthday. When I asked for a table of seven, the hostess said we could sit whenever we wanted, so I asked if we could push two high top tables together in the bar. Another employee, Maggie, came over and loudly said “I HATE that idea.” So she suggested putting us at a low top table for 6 and squeezing in an extra chair for our seventh. Not only was it a short, tiny table but it was in a side room that was quiet and had zero ambiance. Since 5/7 of us are over 6 feet tall, we didn’t want to squeeze into a child’s table for 6. So I told her we would prefer to just sit at two separate high top tables in the bar. She said “ugh, FINE, we’ll just push them together”. I said no, it’s fine, we can sit at two separate tables. And she said “nope, we’ll just do this and disturb EVERYONE else.” She then was our server. Although she did get much nicer for the rest of our visit, she slammed our drinks down on the table and charged us for doubles that tasted like just mixer. We couldn’t even finish our margaritas because they tasted like straight roses lime, even after adding an extra shot of tequila. All of us are career bartenders so we do know a thing or two about how a drink should taste. The food was decent, nothing special. My partner really enjoyed his burger. As for atmosphere, we felt awkward and unwelcome the entire time due to Maggie’s greeting so we didn’t really enjoy ourselves. Definitely a terrible choice for a birthday dinner....

I have been to both rusty melon locations, and I enjoy the atmosphere and the food. However I will not being going back after my last 2 experiences. When I went to the new location to check it out it was a free for all. There were lots of customers coming in without a mask, no one would put a mask on to use the restroom, and who appeared to be the manager was standing at the register talking to a guest for about 10 minutes, neither of them wearing a mask. So last night I went to the Erie location hoping for better results, but it was even worse. I now know that no one in the back of house is wearing a mask, and the servers either had their nose out or their mask under their chin the whole time. On top of that it took 10 minutes to be greeted at our table, and I actually never received my bill, after being done eating for about 20 minutes I just left cash on the table and left. There seems to be no managment of the employees whatsoever, I am very disappointed in customer service and willingness to follow the rules in place to even be open right now. I work in healthcare and regularly wear a mask for 12 to 13 hours straight, there is no excuse for the lax adherence to the rules, close your doors if you...