Atwater in the Park — Restaurant in Grosse Pointe Park

Late December I went to ‪Atwater Brewery‬ in Grosse Pointe for a drink only to be racially profiled and had the police called in an attempt to have me escorted out of the business by their bar manager, Amber. I left without incident but not without humiliation, disappointment and anger. I reported this incident and recently received a letter. The apology was just as insulting as the actual incident. The letter was void of any mention to the discrimination and extreme measures of calling law enforcement for something unwarranted, and grossly undermined the incident to Customer service issues due to volume. The owner didn’t respond or acknowledge my initial complaint and blocked me on LinkedIn.

The night of events began with the question from Amber the bartender. “Are you eating?” My guest and I replied, “Yes.”  She slid the menus in front of us. A few minutes passed and Amber the bartender returns to ask if we are ready to order. Looking at the new menu I hesitated just to be interrupted with “I have other things to do. So I’ll come back!” Taken aback by her impatience, I just proceeded to rush my decision. A minute goes by and a lively group of 5 walks in. They are immediately met with pleasantries from Amber the bartender, menus, silverware and water. My guest asked me with a confused look, “Why didn’t we get any wa....” as soon as she could finish her sentence Amber the bartender walked up to us and said “ They got water because they asked, you didn’t.” And proceeded to walk away. I asked a nearby waiter could we move elsewhere. He meekly responded “its a busy night”. I then asked, “can I speak to the manager?” and he replied “she is the manager”.  I saw how stressful and uncomfortable the situation made him so I just said “thank you brother, it’s not your fault.”

At that point I was pretty fed up and asked for my order to be cancelled. She yelled in the middle of the bar pit. “CANCEL THEIR ORDER! THEY DONT WANT THIER FOOD! THEY WANT TO CANCEL IT!” As if she was intent on humiliating us in front of the other guests. I looked around to see who was witnessing this and noticed we were theonly African American patrons there. I saw the open mouths of shock on the other customers faces. Amber immediately brought over the bill and I asked Amber the bartender “What did we do to you? I’ve noticed you treating everyone else with great customer service expect us. Why?“ I assumed this was Amber the bartenders “Ahaa” Moment because she took a step back, clapped her hands and said  “Ohhhh you’re THOSE type of people!” I asked in shock, “What type of people are those?” My guest interrupted by saying “Stop, you’re embarrassing yourself” to Amber.  Amber then went on insulting my guests appearance. I was floored.  I even looked around for help. I was in shock this was happening!  When I wrapped my head around the reality of the situation all I heard was “I don’t have to serve you and I would appreciate it if you leave my establishment.” I said, “You’re kicking us out of here because of your customer service? You don’t own this place.” She replied, “I do, and I am calling the Grosse Pointe police!” She got on her cell phone and described our appearance and added we were two unruly customers as she yelled at us walking out,  “Yes I’m calling the police” with a pose and a smile.

In this climate and in the Grosse Pointe area at a bar that is frequented by many ethnicities, Atwater should take better care in the way it handles and informs situations to the police. We are more than just a hostile narrative people paint our skin to be. We are not “those type of people” because we want the same service and pleasantries every one else receives. Are we asking for too much? Is there an extra charge for receiving unbiased customer service and...

cross contaminated food

Three of us came to have lunch. We ordered drinks and looked at the menu. My girlfriend informed the staff that she had celiac disease and ordered a burger with a gluten free bun, no pub sauce (contains gluten) with mayo. Requested no fries (shared fryer contains gluten). They offered to substitute with chips, but those also contain gluten so we Declined. The meal we came out and there were fries on the side, touching the burger. We asked to have a new burger because the fries have gluten. They said they could take the fries off the plate, but they have already touched the burger at this point and her gluten allergy could be triggered. Someone came back from the kitchen and apologized, offered to remake the order and gave her a free drink. Everything seemed good, but the new burger came out and had no mayo. It’s not really pleasant to eat a dry burger so we all waited another 10 min to get the staffs attention and ask for the mayo that was supposed to be on the burger. They said they would grab some for us. 15 min later, we still haven’t gotten a mayo, her burger is cold and me and our friend have only eaten half our meal because we are trying to be polite so we can enjoy our lunch together. We decide we can’t finish our meal and will find somewhere else to eat. I ask for the bill so we can get going and find food. Another 10 minutes goes by and I walk up to the bar and ask for the bill. We get the bill and the staff removed her burger from the bill and took another 10% off. In reality we didn’t even get to eat our food as we were waiting for the rest of the meal to be served. We drank our drinks and left 3 uneaten meals at the table. We paid $69.65 + the $14 tip as we don’t want to be rude. We paid $73.65 for a few drinks and half 2 eaten meals

This was a horrible experience. I feel ripped off at this point. We come to this restaurant 2-3 times a month and have never had a bad experience, but after this time I’m not sure we...

Great location and ambiance (good live music and place was buzzing) good food and drink choice Reason for 1-Star Rating was due to the service we received on Saturday evening. We reached the location and got a table in few minutes. ordered few drinks and appetizers right away. Out of the 2 appetizers, we received the fries within 10 minutes. But the cinnamon bites took longer. I asked about it after 45 minutes and the waitress at the bar told me that they are backed up quite a bit and have 3 cooks for ~75 orders and it should be ready in few more minutes. They weren't taking more orders as well. Even though We received our fries pretty quickly, I felt like it is understandable that other dishes can take longer. So our group waited another 45 minutes and I went over to ask about the order. The same waitress told me that its still not ready. After almost over 1.5 hours and few drinks down and no food besides fries shared among 5 people, I just wanted to cancel the order and leave. But the waitress checked at the back and told me that it will be ready in couple of minutes. So we hung around for another 15-20 minutes. Still no Cinnamon bites. Finally, frustrated and hungry, I went over to the counter, again, to cancel and the waitress finally handed me the bites. I understand the employees of the restaurants at busy hours are super stretched but I don't appreciate the 2 hour wait for a small appetizer and not being able to order more food. Especially, if it was not going to be ready, then please say so then we can make sure we are not hungry and...