Analogue — Restaurant in New York

Every negative review here about the manager is true (filter by most recent reviews or by manager). My friends and I had a horrific experience here last night.

Two of us arrived at the bar first and spoke to the hostess, who told us that she did not have a table for 5 of us, but that we could have space by the bar in the back room. That was fine, and major props to the bartender working all by himself in the back room on a Saturday evening - he was about the only good part of this place. When the rest of our group arrived, some of our friends put their belongings on some empty chairs next to the bar, so we could use the seats/space. However, while waiting for our drinks, the manager came over and told up to move them. He barely made eye contact and was so short and rude in his tone. We asked if someone was going to be seated there and he said yes, but the seats remained open for at least another 45-60 minutes.

Some time later, 3 of the members of my group went to use the restroom. Since it was a single bathroom, 2 waited outside while the third was inside. While waiting, a bartender came up and tried to cut in line. My friends did not realize he was a bartender, a politely informed him that someone was in the restroom, and they were waiting in line. Had he just informed them that he was a bartender and needed to get back behind the bar quickly, they of course would have let him go. Instead, he gave them dirty looks and made an extremely rude and sexist comment to them. When my friend defended herself by simply telling him he sucked, he went and tattled to the manager.

Shortly after the manager came to our table, told us that we were rude to the bartender, and we should leave. When my friends asked if he had questioned the bartender on what he had said/done to lead to her comment, he simply kept repeating that we were rude. When my friend who had not been in line for the restroom stood up to ask what was going on (it was loud and we were seated on very low couches), the manager yelled at her and called her aggressive. Important to note that the two of my friends he yelled at are women of color, and he seemed to focus 100% of his anger on them. At the end of his ranting, he turned to me, a white woman, and asked if I was ok, which was so inappropriate and weird. When I then stood up and asked what he was talking about, he walked away.

We talked to another employee there as we were paying the bill and trying to leave, and they confirmed that this was not an isolated incident and that the manager is absolutely a misogynist. It’s clear he’s also very racist.

There are so many other lovely bars in the area, there’s no need to spend your time...

When we walked in, we told the manager/host we had 3 tables of 4. He immediately said - sorry we can't do that and asked us to leave. We calmly spoke with him to understand and he said "we don't do tables together like that so if we wanted to be seated we would have to be seated in separate rooms. At first we thought this to be because of spacing, but as we sat down we noticed the entire back room was virtually empty. It seemed the host wanted to "teach us a lesson". We weren't aware of the 6 person table policy (only learned of this after reading other reviews about the manager) which could have been communicated to us instead of immediately shutting us down. Several staff members were clearly uncomfortable with how the manager was handling the situation as it was very hostile to us and the staff; but clearly could not try to reason with the man as he honestly seemed unhinged. We sat down to order drinks in separate rooms and the ambiance was already off because of an overly aggressive welcome from the manager. One friend walked in to go to her table in the back and the manager was extremely rude, aggressive and in her face - borderline too far. She was simply saying hello to her friends on the way back to her other table. This ultimately felt like an escalation on part of the manager. We ultimately left. The serving staff was very kind and welcoming. There seems to be an overly aggressive manager who runs the place who makes the staff seem extremely uncomfortable. If he's the owner, it's unfortunate for the staff. If the owners see this, I would survey your staff as they honestly seemed very shaken by the man. There seems to be a very hostile culture and work environment there, as well as for the guests per other folks experience here. Click "manager"...

This review is based on going here 20+ times. Stopped here with coworkers once a week, from Spring-Fall in 2023, during happy hour. We usually went the same day/time each week, same drinks ordered (creatures of habit).

The quality of their happy hour drinks varies WILDLY depending on the bartender -- for the last few weeks they have been bad enough to send back multiple times. These are not custom drinks, they are common drinks right off their cocktail menu and there is no consistency, even between 1st and 2nd round of the same drink. I don't think they have recipes for their cocktail menu, the bartenders just do whatever they want (and often forget entire ingredients). We have also rarely seen the same bartender(s) on a regular schedule -- not sure if that means it's a revolving door or they have a dozen on staff. If you get lucky with the bartender, you'll probably get one of the great drinks shown in some of the reviews.

Agree with the other reviews that the managers/hosts are bizarrely rude and obsessed with tables/seating, even if you show up early (before 5pm) and the place is empty. Usually you get seated and the only comment from the host will be "Here is your table, you have a maximum of 2 hours." We have rarely stayed close to 2 hours and are usually wrapping up and heading to dinner elsewhere as it's starting to get busy (6pm). We have seen people get admonished for putting their coat/bag on a stool, even when the place is 95% empty and there are many open stools still.

The happy hour drink/food menu was very attractive in the past, and it's a pretty happening place when it starts to get busy in the evenings. However, you can probably find somewhere else nearby that's more consistent and has...