Charlies Bar & Kitchen

Extremely disappointed and OFFENDED! My family wanted to enjoy and support this "local" restaurant in the "BRONX". However, after we spent over $1,500 on dinner (over $50 per person) not including all the money our guest spent at the bar, $15 drinks. They charged us an additional $1.00 extra per person for bringing "Wrapped" cake-pops on a stick (lollipops), souvenirs for guest!! How “thirsty” is that?! I didn't make a big deal of it then because I did not want to embarrass my daughter or her guest. To add insult to injury, the restaurant charged for 27 pops when we only had 23. Four extra ppl showed up last minute for dinner that we were not expecting and we didn’t have extra pops; I know this sounds petty but the AUDACITY to charge in the first place, and then do so before taking an accurate COUNT!! At this point it's not about the MONEY it is about the lack of regard or appreciation for the clients business. I called to speak to the owner not to ask for the money back but to let him/her know what had transpired. However the owner did not take my call, the person on the line defended their actions calling it dessert, they said someone get back to me. BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. It was a birthday dinner, for 23 people, with a pre-fixed menu about 55 pp with no desdert. I was trying to be cost effective not trying to cheat them of business. I wanted something nice but honestly could not afford, on top of dinner, to purchase a cake and then pay an additional $3 per person a total of $69 for them to serve it. Charlies Bar and Kitchen charges a $3 per person fee if you bring your own cake. That's their policy if you don’t purchase dessert from them. Some other restaurants do this, no problem, we get it. But we still have a budget so instead we baked cake pops on a stick and wrapped them as souvenirs for guest to take home as a small thank you for coming. Of course we wanted to sing Happy Birthday to my daughter so we created a centerpiece made of "Styrofoam". We decorated it with a martini glass in the center and 2 on the side, we put clear shredding to make it festive looking and bubbly, we placed one of the "wrapped" cake pops in the glass and we glued a party blower, a kids 99 cents birthday hat and stuck it on to the styrofoam, then placed 4 small size candles in the front. It was a prop not a cake; nothing for the wait staff to serve or cut. (See attached photo). We were being creative so that we could sing happy birthday. On a separate plate we placed all of the other "WRAPPED" cake pops for family to take. We NEVER asked for a break on the price of their menu or for anything unreasonable. We asked for a pre-fixed menu for 23 ppl 6:00 on a Sunday 27 people showed you made more money. SHAME on you Charlies Bar & Kitchen your business is in the BRONX. Your clients are a struggling working class community. 27 ppl and I am forwarding this to all of them and I’m asking that they post the review on their social media. I personally will NEVER VISIT OR SUPPORT YOUR restaurant again. To the owner next time consider taking the call when a customer is not satisfied.