Old Town Bar — Restaurant in New York

I visited this establishment a few months ago with a friend and had a poor experience with my waiter who was a older white female. This was in the first 2 minutes of sitting down, so i moved to the bar and the bartender was pleasant and saved the evening. But last night my friend suggested we go here and I immediately remembered my last time being here and reluctantly agreed to go. AGAIN. SAME WAITER With the same nasty attitude all in the first 60 seconds of serving me. I am a young black girl and I immediately felt her negative energy. I was sitting in a booth. There had to be no more than 7 people in this bar/restaurant at the time. First thing she says is “are you waiting for other people?” I said yes they should be here shortly. She said “well how long?” I said..... “shortly.” She says “well if my boss comes down and sees one person taking up a booth ill get in trouble. I said “well like i said... people will be joining me shortly” After about 10 mins of awkward exchanges over drink recommendations, 1 of 3 of my guests shows up. Waitress comes back and gets her drink (with a smile now ill add) and says “it’s 10$ per person to sit here.” Mind you drinks are 7$ and up and we had already had one that was half empty so once the rest of my party arrived I’m SURE we would get another round. But anyway, something didn’t seem right about that. So my friend asks one bartender and i ask another and neither of them said they knew anything about that policy. Mine said “i don’t do anything with the tables.” And on top of that i see nothing but parties of 2 in all of the surrounding booth. My friend and I are both people of color but she is white passing so I knew this was a race issue. I ask her to send the manager to our table in hopes that maybe he can explain this policy. This is where things REALLY went left. The manager who was old, white, and large immediately came over on the defense. He doesn’t even ask what the issue is before rambling off about their “policy”. He also refuses to address me directly. He’s only looking at my friend and acts like I’m not even there. At this point another guest in my party shows up and is just stunned by the managers body language and behavior. My friend cuts him off and says “hey, would you like to get our side of the story now?” And he says ok and then I say “And you can address me because I’m actually the one who called you over here.” He just starts SHOUTING at me going on and on but finishes with “and if you don’t like it, you can leave” .... and I followed with “gladly”. A simple discussion could have prevented this entire situation. As I’m collecting my belongings the waitress comes over in a scuff and starts clearing the table (or our two empty drinks I might add) as if to rush us out faster. It was just unbelievable and sad. This place is trash. Blatant racist trash, and I would discourage anyone from ever wasting your...

If you want to save yourself the read here it is: TERRIBLE SERVICE. GOOD FOOD. We had the wings because we heard they were good. The beer selection was smaller but it seems on par for the average bar in New York City and they had a few good brews. The problem was the service. We walked in and stood unwelcomed for a bit. So we decided to take a seat in a booth. The waitress came and handed us menus without so much as a greeting and walked away. 10 minutes later she came back and asked what we wanted to drink. We submitted our drink and food order. The turn around on the food and drinks was quick but she couldn't remember which beer was which and when the food was brought out she dropped a wing and offered no apology. She just took a few napkins off our table and cleaned it off the floor and walked away. She never came by to check if we needed anything. My glass sat empty half of the meal and was never asked if I wanted a refill. She was very quick to clear our table. All she did the whole time was pace back and forth and chat with customers at the bar. After she cleared our last dish we waited for our check for another 10-15 minutes while there were customers waiting on our table. We finally flagged her down and she brought our check. I immediately pulled out my card and put it on the edge of the table. ANOTHER long period of waiting and she didn't show up. She was, again, hanging out behind the bar, pacing back and forth, and not attending to her customers. While waiting for her to come back we watched as the bartender berated a foreign customer as the customer was leaving. That is neither professional nor appropriate. He could have just spoke to the customer about the issue but he chose to insult him in front of the entire bar. After waiting a while longer we went to the bartender so he could close out our check. He did and it was the ONLY time in my life where I left no gratuity. I can't say that in my travels around the country and world that I've had a waiter/waitress who cared so little about...

Stopped by this afternoon to grab some beers and lunch. I asked the bartender if they were doing table service outside. He cheerfully replied, "Sure, take any seat anywhere you like," and gestured toward the outdoor seating. We went outside and took our seats.

What happened next was the most bizarre interaction I have had with a waitress in my eight years living in the city.

After about ten minutes the waitress approached our table. Before we could ask for menus or place our drink order she began chastising us for not following the bar's procedure. She commenced to give us a lengthy explanation about how she has a specific work flow, and that we must check in with the appropriate people in order to be served. As she rambled on about her process and how we failed to follow the rules, I am thinking to myself that this crazy person is about to throw us out. I interrupted her to let her know that we did check in with the bartender before we took our seats. She responded, "I checked with my colleague, and you did not."

I am not a big fan of wait staff setting demands, accusing me of lying, and barking at me in front of other customers. As I stood to leave she smugly asked us if we wanted menus, and I said, "No, we are out of here." She shrugged her shoulders and smirked indicating that she couldn't care less whether we stayed or left.

I almost feel bad for the poor review, but the bar was not busy at all at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. She did not seem busy, harried, or stressed, and it seemed to me this is probably how she regulary interacts with customers and was not just simply having a bad day. Even if she had mistaken us for clueless tourists that is no way to treat customers.

It's a shame we won't be returning to what we had hoped would be a cool neighborhood bar just steps away from our home. We'll stick with our other options...