The Goat's Beard — Restaurant in Radnor Township

UPDATE Sep. 2024: Dropping this from 2 stars to 1 star, given the shocking response from Sean Coyle. I wish I had seen it sooner, as my family and I continued to visit both this location and the Manayunk one.

It's a shame. My review was balanced, despite Sean mocking my "Grumbles" nickname. I gave the location 2 stars, the food 3 stars, and offered to revise upward if they addressed the unethical service charge.

A responsive business can handle customer concerns in a variety of ways. They can adapt, and win a lot of brownie points. They can ignore it and weather whatever minor ding that entails (in this case, WE KEPT SPENDING $!). They can hold firm but have a respectful dialogue.

Or, in Sean's case, they can be insulting and dismissive, literally writing "Don't like it, Don't come in. I'm not going to be PC about this one" [sic] and hiding behind intellectually dishonest fluff about "assist[ing] my hard working guys in the back" and "giving everyone of them a raise" [sic]. Even more dishonest is the claim that using a deceptive mandatory "gratuity" is "what was best for our guest [sic] and best for our guys."

Telling loyal customers who disagree with an OBJECTIVELY controversial practice to "go eat at Live Nation" (an hour away) is just comical. The alternative for someone who objects to service charges is literally...ANY OTHER RESTAURANT IN WAYNE. Why did I bring up LiveNation/Ticketmaster? Because their "junk fees" were notorious they had to cave to government pressure and ditch the practice (see: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/business/live-nation-ticketmaster-fees-biden/index.html).

Congrats, Sean. You're now LESS ETHICAL than Ticketmaster. And you're apparently proud of it because it means you're "not PC?"

See original review for how this "back of house" "gratuity" is unethical on its face, in its (inadequate) disclosure to customers, and its dubious framing as "helping the guys" in the back.

It's not hard to pay staff fairly. Raise their wages. Price your food accordingly. If you really want to give them 2% of all sales, GREAT! Do it! But your way of going about it is dishonest, to the detriment of customers and your competition.

You could've engaged in a respectful back-and-forth, or you could've ignored this and it would be only a minor criticism. But your misguided "I decided to assist my hard working guys" defense, combined with "Don't like it, Don't come in" rudeness means it's impossible for any of our group to come to your restaurants.

ORIGINAL: We would rate this higher, but there's an unethical "2% BOH gratuity" added to checks that you might not even know about.

The restaurant is arguing that it's a gratuity for the "back of the house," framing it as a noble endeavor for staff who don't usually get tips.

But it's not noble. In fact, it's an unethical and deceptive practice.

1. If it's mandatory, it's not a gratuity. It's a service charge. Even if we 100% goes to staff, it's still a service charge.
2. This means the prices are deceptive. Restaurants can make the ethical choice to pay their "BOH" staff fairly -- and integrate that into the pricing. Instead, a $20 item at Goat's Beard really costs $20.40, while competitors display honest prices.
3. Worse, many customers aren't even aware of this. If you come in and order a drink, you just see prices on the wall. $7, $8, etc. for this beer. No disclosure there.

"Service charges" at restaurants are deceptive. That's why customers hate them. There's no way to know if a business redistributes such fees to workers, and it's harder to have faith in businesses that are deceptive in charging those fees.

Just this week a number of widely hated businesses, including Ticketmaster, agreed with the federal government to be more transparent with their prices. They did this because they were going to be regulate if they didn't stop tacking on extra fees. Think about it: Ticketmaster / LiveNation is now being more consumer-friendly than TGB.

I'll gladly update this review and change our rating if they drop this...

Thank you for your response, but I need to clarify a few issues.

A law school ID is not a second form of identification, and your waitress should avoid making assumptions based on a quick glance at someone’s wallet. The issue we had, and the reason for writing this review, was not that we were asked for identification. It was how this situation was handled, both in the restaurant and now online in your response.

Your staff stated my boyfriend’s ID would be scanned, yet the manager mentioned only using Google image comparisons. If the ID had been properly scanned, Google images and what you “felt” about the ID would have been unnecessary, as a scanner provides an objective answer. Businesses serving alcohol are required to verify IDs properly, and failing to do so could pose significant risks for your business. Misrepresenting the use of a scanner could lead to consequences. Also, we were waiting for 20 minutes.

I hope this feedback encourages you to modify and review your policies moving forward.

Went here for dinner, ordered drinks, and was asked to see our IDs by our waitress. Our waitress then had the manager come to our table and told us she "needed to scan our IDs." We gave them to her no problem, but then waited over 20 minutes for her to come back with them. She refused to serve my boyfriend, who is 25, because his ID did not match up with the pictures she saw on Google. Clearly, she did not scan the ID which would have shown it was real and just Googled what a license looks like. Both the waitress and the manager were extremely rude in dealing with what should have been a quick and easy exchange. There was no need to lie about having a scanner, plus making us wait so long to bring them back to our table. Won't be coming...

Food allergies beware…

We told our server before ordering that our two daughters have nut allergies. She said she understood and would let the kitchen know. Our daughter’s plate came out with a side slaw containing nuts. The menu does not state what is in the slaw or that it contains nuts. We, fortunately, saw the nuts and pointed it out to the server. She apologized and said she was sure she told the kitchen. The server agreed to take the plate back and remake it (as well as our other daughter’s sandwich that also contained slaw). We were told the chef would come out to talk to us and confirm what did or did not contain nuts. That did not happen. We did not speak to a chef. We did not speak to a manager. There was a 10% discount on the check but no one took responsibility or indicated that they understood the potential gravity of the situation.

To be fair, the food was good, the server was very nice and the atmosphere lovely. However, the inattention to the serious issue of a nut allergy overshadows any other positives. The restaurant treated bringing nuts out on a plate to an allergic child with no more gravity than forgetting to hold the cilantro on fish tacos (which they also did). This should have been an all hands on deck recognition of a very serious near-miss. Rather than an angry Yelp review, the restaurant could easily have had a 911 call and an ambulance in front of the restaurant. I hope that they will take this opportunity to review the seriousness of food allergies with their staff and re-examine their approach to food safety. Unfortunately, nothing about their response to our situation suggests that they...