Ana's Cantina — Restaurant in St. Helena

Seasoned professional Chef & Wife (both veterans of the hotel/restaurant industry) discriminated against, mistreated & robbed at Ana's Cantina, St Helena Dec. 12th.. Visited many times, always a joy... This evening, we just can't shake it... My wife had connected with Roxanne during the initial covid lock down as a concerned patron & Roxanne recognized her & happily greeted us & visited a bit.. I ordered a Stoli-rocks, Guinness can & a Bushmills- neat. When she was going to pour the Bushmills in front of me, Roxanne asked "double or single?" I answered "double". We enjoyed our drinks & the conversation, she was busy. Ordered 1 more Guinness & 1 more Stoli-rocks & called for the check. Roxanne delivered the check (s), $65 & $10 saying 'I forgot the other..' Confused by a  $75 bar tab, we asked for an itemized bill & Roxanne shot back 'you were drinking all of those doubles', I corrected her that there was only one Bushmills-dbl, the Stoli-rocks were singles. She then accused us of arguing, causing trouble, being intoxicated & threatened to cut us off (after I called for & had the check in front of me!) A noisy bar & my wife had trouble hearing so she elevated her voice to be heard. Roxanne told me ' I'll deal with you, but not her' 'you're okay, she's causing problems. She was attracting the attention of the bar & really started to paint a bad picture of us for them all. We were shocked by Roxanne's behavior, it made no sense? Other than the fact that when we walked into this locals hangout, all eyes were on us & that didn't let up-EVER. By the way, we're an interracial married couple, I'm White, my wife is a beautiful, sophisticated African-American woman. As much as we were hurt by Rosanne's unwarranted treatment, to de-escalate the situation, we quietly finished our drinks discussing this to ourselves. Roxanne came by again more than once wanting to 'make-up' & put her hand up to 'high five'.. "We're done" I said to her. She persisted, even offered to top off our drinks (she did say she would cut us off-remember?). We paid the bill, a very rare No-Tip, we always tip in cash, never card. Then we left without another word. We decided to contest the charge, feeling we were overcharged, & discovered Roxanne took it upon herself to charge a $16 tip, Straight Theft! Wow... This is still weighing on us heavily & we are both broken hearted. 💔 Of course we will never return to the bar, but then.... I feel we should... if for nothing else "we will not be pushed around by people such as this". It's unfortunate...

We ventured into this establishment and were greeted by Roxy who had 1 other customer in her bar. It was a day that was over 95 degrees and the resort we were staying at offered us a water bottle before they dropped us off downtown. When we entered the restaurant she asked us for our bottles. No problem at all. My sister simply asked a question as to why water bottles were not accepted In a very curious but respectful way. Instead of just answering in a customer service way that their liquor license doesn’t allow outside drinks, Roxy went off in a very aggressive, condescending, insulting way. Asking us where we were from because in California this is the law. She went off on a tangent for over 2 min ending with everyone is hot and bothered trying to make up for her actions. (We are all hot that’s why we had water). After hearing her aggressive explanation and tone I told her she was being very aggressive as we stood up to leave. She told us to never come back and to take our “trashy” selves somewhere else. We aren’t trashy, Roxy. You clearly are. Our family owns a restaurant and we’ve never experienced anything like this. Even your 1 friend/customer said to my sister I’m so sorry!! We expect you’ll have a “trashy” response to this since we’ve seen how professional you are to your other negative reviews. Might need to...

We were really excited to go to this bar for my sister-in-law’s 30th birthday. He checked our ID’s, decided mine was fake since I’m from Kentucky, and kicked us out. I explained that I am, in fact, over 21 and tried to back it up with a photo on my passport. He basically accused me and my boyfriend’s whole family of lying. Tough look for him and a real bummer for what could have been a fun birthday celebration.

I saw a ton of other reviews saying similar things. I was hoping that maybe this bartender was having a bad day, but unfortunately it seems like both the male and female bartenders tend towards rudeness. I hope they actually read these reviews and change their behavior because there is a level of respect that is expected in any interpersonal interactions, even at the most dive-y of dive bars. Customers are not supposed to leave feeling disrespected when they’re been...