Thirsty Whale — Restaurant in Town of Minoqua

We come up for 2 and 1/2 months from Florida yearly. The Thirsty Whale has been my wife's favorite place to eat. It has always gone well. She meets friends and she takes family when they are here. 11 days ago my wife and I were eating with a friend from Lac du Flambeau when our waitress went to take the plate away from my wife. The waitress said she needed the table and people were waiting. I shared with her we were not done. She came back maybe 3 to 5 minutes later and was very insistent that we move to the lobby table to finish. We were not at our table for more than 40 minutes including waiting for waitress and ordering. We went ahead in moved into the lobby table to finish eating. I assumed the waitress was new and needed some training. I also look back into the inside dining room and did not see anyone at the table we left.

Two days ago my wife had friends that came up from Green Bay and she meet them for lunch at her favorite place to eat The Thirsty Whale. They waited 30 minutes to get a table. They sat down and ordered. I stopped by to say hi to the group when a lady walked up and began to take the plate away from one of my wife's friend that came up from Green Bay. She said they needed the group to hurry as people were waiting. She came back maybe 5 minutes later an did and said the same. She said we could visit and finish eating at a lobby table near the bar. I asked her if I could speak to the manager as I thought this was very rude as the group was there for less than an hour including waiting for a waitress, ordering and getting drinks, ordering and getting their food. The lady said she was the owner and she did not like any one at a table for over one hour. They were at their table maybe 50 to 55 minutes. Maybe over an hour along with the 30 minute wait. We moved again to the lobby. The friends my wife meet were best friends in high school 40 years ago. They had not seen each other for many years. Unfortunately the visit will mostly be remembered from the owners decision that turning the tables are more important than the customers...

We had dinner on a Friday night which was a busy night. The first half of the service the waitress was fine, but the second half she was short of temper. As we are placing our order one of my kids changed his mind and wanted something else. The waitress said it was too late as we are JUST placing the order. She already sent the order to the kitchen, when she just entered the order seconds prior. How is it too late ?! Later she didn’t serve the order right as she missed some items. She did replaced one of my drinks because I spiller it, which was appreciated but we were unaware, a lot of lack of communication. After paying the bill she came back saying OUT LOUD “I think gave better service that’s that!” and walked away. Well the tip was based on her service! She didn’t do great and we give her an reasonable tip, but less than 15%. We wanted to talk to the manager as her comment and approach was totally inappropriate. The manager stated that they tell their waitresses that if the tip is anything less than 15% the encourage them to go back to the customer. Another person working their joined the conversation, it sure his role though felt it was a freedom of speech issue, as their waitresses has rights even though I had never said anything to personally attack the waitress, he finished by saying “welcome to America, a country of free speech!” Well… what about that welcomes anyone to America when the CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT! Tipping in America is a custom that many other counties don’t do. Literally it is optional and based on the service I or my family personally received. It is a service based industry. The manager implied that the tip (15%) should be obligated! The whole situation went from bad to worse when the manager followed us out by yelling at us and that maybe the next 30 years we don’t need to come back. Only in...

I cannot believe the treatment we just received from a waitress at the THIRSTY WHALE in Minocqua WI. We [along with other customers we met in the parking lot who had the same experience ] were chased down and asked why we didn’t give a bigger tip. We were told by this waitress that her employer encourages them to do this. 😳🤔 I have been in business for 30 years and as a business owner I would never encourage, nor would I tolerate, my employees harassing a customer to get a bigger tip. A tip in Wisconsin is to the discretion of the customer. An 18% -22% tip is a recommendation at best. Though I empathize with waiters and waitresses, it is up to the employer to pay the staffs wage and not become solely dependent on customers and succumb to harassing them. If a tip/gratuity is only acceptable to this establishment based solely upon a percentage of the bill and not actual service then add it to your menu pricing or find another way instead of harassing your guests. Gratuity should be based on service not the amount of money spent between a hamburger or a pricey dinner served. This behavior is despicable and we will not return. Also heard that one of the customers who was harassed contacted the owner and the owner told them if they didn’t want to leave the tip they found to be acceptable to eat at a fast food restaurant! How professional is that?! I will make sure everyone I know is aware of how I and others were treated at this establishment. Very UNPROFESSIONAL. What a shame that a historical Minocqua landmark has resorted to such...