Let me start out by saying I have only been here once, but really, that one experience said enough.
We went out for a friend's birthday and as birthdays go, crowds came and went. What with the seemingly spotty service and my impatience in waiting for the waitress to come around, I went and ordered from the bar. The bartender was fairly prompt (sometimes was very prompt, sometimes only somewhat) but was always friendly and funny. I was fortunate, I guess, as the people who waited for the designated server sometimes didn't get their drinks at all. So you can imagine my surprise when we reconciled our bills at the end of the night, placed the cash people had left behind into the appropriate tabs and attempted to leave when the waitress came up to ask for additional gratuity. "I never do this," she said, "but I waited on your table for five hours" and one of the many bills (which she had split without asking, and that was very nice) only had a 10 percent tip (so three bucks on a $30 tab). Someone in the group gave her a few more dollars despite the recognition that the other bills we each paid had more than 10 percent tips (I, for example, tipped 20 percent on my bar tab--but as the waitress pointed out, that only went to the bartender). You'd think this was enough. While we were waiting for some friends to return from cleaning up, I turned around to see the waitress talking to the birthday girl and the birthday girl opening up her wallet. I was furious. I came up and asked if there was more she needed, because if she did, the birthday girl was not the one to hit up. She said that she wasn't asking for more, that in fact she was thanking the other half of our party for our good graces (WHAT?!?). As I was of course not convinced, I let her know that I thought what we had provided was enough, that really, I was confused about why she was asking for more, as gratuity is gratuity, and that's it. She let me know she gets taxed on her income (oh, as if nobody else does?) and so she has to ensure she made enough, and that really 10 percent wasn't enough. My insistence that that was not the only tab left behind (that accounted for a few people out of the more than 15 people there), that the 10 percent was from one of the many bills paid, that the 10 percent was for a party that had already left and that the 10 percent was already made up for didn't matter as she felt she deserved more; it didn't even feel worth mentioning the number of drinks she failed to bring to the table. At that point, I'd said what I'd needed to and still left fuming, especially when the birthday girl ended up giving the bartender more money because the waitress wouldn't accept it at that point.
I know people love this bar and haven't had problems; I also know, though, that was one ridiculously unnecessary experience, ridiculous enough that I will never go back, nor will I hold back in telling people this story.
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