点评:Last night, my husband and I decided to go to have a drink at the bar at Bistro 11, a restaurant that positions itself as a high end dining venue in Hagerstown, where we live. We thought that its bar looked cool, and would be nice spot for us to celebrate the onset of our Holiday break with a drink and appetizers.
We walked in at about 4:45 p.m., and sat down - we were then the only two costumers on that side of the L-shaped bar. A very nice bartender named Kiley helped us right way. We ordered two martinis and two appetizers. The drinks were excellent, as were the appetizers. We were having a great time. Our side of the bar started to fill out, with a crowd on our right, and two middle-aged men on our left, sipping on beer and in deep conversation with another man who was behind the bar - attending only to those two customers, and seemed to be in charge of the place.
My husband, who was sitting next to these men, started to be irritated by the foul language they had been using in their banter about sports with the man behind the bar. So, he turned to the man next to him, asking him very politely to stop using foul language. This individual’s immediate response was to turn belligerent, telling us that this was a bar, hence a public space, where he could use any language he wanted. I told him that he was an idiot, which cranked up his aggressiveness, so we dropped the matter.
The man behind the bar had stayed mum through this entire exchange, but when he moved to the other part of the bar, my husband followed him to address this issue with him. It turned out that he is the owner of Bistro 11. He told my husband that that was the way things were, and that there was nothing he could or was willing to do about it. By then, I was shaking. This incident had done nothing short of ruining what had started as a very nice evening. We paid our tab to Kiley, our bartender, and left, after having filled her in on this incident, and let her know that we would write a scathing online review about Bistro 11, which we would never patronize again. We have had lunch or dinner there on a number of occasions, each time spending in excess of $100 - at least once close to $200.
A few remarks:
- Bistro 11 is not a dive bar where crude language is commonly used, and even expected. The man sitting next to my husband was peppering his banter with the F word, as was the restaurant owner (who denied having used any foul language.) what I expect from a place like this is a bit more decorum.
- The owner should have intervened when the man whom my husband had confronted very politely became aggressive. On top of it, when my husband spoke to him privately, he turned slimy and brushed him off.
This is not the way for to a restaurant owner to run his business, even if the foul mouth guy is one of his “regulars” or cronies. That’s how you lose customers who come to your restaurant for more than the occasional beer at the bar, and may bring their friends too.
Bistro 11, you lost our business.
And the world should know that you are far from being the classy place you purport to be.
翻译:昨晚,我和丈夫决定去 Bistro 11 的酒吧喝一杯,这家餐厅定位为我们居住的黑格斯敦的高端餐饮场所。我们认为它的酒吧看起来很酷,是我们喝点饮料和吃开胃菜来庆祝假期开始的好地方。
下午 4 点 45 分左右,我们走进去坐下——当时我们是 L 形酒吧那一侧仅有的两个顾客。一位名叫凯利(Kiley)的非常好的调酒师以正确的方式帮助了我们。我们点了两杯马提尼酒和两份开胃菜。饮料很棒,开胃菜也很棒。我们玩得很开心。我们这边的酒吧开始挤满了人,我们右边有一群人,左边有两个中年男人,他们一边喝着啤酒,一边和吧台后面的另一个男人深入交谈——只照顾那两个顾客,似乎是这个地方的负责人。
我的丈夫坐在这些人旁边,他开始对他们在与吧台后面的男人开玩笑时使用的粗俗语言感到恼火。于是,他转向旁边的男人,很有礼貌地要求他不要再说脏话了。这个人的立即反应是变得好战,告诉我们这是一个酒吧,因此是一个公共空间,他可以在那里使用他想要的任何语言。我告诉他他是个白痴,这加剧了他的攻击性,所以我们放弃了这件事。
酒吧后面的那个人在整个交流过程中一直保持沉默,但当他搬到酒吧的另一部分时,我丈夫跟着他一起解决这个问题。原来他是Bistro 11的老板。他告诉我丈夫事情就是这样,他无能为力也不愿意做这件事。那时我已经浑身发抖了。这件事简直毁了原本美好的夜晚。我们向调酒师 Kiley 支付了账单,并在向她通报了这起事件后离开了,并让她知道我们将在网上写一篇关于 Bistro 11 的严厉评论,我们再也不会光顾这家餐厅了。我们曾多次在那里吃过午餐或晚餐,每次花费都超过 100 美元 - 至少有一次接近 200 美元。
几点说明:
- Bistro 11 并不是一家经常使用粗俗语言的潜水酒吧,甚至是意料之中的。坐在我丈夫旁边的那个男人不断地用脏话开玩笑,餐厅老板也是如此(他否认使用过任何粗言秽语)。我对这样的地方的期望是更加得体一点。
- 当我丈夫非常礼貌地面对的那个男人变得咄咄逼人时,主人应该进行干预。最重要的是,当我丈夫私下和他说话时,他变得粘糊糊的,不理睬他。
这不是餐馆老板经营生意的方式,即使那个满嘴脏话的家伙是他的“常客”或亲信之一。这就是你失去顾客的原因,这些顾客来到你的餐厅不仅仅是为了偶尔去酒吧喝啤酒,而且可能还会带上他们的朋友。
Bistro 11,你失去了我们的生意。
全世界都应该知道,你远没有达到你所声称的那样优雅。