16 June 2009

Finally banned from a bar

Yes, the zads of people who read this but never comment, I have finally been banned from a bar. It is not even a bar in either book, from what I remember.

Champps, Pentagon Row has banned me.

Yes, I am finally getting to write about one of my own screw ups, rather than the screw ups of others!

A server in that Champps screams all of the time and he screams bizarre shit, "EXPECTATIONS" is his frequent saying, and please do not ask for context.

I had been complaining to the bar staff about him ever since our first encounter, when he shouted "EXPECTATIONS" right behind my head as he was passing me, the only customer on that rail of the bar.

Complained to the bartenders, who sometimes, got him to quiet down. Other times he got louder.

I never spoke to a manager about the man, perhaps I should have.

Last night he was screaming some shit right behind my head on his way to the wait station and I asked the bartender if he could "get that guy to stop screaming". He was sympathetic, because he can't stand the shouting either, nobody can, so nothing happened there.

The server was SCREAMING some other shit at the wait stand and the bartender, understandably, was screaming back at him to stop it. I got sick of hearing him, 10 bar stools away and walked over behind him and shouted "STOP YOUR DAMN SCREAMING".

All in earshot thanked me. No applause, just "thanks for doing that".

I was a bit uncomfortable as that is not my style, so I asked for my $40+ bill, closed out.

The night manager gave me the general manager's card, whom I am familiar with, and asked me to call him because the server was already making a corporate case about the issue. I called his cell and left a message about what happened, then finished my beer and went home.

Today I arrived for lunch and the GM greeted me, as is his way, and needed to talk about the incident.

Bottom line, I was out of line for correcting his employee, the employee felt threatened and I am no longer welcome there. I did not argue about it, I just stated the facts and told him the names of the bartenders whom I had complained to in the past.

The GM had already gotten a call from his boss about the incident, from the employee complaint. Much of the GM's point was that we talk all of the time about all sorts of things, including badly behaving employees, and I had not said anything before about that one.

Fair enough, I did not rat out everything to the GM anyway. Plenty of other things had happened that got taken care of in the floor, but this didn't and I got fed up and did something I should not have done.

We parted, with my going to Sine' for lunch, that will probably be my Friday happy hour place from now on too.

I have no hard feelings a bit. The GM was doing his job with the info before him and was asking me for something to relieve the issue so he did not have to kick me out. What I had, just the facts, was not good enough. His bar, my hard luck.

He has my email and said he would contact me if I can return.

My planning process has my return at the heat-death of the universe, unless I get an email.

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