Liz N.'s Profile

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• 
  7/18/2009

  I am so sad to give this neighborhood restaurant only 2 stars, but in reading the letter that I just wrote to their manager, you'll see why I did it...
  
  Dear Nancy,
  
  As you know, my girlfriends and I recently had a wonderful experience throwing a bridal shower at Juliette. It was because of this, and as an excuse to use your lovely rooftop bar, that my husband and I decided to throw our birthday party there last night.
  
  Unfortunately, we had quite the opposite experience last night. There were several instances throughout the night when my guests and I were made to feel uncomfortable and at times downright unwelcome.
  
  When we arrived, we only had six in our party rather than the 15 that we had made the reservation for. (The rest were due to come throughout the evening.)  We therefore asked to sit at a much prettier location in the middle of the roof rather than next to the service station where the 15-person table had been located. The roof hostess made it clear that this was highly inconvenient for her, though I am still unsure why.
  
  Although we were reminded FOUR times throughout the evening what a large exception had been made for us to reserve a table for 15 in the first place, that series of tables next to the service station remained empty all night.  This is also true of the round table at the end of the tables we did end up sitting in. Although the roof hostess refused to let us use that round table even when our party began to expand, it also remained empty. In fact, when we did expand, the entire party was asked to move back to the 15-person table. All the tables that we were asked to vacate also remained empty for the duration of the evening.
  
  When it began to rain, we moved downstairs. A new arrival at the party was rudely refused service at the bar until our upstairs checks had been paid (which they already had.) When my brother approached the downstairs manager to let him know that we had already paid upstairs and to request that our party be allowed to order drinks, he was AGAIN reminded of the exception that had been made for us to make a large reservation. Allow me to remind you that there were plenty of open tables both upstairs and downstairs all evening long.
  
  At 11 PM we were handed the bills, and told that, though you normally let guests linger past midnight, there were only two tables in use at the restaurant at that time and you therefore would be closing at 12 sharp.  Basically, we were being told one hour before closing that we should prepare to leave.
  
  These are only a few examples of how we were made to feel like our relatively small and unobtrusive party was a huge imposition for your staff.  Ultimately, we had 25 guests come and go throughout the night. I am very sorry to say that the way we were treated made 25 Brooklynites and potential long-term customers feel alienated and unwelcome.
  
  The one bright spot was our two female servers, who handled shifting tables, shifting guests, and multiple checks with grace and friendliness.
  
  I want you to know that I have never written a letter like this before, but I enjoyed working with you on the bridal shower and I thought it was very important for you to know about this circumstance so that it can be avoided in the future.
  
  Thanks for listening,
  Liz