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Internet drama of the hair-pulling, eye-scratching, and feline variety is always high quality entertainment. And today Yelp has it in spades.
It seems some sort of Coyote Ugly-vs.-patrons fight went down over at the wonderful drinking establishment House of Shields last night. A gaggle of drinkers - celebrating a colleague's wedding plans no less! - were put off by a crusty female bartender. Her crimes? She allegedly had the unmitigated gall to ignore the female patrons (welcome to a man's world, ladies), curse/spray water at bar patrons, and throw shattered glass at people.
We're so going there tonight.
Anyway, some Yelpers, who fell victim to the brutal bartender's barrage, are saddened and surprised. Here is just a sample of what went down:
- Lucy C.: "...slow service + discrimination against women customers + cursing at the customers + spraying water at the customers + throwing a glass????? really??? i'm SHOCKED"
- Melissa C.: "When I was about to order another round of drinks for the 10 or so of us, 15 minutes after standing at the bar, and waving down the bartender, she finally made eye contact with me and said in a very rude tone that it would take a bit to help me. She then proceeded to serve a gentleman who had just walked in, then another guy at the bar. So as she walked by again I said "let me just close out me tab." When she handed me the check, I told her she should know we wouldn't probably spend double our tab (which was already $200 when I closed it out), to which she gave me a thumbs-up and muttered "bitch" under her breath. As I walked away, she tried to spray me with soda, although her terrible aim missed me, but my colleagues weren't as fortunate when she THREW A GLASS THAT SHATTERED ON US."
- Suraya A.: "I'll avoid this place and its glass throwing, drunken bartender like the plague...Thanks for the heads up fellow yelpers!"
- Aaron G.: "This is when it gets fun, my co-worker didn't leave a tip after the terrible service. The bartender, in her drunken state, then begins to yell at us, attempt to spray us with water and then her best idea was to THROW A PINT GLASS AT US."
First, this bartender sounds AWESOME. We want to do body shots with her.
Second, this Yelp attack sounds a bit remarkable. Did anyone else witness the glass-throwing action? Are the patrons unfairly ganging up on said bar wench? Can someone confirm? We adore House of Shields, but understand it gets cramped easily, which is when tempers rise.
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Wow! A bar that makes whiny Marina chicks cry and leave?!?! Sounds awesome! Now, if we could only get some chlorine for the Castro.
well..the first review that comes up is a 1-star from someone who says they've never even been there and never will. kind of like the vegan chick on there who gives every place that isn't vegan 1 star.. so i'd take that with a grain of salt.
No Brock! Change it back! The last sentence was genius!
" ... which is when tempers flair."
No one whipped out their camera phone for picture taking or video making?
Flair bartending! ha! nice.
due to its location, HoS exists at the crossroads where bike messengers and the downtown workforce go for after work drinks. Some of the bartenders clearly prefer one of those crowds to the other.
So really this is just yet in a long line of fixee v yuppie stories. The mission v the marina. The sharks and the jets.
I have a hard time believing anything that comes out of an irate Yelper's mouth when the standard review usually consists of something to the effect of:
"omgz guys, this bar didn't want to serve MOI! I had on my best Manolos and no one noticed. Ugh. -1 star for the fugly bartender. -1 star for having chicks prettier than me at the table next to us."
Even if the bartender did throw a pint glass, GOOD FOR HER. Leave House of Shields to those of us that appreciate a dark bar with stiff drinks.
The bartenders at House of Shields are some of the friendliest I have known. People don't seem to understand how physically and emotionally demanding bartending is. When the bar is busy and there is only one person working, there are always people who think they are being ignored, when often they simply have a skewed perception of what is happening, due to the mass amounts of alcohol they have just ingested. If the bartender was less than friendly, it was probably because they were having to deal with a bunch of demanding, impatient, drunk customers who have unrealistic expectations of how fast one person can work. And knowing all the bartenders at HOS, I can't believe that one of them would ever throw a glass at a customer.
team bartender
My biggest issue in this whole controversy is the number of people writing one-star reviews for a place they've never been. YELP! Please discourage that - it goes against everything you stand for.
WHOA, hold one there, kids. I think I have had a run-in with this bartender, and the Yelpers (this time) do not lie. If it's the blonde bartender I'm thinking of she's a straight-up bitch. Like, seriously seriously bitchy. Would not be surprised to see her let a glass loose on some people.
Ha ha, the bigotry in the comments above (not the yelpers) is priceless. They deserved it! Right.
according to yelpers, said bartender has "short brown hair and pale skin," "short brown hair in a bob hair cut," etc.
also, just contacted the woman who had the glass thrown at her. she was "picking glass out of [her] feet for a good 30 minutes after the incident." whoa.
If it's the blonde bartender I'm thinking of she's a straight-up bitch
I was there last night around 6pm. I did not see the glass-throwing described. I'm not sure when that supposedly happened. I might have been there before or after said supposed incident.
But, what I can say for certain is the bartender working last night was not the aforementioned blonde. I believe I've seen the young lady in question working there as a bar back and assistant bartender over the last few weeks/months. Last night she was working the bar alone. And it was rather busy.
Damn, there's two vicious bitches on the property then.
I'm with usc0cat, I have a problem with people who review-by-proxy.
If you weren't there: don't review.
Yelp removes those reviews, it just takes them a few days to get to them.
Count me in as a fan of House of Shields. Definitely my bar of choice when I do my ritual step-out-of-the-office-because-it's-4-o'clock-and-there's-only-an-hour-left-of-work-super-stiff cocktail. The trick is to finish the drink and get back into work by 4:15. That way I leave the office at 5, just as I start to sweat out the alcohol. It's a brilliant system really. Plus the bartenders couldn't be nicer to me.
What is more annoying muffin head chicks from a "communications companay who's dad is a lawyer" or tight pants wearing hipsters with a fixie parked out front?
Trick question....YOU BOTH SUCK!!
while there's really no excuse for throwing a glass at someone, assuming that happened, i'm sure being a bartender and having someone come up and order another round of 10 drinks, when its already busy is a huge pain in the ass. hence why she served individual patrons.
get up and get your own god damn drinks when you need them, don't expect an overworked bartender to stop serving everyone else to make 10 drinks just for you.
Folks, unless you are there, there's no way of knowing what the truth is here. Just sit back and enjoy the drama, don't jump on one side or the other because you assume it's a hipster vs. yuppie thing
Another addition to the Do Not Taunt List!
1. Tigers
2. Muni trains
3. Bartenders at House of Shields
Seriously, though, no matter how frazzled you are and no matter how annoying the customer is, throwing glassware at the patrons is some serious Deadwood shit and should be discouraged.
"Just sit back and enjoy the drama, don't jump on one side or the other"
jumping to hasty conclusions and shit talking is not the purpose of the internet? i respectfully disagree..asshole.
Yelp is getting so big and powerful it now the business owners who need a voice. That's the direction I think local business search is headed and why sites like Jippidy.com can potentially win this space or become a legit force. We need equal representation of both parties.
""Just sit back and enjoy the drama, don't jump on one side or the other"
jumping to hasty conclusions and shit talking is not the purpose of the internet? i respectfully disagree..asshole."
Just the kind of bullshit attitude I expect from someone who flaunts the word "klan" right in their user name. Isn't there a cross-burnin you should be at, you white-supremacist, Hitler-loving dill hole?
/Godwin law hereby invoked
It's only a matter of time before something like this happens again but this time it'll involve somebody ordering a bunch of mojitos at a really crowded bar in the middle of happy hour.
Muddling=MURDER
This piece reminded me of one more benefit of paying for drinks up front with cash: if the bar (or bartender) gets crazy, you don't have to sit around and struggle with getting a tab paid, you can just walk out the door.
Cash is king, people!
get up and get your own god damn drinks when you need them, don't expect an overworked bartender to stop serving everyone else to make 10 drinks just for you.
Ha ha, so they're just supposed to walk behind the bar and get to work?
As a former waitress, I automatically side with the bartender in this case. 10 chicks probably ordering cosmos and shit? Ugh.
@ manys
as in, your drink is empty..go get another one. not wait until you need 10 and then send one person up and expect them all now.
You know, this story sort of sounds like the Orbit Room of yesteryear staring Alberta the Mixologist. Ah, memories. Alberta, I still love you.
@Oznog: I believe joekland is using what is known as a portmanteau, in which two words are combined in a unique way to make a new word. In this case, a good guess would be he's a guy named Joe who has some affinity for Oakland.
Another good guess would be that you could use what is known as a sense of humor. "Hitler-loving dillhole?" Goodness.
For the love of god why would anyone go to the House of Shits when Dave's is right around the corner? Dave's has the most awesomest OTB-meets-truckstop vibe on Market Street*.
*Excluding Sutter Station.
@boringtime
you are correct. i just moved to oakland from sf for cheaper rent. and i hate it, so i still spend 95% of my time in the city. and friends have given oakland the title - jokeland.
but i thought oznog was going with the jumping to conclusions and shit-talking i made. i thought it outstanding.
but back to yelp and house of shields...
Oh, right. Drinking rocks!
"Another addition to the Do Not Taunt List!
1. Tigers
2. Muni trains
3. Bartenders at House of Shields"
Word.
Just to make sure I understand.
It's Wrong for yelpers to post about an incident without having been there, but it's Funny for sfisters to comment without having been there, right?
I was there last week and did witness glass throwing, but it was friendly in manner. I might have been from the same bartender, too fuzzy to recall for sure.
Great read none the less.
you are correct, sfrealist.
This is totally unrelated, but I just read the most amazing sentence in the history of journalism:
"Greyhound has scrapped an ad campaign that extolled the relaxing upside of bus travel after one of its passengers was accused of beheading and cannibalizing another traveler."
It's just so understated and matter-of-fact.
Yelp mostly blows. Ego feeding mechanism for folks who need to feel important. "I'm an elite, I want to get comped!"
OTOH, it is somewhat useful for totally foreign places (hello, Baltimore), but as an SFer, I wouldn't trust the reviews on Yelp.
"You know, this story sort of sounds like the Orbit Room of yesteryear staring Alberta the Mixologist. Ah, memories. Alberta, I still love you."
Thank you icbalaam for bringing back some crazy memories.
Here we go again with the whole tragically hip SF types bitching about each other (Hipsters vs. Yuppies)
Oh, look at me; I'm a cool bike messenger/hipster with an ironic moustache, played out tattoos and angst still at 30. I only go to cool bars like House of Shields!
GET OVER YOURSELF PEOPLE!
Why would these people lie about getting a glass thrown at them? Do you think it's some "yuppie" conspiracy to infiltrate your hood, open up tons of starbucks and Whole Foods so they can walk their baby strollers around in peace?
We are all posers in this city whether we like it or not. That's the great thing about it. A bunch of posers living together in harmony in the greatest city in the world.
My hipster and yuppie brothers and sisters, let's pick up the pieces of the shattered glass shards together, share a hug, then get on with our lives!
Peace Out,
OG Sizzle
ditto.
@master1980...that's the direction I think local business search is headed and why sites like Jippidy.com...
I don't know jippidy, but perhaps yelp can evolve this into a conflict resolution system like ebay. Mutual reviews, asshole owners v asshole patrons? They could sell tickets for that and make a bundle.
-----------
having spent a fair amount of time in F&B, the tell tale sign of the problem being the patron is that the stories always start from the point at which the service person snaps. They never fill in what happened to lead up to it. Mostly because they're clueless.
Besides, I can tell you for myself, if you're doing the passive-aggressive, impatient pee-pee dance combined with glaring looks, perceptibly loud breathing and ridiculously waving your arm around like this chick did - the bar isn't the length of a football field for heavens sake, it's busy, move 10 feet down to my work area - I'd probably ignore you awhile too just to teach you some sense.
And if the first words out of your mouth are "I'll take..." or "Give me..." I'd strongly consider walking away from you mid-sentence.
I waited tables and tended bar for many years and have seen various things thrown at non-tipping customers.
Nothing is more frustrating than a high maintenance group of people who run your ass all night, and then leave you a 5% (or zero) tip.
And yes. It could make you angry enough to throw a glass at them.
(And I really hope these are some of the customers who stand at a bar whistling and yelling at their bartender......... ya know, that really doesn't work)
"Nothing is more frustrating than a high maintenance group of people who run your ass all night, and then leave you a 5% (or zero) tip."
Yeah, my rule of thumb is a dollar tip per drink, and bring your own glasses up to the bar if drinking with more than 3 people.
And to think in 1988 I had drinks with Chris Matthews and his deputy (who has been a friend of mine for 20+ years) at the same bar, and back then it was just so darn quiet....
If you check out Melissa C's updated review, the owner of House of Shields fired the bartender and made it up to them.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that their are several unspoken variables that should be taken into consideration.
Things like, YOU ARE ORDERING FOR TEN PEOPLE.
Dipshits. Make your friends get up and get their own drinks. Even if it was a round of Kamikaze shots (and even then I'm giving you too much credit), I'd probably ignore you, too.
And I'm sure that she was completely unprovoked, I mean, I generally lash out violently without any provocation. Right.
And lastly, she should have gotten an ass-whooping, like in a real bar. You fucking Yelpers feel it's your duty to right the world's wrongs via the internet, wielding the Yelp Sword of Justice. If you have a problem in a bar, deal with it in the bar. Don't fucking cry on the internet and hope someone "gets what's coming to them". Jesus.