Located on Stanton Street on the Lower East Side of New York dwells The Stanton Social, a popular restaurant that serves a variety of "small plates" to everyone's delight. The theory is that sharing dishes, which arrive throughout the duration of the meal, makes for a very "social" experience, and thus the name of the restaurant, I suspect.
This sounds like a beautiful notion.
Except that my experience there this weekend was unbelievably anti-social, thus the clever little name I have rebranded this place with (The Stanton ANTI-Social).
My friend and her fiance invited me to meet them there, so that we could have a drink and catch up. When I got to the restaurant, they were about finished with their meal, so I sat next to my friend on the "booth side" of the table. Suddenly some guy with short, wavy brown hair, who we later learned is the manager, came over and said, "this is NOT a three-person table, you can NOT all sit here." So my friend's fiance agreed and we all nodded along as the manager-boy ran off. We then quickly started to complain amongst ourselves about what an uptight freak this guy was (and is, everyday of his life, I suspect). Not ones to stay where we aren't wanted, we asked the waitress for the check and continued on with our conversation while we waited for it. About 7.2 minutes later, the manager-lad returned to the table demanding, "ONE OF YOU HAS GOT TO GO." Again, my friend's fiance agreed, explaining that we were waiting for the check.
The check came, we paid, and got up to leave. As I was walking out the same manager-dude said, "thank you, gooodniiight!" To which I responded, "um, yeah, right." Then my friend stopped him and explained how that was the rudest most uncalled for experience she had ever had in a restaurant in her entire life and that we would make sure never to return and recommend the same to all of our friends.
Bummer that this guy didn't realize who he was unceremoniously kicking out of his joint.
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8 comments:
Unless you were almost in the lap of the diner at the next table, I cannot imagine this. Tables for 4 can always be expanded to 5 or 6 at any restaurant. Guess this guy was asserting his "authority."
I disagree. There are fire rules. You were asked and you didn't comply. Sorry, uptight or not, he was right. You're just a blogger, not the Mayor of NY, don't let your perceived fame go to your head. Between Stanton and your hubris, I'd say the evening was a draw.
Just a blogger? This is simply not true. I'm also a joker, I'm a smoker I'm a midnight toker...
Toodles,
Mike Bloomberg
So it would have killed the guy to politely explain the rules and offer alternative seating? Aren't restaurants and hotels in the "hospitality" business?
With all the empty storefronts in the downtown area, even the snootiest Soho hangouts should realize the value of good customer relations.
What kind of asshole uses the word "hubris"?
Food: 7
Service:1
Décor: 7
Value: 4
Just curious how you can leave a score for parts of a meal you didn't take part in?
If you mean the food, I have actually been to the Stanton ANTI Social before, and that, mi amigo, is how I can.
I'm going to have to side with Guerilla Shopper on this one. New York restaurants, especially those that believe all the hype (deserved or undeserved), can often be hostile about how or where customers are seated. They put profit and table-turnover over general quality of life. Being uptight about "the little things" is part of their business model and it´s a shame, really. I´m sure the food is really good.
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