North by Northwest Restaurant & Brewery

Unqualified GM = HORRIBLE SERVICE!!



General Manager Ben is inexperienced and unqualified to be a manager!!!



This was our first visit. My husband & I attended a birthday celebration on Wednesday evening, Dec. 12. We arrived with the guest of honor and her family at about 7:30pm. Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted by all of her friends who were enjoying drinks at the bar. Within minutes we were seated in the dining room. This is where the chaos began...



10 seats instead of 20 were reserved at this very busy restaurant. Our party began with 13 & increased to 20 within about 30min. After 5min & no service, my husband waved at a server ( who didn't respond) & asked our bus boy if we could order a drink. Another 5min passed, still no server. General Mgr Ben came to our table to organize more seats and my husband told him that we were not getting any service. Ben responded, "Take it easy." (Great response, Ben!!)



Without arguing, we went to the bar and got our drinks. Twenty minutes later, we were ready for our 2nd drink. We gave our server the signal that we wanted to order. He acknowledged us and then we watched him take orders from 3 guests at our table & walk away. (He was taking orders from our table, 2-3 guests at a time!) Shortly after 8pm, the server FINALLY took our drink order only to return empty handed. He said he was told NOT TO SERVE US!! I WAS FLABBERGASTED!!! He didn't explain why but i didn't bother arguing. Instead, i went back to the bar.



Guess what? The bartender told me to go back to my table and order from the server!! Finally, General Mgr Ben met me at the bar & explained that they refuse to serve my husband because he was being aggressive with the server. (Since when is waving a server for service considered aggressive?!) I told him that my husband was not aggressive...he was just trying to get service. I further explained that the server was not doing a good job...taking only 3 orders at a time when he should be taking everyone's orders (yes, all 20 guests!) Ben responded with "don't tell me how to run my staff" & then he threw his hands up & said, "It's not my fault your party reserved 10 instead of 20!" (WHAT??) "I'm a guest here, not the organizer," I said, "& it doesn't matter how many people arrived, WE NEED SERVICE!"



Here's the KICKER...

Ben continued with "Go back to your table, take a seat, order some food and then we'll serve you a drink." (WOW!!! The GM is telling me that I HAVE TO ORDER FOOD BEFORE BEING SERVED A 2ND DRINK??) I WAS APPALLED!! I said to Ben "you're a GM & this is how you speak to your guests? I'm from the hospitality biz & our GMs would NEVER speak to a guest this way!" Ben concluded with "if you don't like it you can leave!"



PRICELESS!!!



Obviously, I left. I fetched my husband and apologized to our friend, the birthday girl, who agreed that service was horrible.



* Note that I have over 10 years experience as a Catering Mgr in fine dining. I have organized thousands of events with average guest count of 50. Situations where more guests arrive than planned are extremely common! As a GM, Ben should have assigned more than 1 server to our table to assist with initial drink orders. If no server was available, then Ben should have taken drink orders himself. Team work!! Instead, Ben left us dry with one inexperienced server who took 30 min to take drink orders. His actions are a perfect example of someone who is incapable of managing a restaurant of this magnitude!!