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Guerilla Queer Bar - New York Edition
I recently had an incident at the midtown bar, Barrage. I sent a letter (see below) to the manager/owner to let him know what was going on. After a week, I called and left a message for him to make sure he had rec'd my letter. He never responded to the letter or to the phone call. I called one last time on Monday (12 days after sending the letter) and left another message. I then passed the letter around to friends letting them know what had happened and suggesting that they might want to spend their money at other places that appreciate their customers. The guy finally called me on Tuesday. He was apologetic and somewhat nice, but then he called again on Wed when he found out I had sent a copy of the letter to Next magazine. He was really nasty and sarcastic this time. This guy is such an idiot and a total jerk. I will definitely not be returning to Barrage. Matt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mr. Tom Johnson Manager Barrage Bar 401 W. 47th Street New York, NY 10036-2306 Re: Mistreatment by Doorman at Barrage Dear Mr. Johnson: It is with great regret that I write this letter to you, but I believe it is important that you be informed of the abhorrent behavior one of your employees recently exhibited toward customers of your establishment. I recently moved to the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, and over the course of the past three months have enjoyed spending quite a few evenings at Barrage with several neighborhood friends who would be considered "regulars." I have always found the staff to be quite pleasant and courteous, but this unfortunately was not the case this past Friday evening. Just before 11:00 p.m. on Friday, July 13th, a group of six friends and I went to Barrage. When we arrived, there was no line outside, but the doorman insisted we wait before entering. We could see through the windows that the bar was fairly busy, but it was by no means packed. We did, however, respect the doorman's request, and patiently waited in line. When a couple of patrons exited, I asked if a couple of us could enter. The doorman said no. Several more minutes passed, and when the next two patrons left, the doorman again told us we must wait, and then went inside. During his absence, at least three more patrons left the bar. We were unsure whether we should continue waiting since the same number of people in our party had left the premises since we started waiting, but we figured we better wait until he came back out to let us in. When he finally returned, he basically barked at us in a very rude and obnoxious manner, "I need to see everyone's ID." We all took out our IDs and proceeded to show them to him. (For the record, we are all New York residents in our 20s and 30s.) The first person entered without a problem. The second person, however, was grabbed by the doorman after showing his ID and told to come back out of the bar to show his ID again. At the same time this occurred, the doorman pushed the third person on the chest, yelling at him to wait. I was fourth in line and honestly could not believe what I was witnessing. We immediately decided as a group that we would not patronize any establishment that treated us with such flagrant disrespect and abuse. As we were regrouping out front, I said to the doorman that we would be happy to spend our money elsewhere. He replied, "Fine, I didn't want you in here anyway." I think it is ironic that your bar has frequently been toted as the "Chelsea alternative," a place where the people are friendly and the attitude at a minimum. Well, I can honestly tell you that I have never experienced anything like this at any bar or club in Chelsea, or any other city in the world, for that matter. Your doorman's behavior was simply deplorable. I sincerely hope that you appreciate the magnitude of what occurred this past Friday night and will deal with it in an appropriate manner. As I'm sure you are well aware, there is no room in the service industry for employees who are this rude and abusive to customers. If you have any questions or wish to discuss this further, please feel free to call me at xxx-xxxx. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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