Gladstone's Restaurant Of Malibu Poor Service on My Birthday DISCRIMINATES Against Non-Affluent Looking Customers RIPOFF Pacific Palisades California

To Gladstone's of Malibu Restaurant Manager:

On Tuesday, August 23, 2005, around 1:00 p.m., I went with my husband to Gladstone's in Malibu to celebrate my birthday there. As the restaurant was located right by the beach, with spectacular views, I wanted to go there mainly for the view.

I noticed that Gladstone's host and wait staff were all young people, either college age or in their early twenties. They were not impolite or rude, but neither were they very warm or friendly. They were rather impersonal. The restaurant hostess station was located outside right by the deck.

Gladstone's has a very large outside deck with a glass window on the side that faces the ocean, where one can sit and dine, and as it was a sunny, warm day, we wanted to sit outside and enjoy the weather. Most of their tables by the deck window were taken, but there were still several tables in the middle of the deck that were open. But when we asked about sitting there, the hostess told us it would be quicker for us if she could seat us indoors. We took her at her word and went with the waiter inside.

Inside, however, they seated us by a window with a deck view, despite the fact that there were two open tables by the window with an ocean view. As our window looked out on a part of the deck that was cordoned off with yellow tape, it was not a very attractive view, so I suggested to my husband that we move to one of the open tables with an ocean view. In most restaurants, moving to a different table is usually not a problem. However, our move was apparently a mistake, because soon a young waiter came by with an older, more affluent looking couple, and asked if we were seated at this ocean view table.

When I kindly explained that it was my birthday and I wished to sit at a table with an ocean view, the waiter did not have any reaction, but told us we had to go back out to the hostess and have her assign us a window seat. He looked like someone who was lost and didn't know how to deal with a customer with a special request. Neither did he go out of his way to make us feel he really wanted our business. There were no apologies for our inconvenience, neither was there even a "happy birthday." Plus we had to endure the embarrassment of having to leave our new table.

By the time I went out to see the hostess again, I was getting angry. When I asked her about a window seat, she and another host told me that they were taken and that I would have to wait approximately 15 minutes. Once again, I had nicely told them that it was my birthday and I wanted to have an ocean view table. And once again, I got no reaction from either of them. Either they did not know how to respond, or they did not care that this was a special day for me. When I asked about the open tables on the deck, the hostess said, "those tables are harder to get." I wondered what made those table so hard to get. Did I have to bribe her to get one? The hostess put me down on her list and I was about fifth in line for a table.

My husband and I waited for our new table, and as we waited, we noticed that the host staff gave preference to other families and couples that looked affluent. Perhaps they had reservations, but there was one couple that I knew did not have a reservation, because they were bargaining and negotiating with the hostess, pointing to an open table on the deck by the window. I could tell that the hostess was hesitating and trying to explain things, but after a few minutes the couple was escorted to another table on the deck, albeit not the one by the window that they had hoped for.

Fifteen minutes passed. Then twenty and I don't know how long we waited before my husband finally got up and said it was time to leave. We left without a word, and ironically, the valet was the friendliest person there. He asked us how our day was, and when we told him it wasn't so good at the restaurant, he immediately gave us back our money so we didn't have to pay for parking.

If this incident had happened on any other day of the year, I would have written it off as an inconvenience and merely went somewhere else to eat. But because this happened on my birthday, and the staff at Gladstone's did nothing to make me feel welcome or special as a customer, it was extremely disappointing to me and threatened to ruin my day.

I could understand if this situation happened on a weekend, or even on a weeknight when the restaurant was crowded, then I would have been content with my deck view table, however, this happened around 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. I do not know why the restaurant was keeping all those tables open on the deck and not allowing customers to sit there.

Ironically, at the next restaurant we went to - the Lighthouse Restaurant in Santa Monica - the first thing the friendly waiter asked us was, "would you like a table by the window?" It did not have an ocean view, but his friendliness and attitude more than made up for it.

To summarize, I did not like the way the staff at Gladstone's of Malibu treated me or my husband as a customer. I kept feeling like they were playing a social status game, and they were not forthcoming in explaining the rules to us. My husband also felt that they discriminated against customers that did not look affluent and gave preferential treatment to those that did. We were ready to spend at least $50 on a nice lunch there, and they lost our business and did not seem to care. They need to train their host and wait staff in customer service relations, because their staff was definitely not friendly.

I want an apology from Gladstone's restaurant manager for the shabby treatment my husband and I received at their restaurant on my birthday. I would also like to know what efforts they plan on taking to correct their staff's service and train them to become more customer-friendly, so that this does not happen to another restaurant patron.

Irene
LOS ANGELES, California
U.S.A.