Apparently our money wasn't good enough. We have some friends in town and wanted to treat them to a nice brunch. We noticed on their restaurant website that they recommended reservations. They open at 11, so we started calling their restaurant at 9 AM. We tried several times to get through and no answers. There, also, wasn't an online option for making reservations. We showed up as soon as they opened and requested a table. We noticed they barely had any customers and plenty of large tables were empty. They informed us they won't seat us without a reservation. We asked them how could we make a reservation when no one in their restaurant was answering the phone. They informed us that none of their wait staff even showed up until 10 minutes ago. So... No one comes in to prep the kitchen? What about their management team? Instead of providing some answers, their very rude hostess walked away. I'm very disappointed because my boyfriend and I had had a previous good experience at Bistro 19. We didn't expect to be treated like garbage today.
I wouldn't have been angry if their staff and politely informed us that they already had their tables reserved for other clients. I wouldn't have been angry if their website stated reservations were mandatory. Instead, we were talked down to and given no explanations why they wouldn't seat paying clients in a mostly empty restaurant. None of us were wearing offensive clothing or tattoos. We were all clean and dressed nicely. I can't think of any reasonable explanation (barring outlandish things like prejudice, since our group was of mixed race and we had a disabled individual - and I definitely hope this wasn't the case) why any restaurant would turn us away if they had tables available.