I have been going to Taste of Dahntahn regularly for the past six months. it is one block away from where I work and it's been my regular place for happy hour, and dinner before a Pens game or a show at Heinz Hall.
The food is good, the service is good, and the bartenders are usually wonderful.
Today, my girlfriend's regular happy hour work group was looking for a place to go and I suggested Taste. We were a party of nine that trickled in over the course of a half hour.
When I was coming back from a phone call, the waitress took me aside and told me discreetly that we all had to be on one check and that they could not split the check. These were the rules - she had gotten in trouble for the one group member who had already left and paid for their share.
The manager joined us and berated me for daring to want the check split. She literally yelled at me in front of the other staff and told me I was out of line for wanting to split a check.
I told her that we were a happy hour group that I brought because I loved the food, and this has literally never happened before. She said that there was another happy hour group in the back with sixteen people on one check, and that I shouldn't expect special treatment, and that she didn't care if I never came again because she has never seen me before.
She implied that she didn't want to pay the credit service charges because it wasn't worthwhile to her. I asked if there was a pre-calculated gratuity being added that would make things difficult; there was not.
We put the entire group on one credit card, and none of us will ever return again. No food is worth being yelled at by the manager in front of everyone for something that shouldn't even be an issue (splitting checks).
Dear older manager with blonde hair: Thank you for ruining our night and making me look like a fool for suggesting a "nice place to go."