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| - As a semi-regular patron of Embury, I am said to say one of the best bars in Pittsburgh has jumped the shark. Embury has hired new, younger bartenders who apparently don't give a rat's ass about customer service. After not having been there in a while, we came on a Saturday night, and there were two new faces behind the bar. My girlfriend ordered her favorite drink, and the bartender snapped back at her "off the board only!" She didn't want anything else, so she walked away. Then I came up to order and had to listen to a full minute of the bartenders bitching about how she ordered something that's not on the menu! Dear bartenders: it's not a good idea to bitch about customers in front of other customers. If you did that where I've worked, you'd be fired on the spot.
Unfortunately, you're no longer able to "order just about anything your heart desires" or have the bartenders "[mix] a couple of drinks especially for [you] based on [your] tastes". The atmosphere, which was provided mainly by the bartenders, is dead. The old "chefs" like Geoffrey have given way to "cooks" who won't make a drink without a recipe and care more about the money in the till than the customers who put it there. Maybe it's different on slower nights, but on a Saturday, Embury's become nothing but your average South Side bar with an above average cocktail menu.
Epilogue: I was contacted by a manager to apologize. I appreciate that a lot and will give Embury another try and a fresh review when/if I make it back to Pittsburgh. It's a shame Geoffrey moved on because he really is a one-of-a-kind bartender in both his mixology skills and personality. One night, we were going to Firehouse and stopped in Embury a few minutes before last call. My girlfriend ordered a gin fizz, but there were no eggs left at the bar, so Geoffrey went to the kitchen for one. When he was making the drink, he broke the yolk and had to go back to the kitchen for another. He did it with a smile on his face: at no time did I get the feeling that he had the attitude, "how dare she order such a complicated drink? I want to pack up and go home." Now that's how you build a clientele.
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