Tavern in the Square

Last week myself and 8 friends came here after our Softball game looking to grab a couple beers as our season had ended.  We sat outside and ordered 6 pitchers of Coors Light and then started talking about our game and general banter.  About 10 minutes later the waiter came back and we ordered some food.  After talking some more for about 10 more minutes, we noticed that our beer still had not come out.  When our waiter finally returned we asked him where our beer was and he said the keg was kicked the they were changing it.  I told him we would take another type of beer instead but he responded "don't worry about it" and walked back inside.  After being there for about 35 minutes with no beer (or water) our food came out.  The first half of my burger was very good, but once i ran out of pickles i used to chase my food, being that i had no liquid to wash it down, I could not eat anymore; this was not being i was full, but because my mouth/throat was so dry.  The other half of my meal sat there and eventually got too cold to eat.  After the waiter brought our food out, we asked about the beer, starting to get disgruntled.  He said there was an issue with the line and it was only pouring foam.  We told him we'd take another type of pitcher, or bottles, or any form of beer that was not foam.  He shrugged us off again, apologized, and walked in side.  

At this point we decided to get the manager.  We had been waiting for about 40 minutes and had not gotten a drop of liquid.  After a few guys went in to talk to the manager, the waiter comes out with hot, not warm, hot, glasses (must have come right out of the washer).  He had in tow two pitchers of the flattest, most disgusting beer i've ever had (and we used to drink keg beer that'd been sitting in our college basement for weeks on end).  After 45-50 minutes we decided we no longer wanted to stay there, get the run around, and give this restaurant our hard earned money.  The manager eventually came out and was nothing short of hostile towards our entire group.  He informed me his name was Rich (after me asking) and pretty much started yelling at us.  Instead of caring about his customers he immediately had a scowl on his face and tried to prove that we were in fact wrong about the whole situation.  I asked for the check, informing him we were fed up, and he still stood there arguing.  He informed us there was no way we had been waiting for 45 minutes for beer, since the time on the food order was only 35 minutes ago.  I told him we ordered the beer 10 minutes before we ordered food, and he still continued to press on.  At that point i cut him off.  "Stop, stop.  Stop talking.  This is not the time to talk.  The time for you to talk was 30 minutes ago.  You are not right.  This isn't even a situation where the customer is always right.  You are wrong.  We know how long we have been here.  Now please get our check, so we can leave."  Were my exact words.  He stormed off and came back with the check.  We got about 15 dollars off of food.  He said he would have given us 120 dollars of free pitchers.  But that time had come and gone.  we had now been there for an hour and fifteen minutes.  We are all working young adults, and do not want to be up until all hours of the night on a work day.  On our way out another group sitting outside asked us what had happened.  Giving a quick summary they informed us they had been waiting for a long time as well, got up, and followed out us.  

This was the single worst restaurant experience of my life.  The lack of service mixed with the non-actions of one of the worst managers I've ever encountered made me feel like Tavern in the Square could care less about their customers.  I left feeling swindled.  Not only did we practically sit for an hour with no service, but when the one person who is suppose to ease the customers pain and frustration only comes in to make it much worse...it leaves me at a loss of words.  Even typing this infuriates me.  What should have been a fun night with my friends reflecting on our season turned into a nightmare that left every one of us angered and shocked that service and management could be that bad.  That customers could be cared for that less.  There were so many opportunities for the situations to be very easily fixed.  But when a manager doesn't care about his customers and has to be right no matter what, well i hope he felt like he won the night, because he left swarms of angry customers.

Good beer selection, decent service, and happening atmosphere. Great place to come with friends to catch up and prepare to party.

Short version:
+ 10 guys ordered 6 pitchers and waited over 40 minutes, were served warm flat beer, decided to leave after an hour of not being served any drinkable beer.
+ The manager made a number of poorly calculated decisions including
- Not offering us a different type of beer that we could have quickly
- thinking we cared about getting 6 pitchers all at once rather than giving us something to drink at all
- thinking it appropriate to argue with us about how long he thinks we have actually been waiting and why we shouldn't be upset.

Last night my softball team went to the Tavern in Central Square. We arrived at 9 and were seated outside. The first chance we got we ordered 6 Coors Light pitchers; this was before 9:10. Then we ordered food. after 20 minutes we have no beer. Then our food comes (not all together, mind you, relatively spread out), we still have no beer. "We are changing the keg, it's all foam right now," are standard excuses. Fine. I asked "can we just get something different? I'm not married to Coors Light." My question was brushed off. We begin to eat, but we still don't have anything to drink. Its now about 40 minutes since we ordered. We go inside to complain and ask for a manager.  I walk back outside and the waiter has delivered 2 of our 6 ordered pitchers. These are full of what is obviously reconstituted keg foam - it's completely flat and not at all cold. They obviously spent 10 minutes filling the pitcher with foam and waiting for it to go down rather than just giving us something different. I take my beer inside and talk to the manager again. I explain that the beer is flat and gross, and that we need to get this situation resolved in the next 5 minutes. I go outside, 5 minutes pass (to be honest, I didn't have a stop watch, but we are all constantly looking at our watches because we cant believe it). I got back inside to tell the manager we are finished here. He has a couple pitchers sitting on the bar he says hes ready to bring out. Unless he's got 6 hands I can't see and was going to bring them all at one time, I think he should have brought them as they became available. I tell him I intend to pay for very little of this meal. It is now 10 pm. I don't care how many free pitchers you want to give me now. It's 10 on a Tuesday. I don't want 10 pitchers at 10, I want 6 pitchers at 9:15. Upon delivering the check, the manager though it would be appropriate to say "Now i just want to make it a point that it wasn't 45 minutes..." I stopped him right there. This is no longer an argument that I am willing to have. I am well aware of what time we got there and what time it is. We pay for our half eaten nachos and burgers that we never even got water to wash down.

All in all, nightmare scenario. The manager failed in every aspect of his job - recognizing problems and correcting them quickly, soothing customer dissent, knowing what was a reasonable loss to accept. Really, what hurts you worse, 10 guy who go home and go postal on your yelp and facebook pages, or giving us pitchers of Sam for the price of Coors and calling it a day. Assuming you pay what I pay for a Sam Adams keg (and I'm sure you pay less) each 16 oz beer costs $1.48. So that Sam pitcher cost you 5.93. So if we are paying 10 for a pitcher of Coors and get Sam, you are still at least covering your cost, and at least breaking even considering labor. The manager failed to understand this, ran around in circles doing nothing, probably ended up pouring out the 6 pitchers that were sitting on the bar when we said we are done waiting, decided it was appropriate to argue with us about our complaint, and now you've got a bunch of 25 year old guys that hate your bar and will tell everyone they know.