This is a weird one.
Nick’s Riverside Grill is a restaurant in Washington, DC, that a woman named Emma C. visited last week. Emma C. was not happy with her visit, and claims she was overcharged for drinks during happy hour. So, like many other upset restaurant patrons these days, she took to Yelp to complain about it.
Although her 1-star review has since been deleted, it was captured in a screenshot. Take a look below (h/t Uproxx):
Here’s the transcript:
“NEVER GO AGAIN！WORST SERVICE！I went there for happy hour and they hold my card at the bar. Charged me two drinks and more while I only ordered one hh drink. I asked the bartender, he said he didn’t have the right to change the bill and asked me to call the managerlater since he’s out. I called and they just said manager is really busy and will call me back. As u can figure, no call at all. And they post the charge without my signature! I didn’t sign the bill!! If u swipe my card wrongly for someone else, I’m not the one paying for it.”
Pretty standard, right? But here’s where it gets interesting. A manager from Nick’s named Liz S. was not happy with this negative review, so she replied with a pants-shittingly good story about why that is the case. Once again, here is the transcript of the now-deleted reply:
“Hi Emma, We would like to address your complaint from the other evening. First of all, a manager did call you back, left a message and you chose to not return that call, probably because you didn’t want to discuss the event’s that occurred at our establishment that evening. We spoke to both bartenders and they are both confident that you did in fact have 2 happy hour drinks. You aren’t hard to forget considering… Out of compassion and being decent human beings we did not charge you a waste removal fee. We were trying not to cause anymore embarrassment or humiliation to you. But after receiving your phone call and seeing this review on yelp, we feel we are justified in defending ourselves. The fact of the matter is you lost control of your bowels in the middle of our restaurant, and you proceeded to sit in it for the remainder of the evening, making more of a mess. We had to reroute our other patrons so they didn’t walk through your mess, causing quite a scene. You then proceeded to throw your underwear away in our trash can and our poor manager working that night was left to clean up your feces. So for you to have the audacity to leave this review when we went above and beyond to make sure you were taken care of is petty and ridiculous. We hope in the future you will think before you act. We would be happy to refund your entire bill with the understanding you will never return to any of our establishments until you are potty trained.”
Oh dear. That is a pretty nasty accusation. However, Nick’s owner Greg Casten backed it up with a statement afterward saying that the incident involved fire fighters and EMTs, that multiple bartenders recognized Emma from her Yelp photo, and that they had it all on video.
HOWEVER, Emma C. has now contacted City Paper and claims that the restaurant has her confused with another woman, and that her original negative Yelp review still stands. According to Emma C.:
“It was merely a coincidence that I was at the bar the same night as this other girl, who I feel bad for since she is also being publicly dragged through the media. I just wanted to clarify that I’m just a dissatisfied customer who is now being accused by this establishment of being someone that I’m not, saying some very nasty things about me and also insulting this other girl who could potentially have serious health issues… It’s ridiculous, irresponsible and extremely upsetting.”
This is a real messy story, folks.
