Complaint Review: Fox and Hound Philadelphia

Fox and Hound Philadelphia on 15th and Spruce Streets is now being run by a very dishonest, erratic, unprofessional, phony General Manager by the name of Andrea Montalto. Andrea reneged on a promise she made to me, then outright lied, made me feel like a criminal and an outcast, and didn’t have the common courtesy despite my kind efforts to resolve the matter like mature adults. I have e-mails that prove exactly what I am referring to. I am an honest person, so I will take blame in some things that occurred as you will see, but the punishment and lack of courtesy by Andrea is so completely out of line. I have been a regular customer at Fox and Hound in Philadelphia on and off since March of 2012 when I visited a handful of times, starting that year for College Basketball March Madness. I say on and off because I have lived in Philadelphia for some of that time and New York the majority, but had visited about 10 times in the last few years. I was a regular at Fox and Hound for football and other sports back in 2013-2014. I just moved back to Philadelphia in September of 2017 and live very close.

Over the years the service has been mixed. There have been some outright terrific waitresses and bartenders and some not so good. Right now there are some terrific ones, but overall there are some that are not very customer friendly. This is not just my feeling. As you can see on Facebook and Yelp, there are some harsh reviews that would go along with the same way of thinking. I will admit that I let my frustration get the better of me recently. I got agitated on 3 separate occasions at the service I received. I was critical and sarcastic in response, but I did not curse, insult, or threaten anyone. I went there every Sunday except one when I was out of town to watch the NFL games since I moved back and spent all day there. I went often on Saturday nights to watch college football. If I was to guess, I probably spent more money there than most if not any customer, probably about $750 per month.

On Sunday, November 19th, 2017, I was there all day into the first half of the night game. My waitress during the day, Sophie, was terrific. She then left and I was given a new waitress, Amani. There was a stretch of time where I couldn’t locate her to get a drink. When she finally returned to the table, I was irritated and asked her where she had been. She said I was here before. So I responded by saying—that was a while ago and I didn’t need anything then. She then asked me if I wanted another waitress. So I said, if that’s what you want, fine. The next thing I knew Cedric, a manager, approached me and very nicely in a soft spoken voice asked me to exit the restaurant. I was surprised and decided to speak with Andrea. She backed Cedric and said I have to go, but could come back any other time. I accepted that and left. When I thought it over afterwards, I will admit I could have handled the situation more calmly and was definitely pushy with Amani and felt bad about it. So much so that I called Andrea the following morning and apologized to her for wasting her time, I asked her to apologize to Cedric for the same reason, and also asked her to apologize to Amani on my behalf. She again stressed that you can come back any other time, she seemed to appreciate the gesture on my part and felt that the incident was behind us. The only thing I thought is that I would apologize to both Cedric and Amani the next time I saw them. I then went back to Fox and Hound the following night for the Monday night football game. I had Sophie as a waitress again and it was nothing short of a perfectly pleasant experience. I normally don’t go on Mondays, but I felt it as a sort of cleansing to get the uncomfortable feeling from the night before out of my system. I had never been kicked out of a bar and was truly embarrassed. I then went back to New York for the Thanksgiving weekend and returned to Fox and Hound on Saturday, December 2nd, 2017 at night to watch a couple of college football games. I had Raquel as my server at the bar and she was terrific. Another fantastic experience. I came back the next day on Sunday, December 3rd to watch the NFL games.

Within minutes of my arrival, the Sunday day manager, Cornell, who I had never interacted with before, approached me and said I couldn’t stay. I was shocked and told him that he must be referring to what happened a few weeks ago and that Andrea told me I was allowed back in and that I had been there with no issues twice since. He then brought up a couple of incidents that occurred a month and a half ago and two months ago respectfully, where I had expressed dissatisfaction with service. Although I could be wrong, but in describing one of the incidents, he might have said something about last Saturday, where I was in New York or he was just generally referring to a previous Saturday.

There’s a big difference because falsely referring to last Saturday would mean that I had an issue after the one with Amani. That is totally inaccurate since I was at my Mom’s house over 2 1/2 hours away and didn’t return to Philadelphia until 4 days after that. The truth is what I have mentioned, that I was there twice since with no problems. Although I felt that even though I could have been calmer and handled those previous incidents better, I thought I deserved an apology far more so than them. Cornell acted as if I was fully at fault in those cases and that is not true. One was on a Saturday night and I was sitting at the bar watching the Alabama game. There was a UFC match on the middle big screen, Alabama was on the right, and Michigan on the left. All of a sudden UFC was on all 3 big screens and I didn’t even see where they were showing the Alabama game. I asked the bartender, Nick, why that was done and where is the Alabama game? He had a real rude attitude and showed disrespect by saying that people came in and are paying for the UFC. Sure, they are paying a $10 cover, but I am ordering drinks and food and paying too. And I come often and spend a lot there. He treated me like a was a first time customer sipping on water.

I got annoyed with his attitude and straight out told him that is not how you treat a regular customer. Raquel saw that I was visibly upset and gave me a beer on the house. I was so annoyed that I paid and went home, forgetting to tip Raquel for the beer on the house, however I made it up to her the following Saturday. The second incident that occurred prior to the one with Nick was with a bartender, not sure of her name, a white girl who has an earring in her nose. I mentioned to her both when I gave her my credit card to begin with as well as when I asked for the check that I wanted to pay by cash. Yet she ended up giving me a credit card receipt. So I became annoyed because I thought I made it clear what my request was. So now Cornell, who admitted he wasn’t there for any of the 3 incidents, but must have heard of the older 2 recently, was blaming me for all 3 incidents, saying that I have to leave, that somehow the district manager had gotten involved, which I don’t understand why. Again I didn’t curse, insult, or threaten anyone and certainly nothing close to a crime was committed. So I asked to speak to Andrea who again had told me I was welcome there a few weeks before. Andrea wasn’t there, so Cornell said he would go call her. He came back out and approached me and said—yeah, you have to go. So I questioned him—did Andrea say that and he said yes. So I pleaded to give me a break and let me stay and was perfectly polite to him, stressing that there will be no problem whatsoever. His response was—if you don’t leave, I’m going to have to call the cops and say you are trespassing. I was taken aback by that because I was talking to him in a perfectly peaceful manner, just asking for him to do me a favor and reconsider. No need to make a threat to call the cops. So I said to him—that will obviously not be necessary, I’m not going to give you any trouble, if you say I have to leave, I will and I proceeded to walk towards the door. He followed me and I asked him when Andrea was going to be there. He said at 4:00. I called Andrea a little after 4:00 after going to another bar to watch the games. When Andrea came to the phone, I asked her why I was told to leave when she specifically said I was welcome back a few weeks before and that again I came there twice since then with no issues occurring whatsoever. She repeated what Cornell had said about the district manager getting involved. I questioned why, this was not such a huge issue. No crime was committed, and as I stated, I never cursed, insulted, or threatened anybody. All I did was express dissatisfaction over service, and in only one case did I feel I was a little too pushy. So then Andrea said to me—the problem is that 3 bartenders and 5 waitresses don’t want to serve you. I said to her—that is impossible. We are talking about 2 bartenders and 1 waitress. And the one waitress was Amani, who Andrea had said she would apologize to on my behalf.

Most weeks on Sunday, I had either Jinae or Sophie as waitresses and had a great relationship with both of them, so much so that they stood at my table or sat and talked to me when I first got there before it got more crowded and busy for them. I had another waitress named Maria one week, who was great as well. I had maybe 6 waitresses in total during all Sundays combined between all shifts and the only one I had an unpleasant experience with was Amani. Andrea was totally making this up. That was absolutely not true. Was it her doing or did Cornell lie to her, I have no idea. Did the few people who I had issues with tell others to support them? Again, I don’t know. All I do know is I was clearly being lied to. So I asked her—are you saying now that I am not allowed in? Her response was not firm, it was something like—I guess that’s what we should do at this point. She then said she had to go, said have a good night, and hung up. My thought process at this time was very mixed. I really enjoyed Fox and Hound, it’s very geographically convenient, I’ve been there many times and considered it my favorite bar. But if am being treated like a criminal and an outcast and lied to, I am very uncomfortable. I enjoyed the other bar I went to that day and I’m thinking, there are other good places. But I decided to give it one more shot and put some closure to it, whether it’s yes you can come back, no you can’t ever, or maybe you should take a break for a period of time. I found out that Andrea was going to be in all day on Tuesday, December 5th. I was working from home, making work calls, and stopped by a little after 11:00 after Fox and Hound opened. The bartender Jose went to check and came back, telling me that Andrea was busy with a stack of bills and suggested I come back lunchtime.

So about an hour and a half later, I wanted to eat at a local deli and stopped by Fox and Hound first. Just as I was walking in, Andrea came out and said—I can’t talk to you now, I have a bunch of bills, I have to run out now, and have to prepare for a buffet at 4:30. So I was like OK, I understand. Meanwhile, before I came, I thought if she was still preoccupied, I would leave a note with my name and phone number for Jose to give to her, asking her to please call me and let’s just resolve this matter, whatever the case may be. I was like either let me in or don’t, as unfair as I thought that would be. I wanted to put closure to it. So since I saw Andrea and I ended up walking out as well, I told her I was going to leave a note for her and since I am now seeing you, I’ll just give it to you. She took it and we ended up then walking in opposite directions.

My feeling was I did everything I could and the ball was now in her court. I still have not heard from her. I sent her an e-mail as a last ditch effort trying to explain some of what happened in the previous 2 incidents which she likely heard false information about from Cornell. I am figuring she has no intention of getting back to me. She reneged on what she told me before about being allowed back, followed by her story of so many staff members against me being so untrue. So now without any real explanation and getting no answer from her, I feel that I am banned from Fox and Hound and I find it very unfair. As a regular, long term customer, ignoring me after telling me I am welcome and then pulling a 180 degree turnaround is highly unprofessional and disrespectful. So now I go to other places and have found that they are just as good if not better. The service certainly is more consistently at a higher level, no question better management of course, the food just as good, the TV set up for football at an equal level, and I have found them to be cheaper. So I am getting more value for my money and have gotten a chance to expand my options and get to know other places in Philadelphia.