Dinosaur BBQ - where NOT to go

Ever since Dinosaur BBQ came to the Capital Region, I have been dying to go. My wish finally came true last week when a few friends and I were hunting for a place to go for dinner. We settled on Dinosaur BBQ because we knew we could sit out on the patio and enjoy the water.

Janis, Felice and I went earlier so we could eat. (Kara and Lisa were meeting us at 7:30). We arrived around 6:45 and took our time looking over the menu. We ordered some drinks and then ordered our meals. The food was great. Kara and Lisa arrived and they ordered some desserts and appetizers.

As with most girls nights, we lingered, talked, and laughed. Eventually, our server came over to pick up the bill that he had left for us. We told him we hadn't even looked at it yet. I asked the server if he was leaving and if he needed to close our tab. He told me that he wasn't leaving, but he did need our table because they had a big group coming in. He then asked us if we would be okay with moving to a high top table. We didn't mind at all.

We scooted over to the high top table and settled in with our drinks. A few minutes later, a new server came over to us. He was actually the bartender. He started to grab our bill. We told him that we weren't ready with it yet. And that's when things got weird. He said, "So - am I waiting on you?" He was kind of rude.

Then he went on to say that another group of people at the bar had been waiting for this table and that he wasn't sure why we were sitting there. We told him that our server had asked us to move here. He went on to say that he had "promised" these specific people the table and that we needed to move. We were shocked. First of all, we weren't even finished with our drinks! Second of all - who in their right mind treats a customer like that? So we refused to move. We told him that our server had moved us here and why couldn't the other group of people go to the other table? I mean, really. What difference did it make? There were plenty of tables on the patio.

Things got really awkward. And really weird. And we started to feel like he was kicking us out of the place. Other rude things were said. He told us, "that he had to turn the tables over", and that "he was doing the best he could" and to "crucify him."

Really???? Crucify him???

He walked away from us and then we saw him in the corner arguing with our original server. Our original server came back to our table, and we gave him a brief overview of what happened. He apologized profusely. Meanwhile, the rude bartender came back and tried to play "nice" all of a sudden. It was too late. We wanted to leave.

Before we could do that - the manager came over to us. She had gotten wind of what happened. She listened sympathetically to our side of the story, and took a round of drinks off our bill. Very nice of her. We paid our bill and we left.

The whole thing was so odd. As Lisa said, "That bartender didn't know if we were going to spend big money on our bar bill." What was he thinking? You don't treat a customer like that. Ever.

The thing that was annoying was that we spent a good hour of our night dealing with this. We stressed over it. We were upset by it. It was NOT a good feeling.

Needless to say, I will not be returning to Dinosaur BBQ anytime soon. And that's too bad. I really liked the food and the outdoor seating.

To top off the night, Lisa had a flat tire when we went back out to the parking lot. That's a whole other story that involved us not getting home until wayyyyy past my bedtime. And then she got pulled over on the way home for speeding. Luckily, the officer let her go ticket-free.

In the meantime, we have all decided that we need a girl's night do-over. And soon.