1 post tagged “drake hotel”

Its time to share a recent experience I had at the Drake Hotel, in Toronto.  Now, this is supposedly a very good, very trendy sort of place.  I was there because a friend of mine was supposed to have a birthday party there.  So I'm in T.O. early (I was there on business), with a nice card and a gift and hoping have a nice relaxing time.  Well, they have a "hostess" at the door downstairs who is reasonably helpful, but no-one with a name anything like my friend's is there.  She lets me in to look around and, sure enough, no party of that sort.  Thats ok, maybe I'm early.  There's a nice patio where I can hang out and look around occasionally for someone I might recognize.  I hang out on the patio, getting bored and annoyed.  I make it 45 minutes or so before any of the wait staff actually offers me a drink.  What a good start...I order a drink.  About 20 minutes later, someone actually brings me the drink.  Life is better and I chill some more.  At some point, I order another drink.  Now at this point, something unusually good (for me) happens.  A good-looking blonde sitting with a couple of guys invites me over to their booth.  Its just a normal friendly gesture for her, but you actually don't run into that many people with such an outgoing nature. By this time, I'm pretty sure my friend isn't going to show at all, so I tell them about it.   "Oh, I hate it when that happens!"  Yeah, me too...  They're all very cool, nice and interesting people.  My second drink arrives, and I think this isn't so bad, maybe I'll just get drunk here tonight.  The cool people talk and make plans and more arrive and then they leave, so I'm back to being bored.  But now I have a nice corner booth all to myself.  Pretty soon, a group asks if they can sit there, and I say sure.  They
're a bunch of mostly girls celebrating a birthday.  Eventually, the waitress arrives to take our order.  By now it's been 45 minutes to an hour for me - pretty slow when you want enough drinks to get drunk.  They order food and I ask for another drink.  I don't have as much in common with the Birthday Girls as I did with the Cool People, so I get kind of left at the edges, feeling alienated now rather than bored and annoyed.   20 minutes after that, I decide to look again for my friend and use the washroom.  Downstairs, its very crowded and there are huge lineups to get in - I have it pretty good in my uncrowded patio booth.  I'm gone MAYBE 10 minutes, no more.  I get back, more chatting, more whatever.  An half hour later, no lie, the waitress comes up to me and says "Oh my god here you are, I couldn't find you" and gives me my drink.  "I went to the washroom but I've been here the whole time."  Now most wait staff, when they find out a no-pay hasn't actually stuck them with the bill will try to improve their service to you.  Not this one.  She seemed to be avoiding us.  An hour later, the Birthday Girls talk about leaving.  They have to wait 10 more minutes to get the server's attention.  Everyone settles up, including me, and I order another drink.  Notice that the service has gone from slow to bad since I got there.  Now I'm bored and annoyed again.  I notice that the server actually does seem to be avoiding my booth.  At this point, I'm pretty sure that her outfit is what gets the tips, and not her service - She's dressed quite scantily.  Another half hour, and the waitress decides to make her service worse.  She shows up with two gentlemen and asks me to leave the booth.  One guy is pretty Arrogant about it, saying they made a reservation, part owner blah blah blah.  I'm pretty pissed at this point, from my friend not showing up and from not being ABLE to get drunk despite having over $300 in my pocket and I tell her I'm not leaving until I tell her just how bad her service has been.  I ask her how she can possibly expect a tip after the service she's given me.  At this point I'm perfectly ready to call over a manager and have a nice embarrassing scene.  Arrogant Guy surprises me by saying its ok, allowing me to stay and volunteering to hear my complaint.  The waitress fades away.  Arrogant Guy is a regular, and says
"Asia is usually pretty good."  So, now I know the name of the good-looking but totally useless waitress.  Arrogant and his friend (rival?) are actually very amusing people.  I don't actually get to finish my story, because they like to talk.  That's ok.  I manage to score a free drink when he buys a round.  Asia notices, but is busy sucking up to Arrogant.  At this point, one of the people from the Cool group earlier returns.  He recognizes me and is glad to see me, as the Cool People are long gone.  He's a VP of some kind, and he and Arrogant do the alpha male comparison thing for a while.  Asia comes back and takes a drink order.  She returns quickly(!!).  Everyone else's goes on the tab, but she brought the bill for mine and makes me pay right away, before one of the others can.  The VP and Arrogant both notice but we all let it slide.   More chat,  the four of us get along nicely and finish our drinks.  Asia returns and another round is ordered.  It comes, without mine.  VP notices and comments on this.  Very perceptive, VP!  VP pays for the round.  I am beyond caring - its been that kind of day.  Soon after, Asia comes back.  After all, there are two alpha males at this table...  VP orders the drinks, being specific about which ones he wants.  When she comes with them, VP whips out his platinum credit card and says "Put them on this"  At this point, it has become obvious that VP is the highest paid person at the table by a lot.  Now this really impressed me, because he had been taking calls off and on with his super-phone (better than everyone else's, natch).  Not only did he notice the problem, he managed to subtly put Asia in her place and buy me a drink at the same time.  I've mellowed a bit by now.  I would have left ages ago if I hadn't been meeting nice people all night.  Its getting on to 2 am so we all finish up and head out.  Asia manages to avoid seeing me again.

I check my email later and find out that my friend changed the location due to problems with the people at the Drake.  (What a surprise...)   So, not her fault that she wasn't there. (not this time anyway)

So now you know - avoid the Drake Hotel - it sucks!  And if you do go there, try to get anyone but Asia.