Bad restaurant experience!

[kddani]

ARGH! I'm so ticked off.
One of my favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh is this Italian place on the South Side called Papparrazi. Very good italian food, decent prices.
I go there with my friend Lisa tonight, and we both ordered martinis (she got some sort of raspberry, I got a melon one). Well, I didn't even like mine b/c it was too strong (yeah, i'm a drinking wuss, but this had way too much rum in it, very bitter tasting). Oh well, that's not something i'd complain about b/c i'm a drinking wuss.

We get the bill. The friggin' martinis were $10 each. Now, that may not be a lot in some areas, but in Pittsburgh that's a lot. My veal parm dinner was only 13.50 (HUGE portion of veal too). It wasn't top shelf liquor- it was Bacardi and Midori and Cointreau. ARGH. So i'm a little ticked- the most expensive I'd had in Pittsburgh (i've been to a lot of places) were about $8, and those were bigger and in more expensive places. The waiter tells me to see the guy in all black downstairs to complain if I want to (the waiter thinks its ridiculous too).

So I ask who the owner is when we get downstairs, he point him out. Now, not only will this owner guy not even look at me b/c he's too busy watching the Mets game (wouldn't even take his eyes off of the TV!), he's incredibly rude to me.

I start off in a nice way, saying how I love the food, etc. but we really think that $10 for that kind of martini is ridiculous. He doesn't even apologize or anything, starts to try to justify it by saying, "oh, i went to Olive and Twist (upscale Pittsburgh bar, lot of attorneys), and Bar Louie, and they're $15 there." Um, NO! I call him on his BS and inform him that they're only $8 there (and that's even really high for Pittsburgh). He doesn't really have a response for being caught like that.
I'm pretty ticked by then b/c he's being very rude, and he lied to my face. He goes back to the game and just ends the conversations (just turned his head). I told him that I wouldn't be coming back. He said "i'm sorry to hear that over $2."

ARGH! It wasn't over $2. If it was $8, okay I could almost be okay with it. My main point in going to him was to tell him that I thought it was very high price for the area (it was a new drink list they were trying anyway). But the fact that he was so rude and lied straight to my face just pissed me off so much. The fact that someone would treat a paying loyal customer that way just blows my mind.

Any other place i've ever gone, if the owner's there, he or she is making sure everything's running smoothly and that people are happy. And if you're not, they're going to try to fix things. Or at least they're treat you with some amount of respect. Hell, i've been treated a million times better at little dive places and even Mickey D's.
Yeah, maybe we should've asked how much they were, but I was willing to pay a decent amount, not a RIDICULOUS amount. I hate asking how must stuff like that is, it feels tacky. But I sure as hell will now.

I'm sorry, just had to vent. I LOVE the food there, but I refuse to put my very hard earned money in the pockets of someone who would treat ANYONE that rudely.