banish those who complain
unbelievable? but it happened to us. last thanksgiving (2016) we had a reservation at john ash but they did not have a table for us when we arrived at the appointed time. i was quite unhappy with this and told them so. they told us to wait in some chair about 20 feet from the front desk. then they proceeded to seat others who came in later. my wife, who is japanese suggested there might be racism involved but i wrote it off. however, i did complain about others who came in later being seated before us. finally we got a table but the consequences where not clear until this year (2017) when we made reservations for john ash for this thanksgiving. about a week after the reservation i had a phone message from dave asking me to call him - he didn't say why. i did not reach him when i called back but he called me again to say they were refusing our reservation (just 3 days before thanksgiving). why? he said that they had a complaint from a manager who no longer worked there about our visit theprioryear. he didn't have any details and when i explained what had happened he didn't amend his opinion. we had been banished, in effect, by a rumor from a former employee without documentation nor any chance to refute the allegations.
what made it even worse was that john ash could have emailed me or canceled the reservation the day after i made it. and they could have said they no longer wanted us as customers after ourpriorvisit. they did none of these things. these actions are not only unjust and unfairly punitive but spiteful. of course, we will now avoid this restaurant and i hope this post will convince you to do likewise.