Sorry bit of a whine really, this restaurant is within a hotel complex, there is a small flower pot that separates the hotel and the restaurant plus the security door. This is more of a demonstration of a double standard this restaurant or a culture of the management / staff or could even be written into their lease for permission to do the following. First night as a hotel guest i was playing pool and fancied a drink, there is a clear sign that you cannot order from the hotel side, i walked around to the bar and requested a drink ( by the way the staff are very polite and nice people), but i was told that the hotel is a separate business they dont have anything to do with it and as such cannot serve alcohol to be consumed in outside of the restaurant. Which i fully understand and decide to sit in the bar area to drink my pint. But the issue arose when the wife returned to pool table from the the hotel coffee machine, walked around to me I the bar and sat down. The one of the nice polite guys came over and told her to leave, she is not allowed to drink a coffee on the restaurant if not purchased there. Again we understood, but the wife was very embarrassed and was made to leave, I quickly finished my drink to be with her and left. So far i think they were correct but handled a small situation and made it much bigger, i went back to laying pool then as i was leaving i noticed that a couple of the restaurant staff had taken food out to the restaurant via a small door and sat in the hotel common area tables. I dismissed this a small issue and wine to bed. But hey following night again coming back the hotel to play pool, we found as a paying customer of the hotel that there were no seats near the pool table because the restaurant staff and sous chef were dining in the available spaces. I wanted to challenge all of them as to why they embarrassed my wife over a cup of coffee yet they take up all the space i paid for to eat there dinner in a business they told me they were separated from. But as i have consumed 4 or 5 pints my wife told me to calm down and not make a scene, so i left it, Int’l now sober and seething in the Finnair Platinum Corner lounge heading of on the next leg of our trip.
Disclaimer, yes the hotel or their lease may approve of this, but if so, really kick a lady out of a bar for having a coffee and embarrassing her, a good culture at a business would have simply poured her coffee into a suitable glass and allowed her to be with me whilst i drank my beer.
