Legends Bar and Grill downtown...funny

As many of you know, yesterday DMPS had a teacher in-service at the Convention Center downtown. I was with a group of 8 teachers that went to lunch at Legend’s on Court Avenue. One of the teachers in our group found a hair in her salad. When informed, our server rolled her eyes and said, “It is not my fault. I did not put it there.” Then as she walked away she said, “When can this day be over?” We thought management would like to know of her rude comments, and thought our group member who received the “hair salad” deserved to hear something along the lines of, “We are sorry for the hair, and for our server’s response.” Additionally, we thought the manager might want to speak with the server about better ways to respond to reports of hair in the food. Someone in our group went over to ask for a manager and was told a manager would be sent over. Ten minutes later, we had finally been able to pay (after nearly 1½ hours of lovely company, but terrible service), but there was still no manager. We needed to leave to get back to our meeting. We stopped at the bar on our way out and tried to speak with the manager, but she told us she was too busy and we would need to sit down for 5 minutes to wait. We told her we had already been waiting, and needed to leave. She offered to have the owner come out of the kitchen to speak with us. We said that would be great.

Several minutes later, an angry man came out and introduced himself as the owner. He repeatedly stated that he was understaffed that day and that was why our service was so poor. Each time we attempted to refocus on our server’s response to the hair, he would reply that the entire staff was stressed out because “all of these teachers keep showing up unannounced to eat”. We told him that our concern was not with the speed of service, but with the response of his server when we told her there was a hair in the salad. From approximately 5 inches from my face, he yelled, “Let me ask you something! Did she charge you for it?” I told him that we were not charged for it, but the server’s response was inappropriate. He angrily said he did not see what the problem was. He said if “anyone” lets him know of the Des Moines Public Schools in service next year he will be ready for us. We told him that would not be necessary for us, because we would not be coming back.

At that point he yelled, “Good! Get out! GET OUT! I don’t want any teachers here!” He started walking back toward the kitchen. We were stunned that what could have been solved with the simple statement, “Sorry about the hair in your salad, and about your server’s response to the hair” (by anyone…the server, the manager, or the owner) had escalated to this point. We turned to leave. As we were walking past other customers, we heard him yelling “Buh-bye, Teachers! Buh-Bye! Don’t come back!” We turned to look back and he was standing in the entrance to his kitchen waving. He then yelled, “Get out teachers! We don’t want you here! Go unionize!” Again, we were stunned at his bizarre behavior. Someone in the group said, “Seriously?” He replied by waving his arms in swooping arcs above his head, wildly gyrating his hips in an obscene manner, and yelling, “Hasta luego teachers! Hasta luego! GET OUT!” It was a very disturbing sight. I replied, “You need to get some counseling.” We quickly exited the restaurant with him yelling unintelligible things at us.

Mark Rodgers is listed as the owner of several area Legends Restaurants and Jimmy’s American Café. He is part owner of Fire Creek Inn. I plan to respect his “I don’t want any teachers here” proclamation. Additionally I will take every opportunity I have to help him keep his restaurants “teacher free”. Please pass this on to other teachers, people who support teachers, and people who not like to spend money to be publically berated by an out of control man.

did you write that with a typewriter? j/k

Yeap....

I can't believe the person who has the most to lose would act this way. I mean with the economy down and people spending less being too busy is a good problem. He is an embarrassment to his profession and no one should bother patronizing any of his properties.

*Edited for not paying attention.

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Originally Posted by tyrelrobert

did you write that with a typewriter? j/k

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And did you notice it was written under the ISU MBB forum?

I've had similar experiences to something like that. I ordered a draft beer and the bartender spilled it behind me when I was leaned up against the bar. She laughed about it for a minute or two and charged me for ordering another one...That place is my least favorite in downtown dm..

Seems pretty horrible. Most managers have been good to me at places where servers screwed up.

This looks like it was copy\pasted from an email. I might question the credibility of what could be a chain email with no names on it. I seriously doubt an owner would do this, much less an owner that has been successful enough to own several restaurants throughout the area.

It almost seems like they threw some drunk line cook out there to talk to you instead of the owner.

Almost as good as the Hooters manager on Undercover Boss the other night!! Only he was rude to the servers.

Sounds like a major a-hole to me. I already think the food at Legend's sucks anyway but this gives me a solid reason to tell everyone I know. I will spread the word.

FYI... Based on the guys attitude if I was in your shoes I would absolutely go to the local media with it. A restaurant manager acting that way to paying customers is absurd. I am sure there are a ton of people that would hear that story and never bother going to that dump again.

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Originally Posted by alarson

This looks like it was copy\pasted from an email. I might question the credibility of what could be a chain email with no names on it. I seriously doubt an owner would do this, much less an owner that has been successful enough to own several restaurants throughout the area.

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This is what I was thinking. Probably someone with a beef with this Rodgers fella.

Stop being bad customers?

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Originally Posted by Tarbox

Stop being bad customers?

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yea. eat you hair salads and enjoy it :jimlad:

I just got this in an e-mail forward from my wife (a teacher in a different district). From the forwards I was in the 5th in line to get it and it went all over des moines public schools.