Woman goes to Oklahoma bar, then she’s asked to pay before her food even arrives. But was it policy or something else?

When dining out at a restaurant, there’s a sequence: ordering, eating, and paying the check. There’s rarely a case where the inverse would occur. Except for this Oklahoma woman, who was forced to fork over the entire bill before even ordering anything.

However, this was the tip of the iceberg of what she believed was an avalanche of discriminatory behaviors she faced during her night there.

What Happened At O Bar?

While inside O Bar, located in the Ambassador Hotel, customer Ruby (@billythebadasshorsepg2) films the female worker named Abigail, who allegedly discriminated against her and her sister. This was after they were asked to pay before getting their meal.

“Out of that $190, I’ve only received $103 back,” Ruby’s sister says, counting out the money that was returned to her. “I’ve never had this and I’ve come here before.”

As her sister and Abigail discuss the refund, she turns to a male manager standing in front of the door.

“We had a really horrible treatment, and I just want you to know that I’ve been here many times,” she says.

Before Ruby continues, Abigail darts between them, allegedly bumping past her, and summarizes the incident.

“When we first got here, our initial interaction with him,” the content creator says, panning the camera to another male worker at the digital register. “Extremely kind of possessive when it came to paying our tab, which we were gonna pay regardless.”

The Situation Escalates

From there, she says, there were a multitude of problems. First, she says the oysters never arrived. Next, Ruby criticizes how Abigail exacerbated the situation instead of fixing it. As the content creator relays her concerns to the male manager, Abigail interjects.

“We gotta go,” Abigail remarks. “We’re done here. I’m also a manager. I’m calling the police.”

Once Abigail storms off, the TikToker resumes her complaints. “My problem is that we paid for our order, we didn’t have a problem,” she recounts. “She came outside to talk to us, started to get hostile and aggressive and said, ‘You’re not gonna continue to order. You’re gonna leave.’”

The male manager’s response? “I apologize that this is the situation. Look, I’m sure there are other stories. I just walked into this,” he replies.

What Led To This?

In a follow-up clip, Ruby shared what led to the viral video. She sat outside in the patio section of O Bar with a drink in her hand.

“I don’t know why we’re a threat to this establishment. It’s actually depressing,” she said. “I have no idea what happened at O Bar. My sister ordered some oysters that never came about 20 minutes ago. She gave this man $120 and he had the nerve to say, ‘Do you want your tip back?’”

Afterward, Abigail allegedly checked on them about the issue, which the camera never filmed.

“She was confrontational,” the content creator said. The next clip shows Abigail talking to them.

“You’re making me even more uncomfortable,” Ruby told Abigail. “You’re standing in front of me. You don’t need to mediate anything.”

“I’m uncomfortable with guests being uncomfortable and service being uncomfortable,” Abigail remarked.

Has O Bar Remedied This?

“I talked to the general manager,” Ruby revealed in another update. “He did offer us a chance to come back and get a free meal.”

Then, she unveiled the phone call transcript on record.

“Based on the review, we do believe that our team members followed our operating procedures related to payment service,” a male voice, the alleged general manager, stated. “And the employees appropriately involved management.”

In the same vein, he backtracked on his original statement. “We do recognize their opportunities that things could’ve been handled differently,” he explained, adding, “but that’s why we’re taking this seriously to implement additional team training to reinforce hospitality and communication standards moving forward.”

In a nutshell, Ruby deemed the dialogue as “a waste of my life” after he kept contradicting his statements.

Has Anything Like This Occurred At O Bar Before?

Upon reading the O Bar Yelp reviews, there have been previous customers of all backgrounds critical of the establishment.

Across the board, people have condemned the company for the “terrible service,” “rude employees,” and “long wait times,” with most vowing to never return again.

Even another woman shared how her server allegedly carded her and her husband for being “of a certain demographic” and had an appalling experience.

On the other hand, the same server treated a group of younger men vastly differently.

“They asked for more seating, she brought them more seats and blocked in our table. The the cherry on top of everything, she asked what they wanted to drink WITHOUT ASKING FOR THEIR ID!!!!! These guys next too us looked very young, I guess they were part of that DEMOGRAPHIC she didn’t have to ID,” the reviewer wrote. 

@billythebadasshorsepg2

Did Abigail have to walk between us and touch me with her shoulder not once but twice ?! Or is it just me or does ambassador hotel treat every black person or person of color discriminatory?

♬ original sound – Kay Unique

The Mary Sue reached out to Ruby via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment as well as Ambasador Hotel Oklahoma via contact form.

Update:

During an interview with The Mary Sue, Ruby revealed she’d been to O Bar about a handful of times and never had this experience. She provided more detailed context about the incident. As soon as she and her sister entered the establishment, she says she was forced to pay. 

“The issue started immediately when we attempted to place our order. Before the waiter even put our ticket in, he gave us an estimated total of around $120 and stated that we needed to pay before ordering,” she shared via Instagram direct message. “After he entered the order, he returned with the receipt and stated we needed an additional $20. My sister then had to dig through her purse to pull out more cash while he stood directly over us waiting.”

Then, she elaborated on why she felt the male employee’s behavior was possessive.

“Because of how closely he hovered over us while watching us pull money out of our purses, almost as if he assumed we did not have the money to pay. It made us feel uncomfortable, singled out, and embarrassed,” she explained. 

When she gave Abigail her honest opinion about the service, she says the situation intensified. 

“The situation escalated after Abigail approached us and asked how our experience with the original waiter had been. We answered honestly and explained that we felt the service had been poor and unfair. Instead of addressing the concern professionally, she responded by telling us we could leave,” she recalled. “When I attempted to calmly speak with another manager about what had happened, Abigail repeatedly interrupted and ultimately threatened to call the police. I do not know whether she actually followed through because she walked away saying she was calling them while I continued speaking with the other manager.” 

After the incident, a couple of men sympathized. 

“Two gentlemen who had originally welcomed us to sit with them witnessed the interaction. They remained there through most of the incident and later apologized to us on behalf of the restaurant,” she shared. “They specifically stated they were sorry we had to go through that experience and that it was unacceptable. They eventually left after Abigail told us we needed to leave.”

From what Ruby gathered in her comments section, apparently she wasn’t the only one to allegedly experience this.

“Since posting my experience online, I have seen many other people come forward with complaints involving the same manager and similar treatment. I have also seen comments from multiple minority patrons, including African American and Hispanic individuals, describing experiences they believed were discriminatory,” she revealed. “One Caucasian woman even shared that she had never been asked to pay in advance until she visited O Bar with her mixed daughter and African American boyfriend.”

So far, she hasn’t made any progress with O Bar. However, it has damaged Ruby’s health. 

“This situation had a serious personal impact on me. Last year I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease that can be triggered or worsened by stress,” she revealed. “After this incident, my body became extremely tense and I experienced what I would describe as an MS episode that left me bedridden for three days. It was humiliating to be treated as if we were a threat or problem simply because we voiced concern about how we were being treated.”

Now, the content creator intends to take this situation upon herself. 

“As of now, I am actively seeking legal representation regarding the situation,” she stated. “As far as returning to O Bar again, I honestly do not feel comfortable doing so after the way we were treated.”

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