Back in June, Tone Deaf compiled a list of 17 Aussie Live Music Venues With Mouth-Watering Food. There’s a surprising number of live music spaces in Australia that also serve great food or even double as restaurants.
Luckily, we left Melbourne bar and restaurant slash live music venue My Handlebar, located in Brunswick, off of our list. According to freelance writer, broadcaster and public speaker Clementine Ford, it’s best to stay away from this joint.
“Just had the most APPALLING experience at a food/bar called My Handlebar on Sydney Rd,” opens Ford on a recent Facebook post, which details her allegedly less than pleasant experience at My Handlebar. The post has accrued almost 11,000 likes since being posted.
“I was out with two girlfriends. We were eating our food and a guy came up and just put his fingers into my friend’s dinner,” Ford recounts. “I put my arm up to stop him and say WTF dude, and he replied, ‘It’s okay, I’m the owner.'”
“I said I didn’t care who he was, you can’t just put your fingers in someone’s food. He acted like I was being incredible tedious and said that I didn’t understand that this was a ‘fun’ place and that it wasn’t a big deal.”
“(Yeah, because it’s always so ‘fun’ when someone puts their fingers where they’re not wanted.) I pushed the point and he grudgingly said that he would get a new meal for my friend (who also said to him explicitly, ‘I need you to know that I wasn’t okay with that.’)”
“I said I didn’t care who he was, you can’t just put your fingers in someone’s food.”“He then returned to the table and further tried to press his point. That I didn’t “get it”, that no one else ever has a problem with that kind of behaviour, that I was being difficult and ‘fucking unreasonable’.”
“At that point, we stood up to get our money refunded and he followed us to the bar and actually tried to stop the bar staff from refunding our money. He started yelling at me that I didn’t understand the place, that I’d ‘obviously never been there before’.”
“[He said] that over 100 people had booked in that evening as if quantity has ever been a measure of acceptable business behaviour and as it it excuses violating basic boundaries and HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTOCOL. I eventually yelled at him to fuck off (at which point the bar staff told me to ‘calm down’).”
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“We got our refund and then as I turned to leave, the owner said ‘Fuck off, you cunt’. I turned and said, ‘EXCUSE ME?’ He tried to deny he’d said it, arguing that he’d said something else when he clearly didn’t.”
“Then he told me I was banned, as if the thought of not being able to return to a place where a disgusting old man who fingers his customers’ food and then demands they treat it like a bit of ‘fun’ is at all devastating to me.”
“Anyway, basically avoid My Handlebar at 581 Sydney Rd, Brunswick, Victoria. I’ll be posting this ‘review’ on every restaurant and trip site I can find.” It looks like Ford’s readers have done the same, as the venue’s online ratings have dropped significantly.
We guess the primary takeaway from all of this is to avoid restaurants slash live music venues where owners allegedly stick their fingers in your food. It’s advice we never thought we’d have to dispense, but we’d hate to see this happen to anyone else.
Just had the most APPALLING experience at a food/bar called My Handlebar on Sydney Rd. I was out with two girlfriends….
Posted by Clementine Ford on Saturday, July 25, 2015
