Who knew a little late-night tweet from a customer would spark a chain of events that would turn a new Heights restaurant into the topic of international news stories? Here’s the basic outline of what went down over the weekend at Down House: Customer, after a few beers, sends out tweet about bar staff. Off-duty bar manager doesn’t like tweet, calls up bar and asks to speak to customer. After a brief exchange, customer is asked to leave. Queue . . . the TV news! The Huffington Post! Gizmodo! Time magazine! The Daily Mail!
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Except, of course, as Katherine Shilcutt documents exhaustively, the Sunday-night episode was a little more complicated than that. The customer, Allison Matsu, is a popular local Twitter personality who had recently won a Houston Press award precisely for her late-night tweets. (“She can also stir a fine shit storm when the mood strikes,” read the accompanying accolade, in part.) Matsu claims Down House manager Forrest deSpain yelled and cursed at her in the phone call. Matsu’s offending 140 characters:
I like how I’m sitting at Down House and the twerp behind the bar is saying, ‘and I quote Bobby Heugel….’ #jackoff.
Matsu had apparently been under the impression that the bartender’s reference to the local cocktail expert — who runs Anvil and is working on opening a craft beer bar called the Hay Merchant in the former Chances space on Westheimer — that she had overheard was less respectful than it should have been. But she says she chatted with the bartender for at least half an hour after she sent out the tweet, anyway. Until the phone rang.
DeSpain and Down House owner Chris Cusack, of course, tell the story a bit differently. DeSpain tells Shilcutt he “was agitated that someone would bully his bartender.” And Heugel, who Matsu thought she was standing up for, turns out to be one of Down House’s strongest supporters. In a series of tweets yesterday, he expressed anger at the whole drama — and especially at Matsu and an email she apparently sent him after the incident. She’s now banned from visiting Anvil as well, he announces: “Damn I’m pissed. We spend so much time trying to develop relationships throughout Hou and promote the city and THIS is what makes natl news.”
But really, what new business wants any customer complaining on Twitter that they had been run out of their establishment in tears? (And worse — as Matsu and at least one sympathizer claimed — that their Twitter accounts had been blocked and unfollowed?) And then for that kind of story to go viral?
Sadly, corporate crisis management consultants usually don’t work this kind of beat. But now, maybe, after laying low for a bit, there are signs that there may have been a change of strategy at the Charles Darwin-themed restaurant in the former Heights Bank building at 1801 Yale. From the DownHouseHTX Twitter account, which deSpain runs, came this offer, only a few hours ago: “Give us your most creative most insulting tweet about DH and I will award a $50 gift certificate to the best one. Let’s go!”
A few minutes later, after followers asked what hashtag they should include with their insults, the tweet went out again, slightly adjusted: “Use #jackoff.”
- Restaurant Ejects Diner for Tweeting While Eating – UPDATED [Eating Our Words]
- Down House Houston
Photo: The Loop Scoop
Live in the neighborhood, food is good but the attitude is a little too high and mighty. That is saying a lot coming from a Heights resident.
Private club license come – and they go………..
so let me get this straight: a restaurant customer tweets #jackass about the bartender in front of her because he’s talking about another bar owner and the owner of the restaurant sees this and throws said tweeter out ? is this overinflated ego or someone thinking they’re just way too important? seems to me this is much todo about nothing and rates about the level of: “who cares”..
i’d better stay out of downhouse now lest the owner sees this message.. too bad too.. i heard it was a cool place..
Popular local twitter personality. Why do people give a crap? I don’t use twitter and I wonder why people care about other people’s random comments and opinions. I’m thinking that if this woman wasn’t on twitter, she would more than likely be a nobody. Sounds self-absorbed to me. It seems like there must be a better way to spend one’s time.
Just an observation….
So, if she called the bartender a twerp in person, no one would have a problem saying she was out of line and should be asked to leave. But, if she tweets the same thing to thousands of people, Down House is supposed to serve her with a smile? If she is just going to places to stir up fodder for her twitter account, then I am glad that Down House stood up for itself. The folks that run Down House have worked their butts off and taken a big risk bringing a great new place to the Heights in the middle of a bad economy. If a patron has no respect for their business, that patron should be shown the door. Just because you are in a service industry doesn’t mean you have to check your self respect at the door. I hope the press results in a major bump for Down House’s business. And I hope people who inhabit the twitter-verse is not a fictional fairy land where people’s actions have no consequences.
@zippy_slug the offending tweet was perceived by many based on the woman’s past tweets, as an insult against the bartender for droppng Bobby’s name. The bartender in question is actually a friend of Bobby’s and was not talking smack about him.
It’s unfortunate that the person made an insulting comment about someone based on an overhead conversation. And I think management was justified in standing up for their employee. If it had been a comment about bad service or food, management should have reached out an rectified the problem. But they shouldn’t have to put up with unjustified insults.
Edit:
And I hope people who inhabit the twitter-verse understand that it is not a fictional fairy land where people’s actions have no consequences.
Haven’t been to this place and this incident alone probably would influence my decision to go but heard about their arrogance from friends that visited it…. enough for me not to want to go. I am sorry but Houston has too many excellent places to eat so I’ll just take my money elsewhere!
Wait, let me get this straight. A “popular local twitter personality” chastises a local bartender for name-dropping WHILE SHE NAME-DROPS HERSELF? If Down House needs any help choosing vocabulary in which to cuss this twitter twerp in the future, tell them to call me.
Oh, and I never heard of her. Can’t be that popular.
Sparky:
Why do people give a crap? I don’t use twitter and I wonder why people care about other people’s random comments and opinions.
How could you possibly see the usefullness of it if you’ve never used it?
That’s like saying “I don’t see why people love ice cream. I’ve never had it, and I wonder why other people enjoy it so much.”
What a bunch of fucking drunks…
I am with Old School and although Glass Wall is my fave, I am adding Down House to the list. Major kudos to a manager who sticks up for his employees.
Wow. First, the woman had several, if not many, drinks. Sounds like the off-duty manager did too. Way too many. So, in my view, this is all awash in the bad judgment produced by good alcohol.
Nonetheless, the story is about the damage produced of cyber-bullying. The manager was obviously responding with fear. The tweeter was indifferent to the damage her comments might cause to a working staff, and the livelihood of others. I am happy this discussion is happening because too many dismiss the harm caused by criticism in cyber space. Let’s hope people listen to only those who deserve to be heard in the future.
I am guessing, (and that’s all it is) that this woman is not one of them.
Being an ass of a customer gets you shown the door. Good management realizes that the customer is not always right and stands up for his staff and other patrons. Being an ass online is no different. That is not the customer you want.
Whether Down House was justified in kicking out a paying customer will forever be a she said/he said issue of just how the true-story occurred, but in the end despite their creative attempt at PR with $50 game the owner and the GM of Down House will be remembered as being idiotic for doing what they did. They alone created the story by kicking her out, causing a much bigger story than was ever possible. Whether what they did was right or wrong (they can plead “protecting our bartender” all they want while paying them very little with no health insurance), either way they will forever be known “as that place that kicked out that twitter person”. And that aint good for business. It was an amateur mistake that clearly they would take back if they could. … and a year from now I guarantee the GM who made this mistake will be “pursuing other opportunities”.
Yeah, much ado about nothing.
This incident hardly needed yet another web mention here. There’s nothing to see here people, please move along.
This is more publicity than Down House was every going to get for serving decent food with hit or miss service.
dbhouston (#13) has it right… patronizing a business demands a mutually respectful relationship. If someone publicly says something obnoxious for no good/apparent reason, the manager has every right (and duty) to ask them to leave. If something happened, and she was airing her displeasure with the restaurant, fine – but 140 characters is not enough space to explain herself.
Interesting story. Confirms my sense from two visits that attitude exceeds achievement at Down House. What is next, tossing people if they don’t express admiration for uneven food and middling service?
But the bacon is really good. I have to give them that.
Way too inbred, who has time for all this? Haven’t been there, heard food is good, service more along the lines of Austin casual. Chill.
If any of you guys are into reality TV and haven’t scanned through the hundreds of comments on the Houston Press story, you should.
Pop yourself a big bowl of popcorn and settle in…
Not sure who the bigger dumbass is. Someone “tweeting” that they didn’t like someone (wtf is a “local twitter personality” anyway?), or an off-duty manager that cared enough about the tweet to actually call and have her removed.
.
So someone tweets that they think the place sucks. Big deal. Is the management that obsessive that they constantly scan twitter for negative comments? Give me a break…
Down House will continue to get my business, and Allison Matsu will continue to be a nobody in my mind.
Agree with Local Charm. Decent food but give up the attitude. Too pretentious. I don’t need my bill given to me in a book . . . Origin of Species or otherwise.
Maybe this publicity will help DownHouse justify their grosly overpriced food. The food is good, but 13 bucks for 6 bites of rattatoille (peasant food) seems a bit rediculous to me.
Great decor, fantastic beers, good tasting food, but the attitude needs to evolve =].
I personally am not a twitter person, but to think that a popular twitter personality can not be influential is naive. I’m frequently impressed/baffled by the amount of influence Tweets can have.
And yet again I post the collective eye-roll… I’ve been to Downhouse, had a great drink, had the crappy service, don’t follow Ms. Matsu or use Twitter (I’m just not that into myself). The rabid response from the DH community is now at a point where it is doing more damage than good, in terms of publicity, target markets, etc. While a bar on Warshington (intended) expects to be a flash in the pan, I assume that the DH owners want better. The whole situation reeks of the scene in Goodwill Hunting ~ How u like them apples… That this is the result of being called a twerp or jackhole elicits this extreme of a response is amazing to me. I am probably referred to in a more extreme verbiage on a daily basis. Everyone needs to take a moment to reflect, put our big boy/girl underwear on and grow up. That, or think of the new Walmart up the road… the baiting that goes on in those discussions on Swamplot are immeasurably more entertaining…
Much Queefs About Nothing.
The upside for me to the whole shitstorm is that now i know “local Twitter personality” is an actual thing.
I take this whole affair as a cautionary tale. I don’t tweet much, if at all, but I follow a lot of news sources on Twitter as part of my job. You might not like or use Twitter, but if you own or run a business, you have to regard it and understand its positives and negatives. Think twice, tweet once and don’t underestimate the chances of ANYTHING going viral. Playing nice is always best.
Anybody out having beers on Sunday night deserves bad service.
Chick has issues.
Put down the mobible device folks and hold your head high!
There is an entire world to see!
sounds like a plant–are we sure this wasn’t a story planted for publicity? and btw, the food is way overpriced, service is somewhere between arrogant and non-existent and…horrors! the bacon isn’t really that good…
who cares.. they have the best god damn chicken sandwich in all of Texas
“Local Twitter Personality” huh? It sounds to me like the original exchange was a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. My personal experience is that I’ve now been to eat at Down House 4 times and every time I’ve had friendly service and great food. Maybe it’s because I’m not a bar customer or maybe because I try not to cop an attitude with the wait staff. Respect and friendliness is a two way street–specially in the food biz.
One of the worst customer experiences of my life…I agree the attitude is a lot of “high and mighty” for me. Especially for a place just starting up.
Not worth paying for overpriced drinks and rude service.