Heaven help you if you bad-mouth the service at a top Las Vegas cocktail bar.
Branden Powers, managing partner of The Golden Tiki in Las Vegas.Getty Images
Customers who leave one-star reviews on Yelp for The Golden Tiki are incurring the wrath of managing partner Branden Powers.
While most business owners go out of their way to placate disgruntled patrons, Powers’ replies to their criticisms are eye-wateringly rude.
He calls one Yelper an “a–hole,” another a “clown,” and warns “uptight whiners and complainers” to “stay very far away from our bar.”
He also slams so-called “cheapos” for moaning about the price of the drinks and recommends they go to Burger King instead of The Golden Tiki, where celeb guests include “Ant-Man” star Paul Rudd and stand-up comic Carrot Top.
Yelper Megan D of Las Vegas, who spent $600 one night at the venue — declared a “must visit” by BestOfVegas.com — was brutally chewed out for complaining that she was carded at the door, and about the DJ playing music featuring drum machines.
“If you’re going to be an a–hole, I don’t need your money or any of your a–hole friends in my bar,” replies Powers. “Please don’t come back.”
Megan D twice misspelled the phrase “customer service,” calling it “costumer service.” Powers has some fun with that: “We don’t sell costumes so I have no idea when you talk about terrible ‘costumer service.'”
Another client, Red H., of Red Hook, Brooklyn, grumbled about the loud music and how three glasses of wine cost “$40 or more.”
“What kind of clown goes to a Tiki rum bar and orders wine to begin with?” writes Powers, whose joint is off the strip, on Spring Mountain Road. “Oh, of course, a clown named Ronald who whines about wine and music being too loud in a bar.”
Powers tells The Post that one-star-giving Yelpers who dis his bar are dissing his “whole family” of hard-working staff.
“I am more than willing to accept an honest review, but some of these self-appointed food-and-drink critics have no regard for the way a business is run and how owners have plowed their life savings into them,” he says. “It’s very easy to lie down and cower when people start firing away, but I will fire back. I don’t really put up with bullies that well.”
Indeed, in some cases, Powers’ fiery frustration seems extremely justified.
In January, foul-mouthed Robert L, of Las Vegas, Yelped: “This place has hit a new low for me. It’s literally been like f–kin 30 min if not more … and still no f–kin drink. Happy hour isn’t so happy anymore.”
The reply? “We just had an employee health emergency in case you didn’t notice the paramedics. Our bartender had a seizure behind the bar that we were dealing with. Sorry to inconvenience you.”
But, in November 2017, when Glenn D, of Las Vegas, kvetched about being seated at the bar instead of a table, Powers wryly suggests he go to Burger King instead.
“We get it. Our five-star experience isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. God knows I love a good burger sometimes over a Kobe filet,” he writes.
In a rare victory for the common man, Glen D, who left a three-star review, gets the last word. He lightheartedly responds to Powers’s reply: “I shall serve as a warning to others of how not to irritate and anger the Golden Tiki gods.”
Certainly, some of Powers’ responses are earnest and respectful, even to one-star reviewers. He thinks the whole Yelp system is unfair but admires professional critics such as those from proper publications.
Perhaps this is why the Golden Tiki was inducted into the Las Vegas Journal-Review’s “Cool Hang Hall of Fame” in December 2018.
