To Whom it may concern, 

Hello and good afternoon to you. My name is Raymond Linares, and I am a local filmmaker and Cinematographer here in the city of Miami. Last night, my girlfriend and I attended the opening of Touché lounge for an evening dinner reservation, as she was invited to sample the female vip menu. 

We came accompanied by two friends of ours, a girl friend of hers and our personal photographer. As active members in the Miami entertainment industry, we make it a point to be involved in the community, and look for ways to promote new and local business whenever we can. We take great pride in our city. 

Upon arriving to your establishment, we were excited and expected a warm greeting and gracious hospitality from your servers and managerial staff. Especially from a new opening tied to the name of a famous and successful chef, we expected also that the wait staff's presentation and execution would be flawless. Unfortunately we were very disappointed to that end. 

The hostess and greeting staff seemed aloof and disorganized when presented with our arrival. They did not seem aware that the couches, lining the perimeter of the interior lounge were soaked from the rain, and allowed us to walk around the area, basically touching each of the cushions to see if indeed they were wet, before settling into a position close to the entrance that was dry. Upon greeting us when we were finally seated, our waitress was flat in her introduction to us and didn't seem gracious in her opening greetings at all. 

Our female guests proceeded to order their drinks from their select menu, whilst I and my photographer asked for water. Seeing as I was driving, and he was there to take photos (which came out excellent by the way), I didn't feel it necessary for us to be drinking off the bat. Our waitress informed us that your establishment only serves bottled water to which we gladly accepted. 

When we placed our order, our ladies ordered their meals and desserts, whilst I ordered something for myself and the photographer to sample that wasn't on the ladies' menu. As our food arrived, and before we could even begin to taste any of the food, one of your floor managers introduced himself to our table, and informed us that he would have to charge us for any of the food that was eaten off the ladies menu by the male guests as it was intended solely for them. His demeanor and disposition was really quite forward, presumptuous and rude and set a bad precedent for the rest of our dining experience during the evening. 

I suppose he didn't look closely at our table to see that I had ordered food for ourselves, or think that I would have ordered another $100 in drinks if we found the food satisfactory, but he did accomplish ensuring that my guests and I would not spend $1 more than we had to during our dining experience. He guaranteed that your business made less money that evening than they could have, and guaranteed that a group of well connected professionals in marketing and entertainment would not suggest to their friends and clients to dine at your establishment in the future. 

The rest of the evening did not progress in much better fashion. The wait staff was very inattentive to our table throughout the evening. Considering the lounge area was largely empty, almost the entirety of the night, it would be a stretch to imagine that a properly trained waitress could tend their table only 2 in the span of an hour. Further more the buss staff showed lack of proper table etiquette when serving and removing dishes from our table. So far as to begin clearing the table and our dishes without asking if we were ready for our plates to be cleared. That included taking a plate of unfinished food from one of our guests. 

I had to wait an additional ten minutes before I could get the attention of our waitress and ask for our bill. Upon receiving my bill, I noticed several errors. Firstly, my plate of food which was marked on the menu at $14 was over priced on my bill by $5. We then noticed that since your bar doesn't offer water in a glass, that our aforementioned bottles of water were priced to us at a convenient $8 per bottle. Not once did our waitress mention to us that our waters would be so expensive, or take the opportunity to up-sell the waters into a mixed beverage from the bar. Again, a lack of polish and understanding of the menu and loss of conversion for your business. But fine, I understand. 

Furthermore, when the bill was corrected to show the correct price on my plate, we were hit with a mandatory 20% gratuity. Now, I'm not sure if you or your business is aware, but operating with a mandatory service gratuity without having it clearly printed on the menu or announced to a patron ahead of their service is in fact against state law and is an illegal practice. 

Specifically, citing... Florida Statute 509.214 clearly indicates that "Every public food service establishment which includes an automatic gratuity or service charge in the price of the meal shall include on the food menu and on the face of the bill provided to the customer notice that an automatic gratuity is included.". 

Now, as a business, and a fairly new one at that, I would be wholly vested in ensuring that the initial procurement of guest experiences at my establishment, are ones of utmost satisfaction, and that there would be little to no chance of potential negative responses to the dining experience of my restaurant. As such, your staff did very, very little to ensure that and were dry and rude to me and my guests and have lost our business forever. 

Now, as an establishment, who so wholeheartedly failed at providing a quality experience, to members of local media, who were looking to actively promote a new business in our city, you have before you a couple options. You can do something on our behalf to smooth over this debacle. Or you can further enrage a set of talented media professionals to very actively share their incredibly negative experience with their respective friends, family and clients and ensure that a broader network of people take their business elsewhere. 

The choice is yours. 

Good day.