"It is. A women near Seattle was arrested after she complained about her terrible haircut (it was quite awful when I saw it on TV) and after arguing with the manager for a while she told him that she was not going to pay and left the salon. They called police, she was arrested and taken to jail for theft and the salon is not backing down - bad haircut or not and she will have a criminal record."

I sympathize with the woman. I've gone to a highly rated men's salon that told me they knew how to cut men's hair. They did a bad job and I still had to pay the ~$35. The only recourse, unfortunately, for services is not coming back or going out of your way to cost them business.

I'll have to diasgree. Her haircut is pretty bad. But then again, it's a $37. haircut. She got what she (didn't) pay for!

I have a feeling that this woman must be a pain-in-the-butt customer. The article says she been a customer there for 6 years. There's no way that an establishment wouldn't want to make a steady customer happy. Any salon would offer to fix it. She may be one of those customers that business' don't want.
I've been going to the same hair stylist for 15 years and she bends over backwards to keep her clients happy. She also works by referrel only and any new customer that she doesn't feel happy with, she politely asks not to come back if they call for a 2nd appointment.

Sorry, I digress...............

Back to the OP.

While I'd love to know the name of the restaurant, I certainly respect that you're not giving it out.

If I were in your situation, I'd write a letter to the owner and have the manager's lack of professional skills be the target rather than the mishap of the waitress. As we all know, "stuff" happens. Once it did, it was the managers job to make things right and he didn't.

Although no one wants a tray of drinks on them, it's really the reaction of the management that's bothering you, not the incident itself. If that's clearly expressed in your letter, the waitress should be fine.

I had an incident with a manager once in a trendy NY spot. I wrote a letter to the owner and got a personal call from him. Before calling me, he looked through the charge receipts from that night and thanked us for not taking our anger for the manager out on the waiter. (ie - we still left a big tip because it wasn't the server's fault that the manager was a jerk).
We were comped a nice dinner as well as given the unlisted number of the VIP list which were still on after 5 years!

I was hosting some friends from out of town. The three of us ladies went to a highly recommended restaurant in Tampa on restaurant row. We had a great table; however, our waiter was a bit abrupt.

The waiter brought us our drinks & accidentally spilled the entire tray right into/on my friend's brand new leather purse. Alcohol inside & out....eeeewww. The waiter simple apologized and wiped off with a cotton napkin. The waiter offered NOTHING else for this huge mess.

I excused myself from the table and asked the hostess for the manager. I explained what happened & he promptly got us another waiter. At the end of the meal he asked my friend the value of her purse, gave her his business card & within 2 weeks sent her a check to replace her purse.

I haven't been back to the restaurant; however, I thought the Manager NOT the waiter handled things well.

Travel safe

I had friends who sat at an outdoor table at the Blue Water Grill in NYC. The table collapsed (which was not their fault AFAIK), spilling their food all over them. Despite the faulty table, the restaurant still made them pay. Pretty amazing. Compared to that, the restaurant in the OP was stellar.

I honestly don't think I would've paid. Oh well.

I too would love the name of the restaurant and would like to offer 3 points as to why the OP should change his mind :

1) To help others avoid the restaurant
2) I think the fear of reprisal upon the server is unwarranted - most likely nobody from the restaurant is going to be reading this.
3) All throughout this thread it seems quite clear to me that the server did all she could in the situation. She is not the one who handled the situation poorly - it was the manager. If there should be a reprisal upon anybody it should be the manager!

Well said. ^

I wish some day we learn the name of this "well known NYC restaurant"