We wanted to grab a nightcap (or two) after dinner with friends, and The Dickens was conveniently located with high ratings — despite (or maybe because of) its vicinity to Times Square, and it features a martini bar on the second floor. The perfect choice then, we thought, being passionate martini drinkers and having just had a pretty excellent experience at Bathtub Gin in Chelsea before our dinner: an extensive gin selection, a very knowledgeable and friendly bartender, and a very good, dry AF martini. One couple who met us there lives only 2 blocks up and had never heard of it… but they’ll def be back after enjoying a perfect gimlet. But that was in Chelsea, and this was not. So very, very much not 
The bar was hopping, but we lucked out & found 4 spots at the bar. The dude behind the bar was initially friendly and chatty, but unfortunately, things went south pretty quickly from there. Our friends don’t really care for martinis, but I’d told them about the Martinez earlier in the evening at the other bar, and thought it might be more to their liking. They were eager to try it.
The bartender huffily declared that he had “never in his 21 years of bartending heard of this drink,” and seemed to imply we had made the drink up 
I showed him the (well-known) recipe on my phone, so he could actually do his job and make the drink for our friends, and my PIC’s comment that it was, in fact, the OG martini seemed to offend him so much that he accused him of “mansplaining.” 
We’ll never know if it was his embarrassment over not being familiar with one of the most classic (not to mention basic) cocktails or just plain bitchiness, but — after delivering a reasonably drinkable version of it — he seemed to have passed his serving duties onto his colleague, whose obnoxious attitude towards us was in no way inferior to his.
She lectured our friend about how to handle the water pitcher (we had to fill and refill our water glasses ourselves, as she certainly wasn’t going to), and was overall such a poster child for the hostility business we tipped exactly 10%. I regret that we left anything, TBH. It was a busy night, so this likely had no major effect on their bottom line.
