I've been a loyal customer for years at Barnacles because they have awesome food. I've eaten at the outdoor area with my dog three times before. The first time I actually called ahead of time before going there to see if it was okay to have my dog with me if I ate in the outdoor area. The receptionist checked with the manager at the time and said that it was okay. The last time I ate there with my dog was actually this past Sunday. I brought my dog again with me when I went to Barnacles yesterday. The manager went to me and told me I cannot eat there with my dog. I told him that I've eaten there with my dog on three other occasions. He said that the managers during those days don't know what they are doing. He said that there is some kind of health issue that prohibits customers from having a dog at a food establishment even if it was outdoors. I knew that that was not true. There are many outdoor restaurants around Tampa that are dog friendly. The only health issue I see is if a waiter or waitress decides to pet the dog and later handles the food without washing his or her hands. But as far as I'm concern, that is not the customer's problem. That would be the restaurant's problem for not letting their employees know what they should or should not do. Not even the awesome food was going to let me leave my dog in the car especially when it was about 90 degrees. So I decided to just leave without making a scene. As I was walking to my car in the parking lot, an employee chased me down and apologized. He said that there was something passed recently that said that customers CAN eat at outdoor restaurants with their dogs. He said that the manager was not aware of this. He told me that if I was still interested, I can go ahead and eat there. I probably may have reconsidered if the manager was the one who chased me down and apologized instead of someone else apologizing for him. So I just left and probably would never return...with or without my dog.
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