News Flash – Oliver Kicked Out of Rio Grande Café (Reston Town Center)

Yes, my friends, this is a true story. The first time we dined at the Café with Oliver, we specifically asked if their patio was pet friendly and they said “yes”. Subsequently, we have dined there several times with him. Well, all that changed last night. We are about three quarters of the way through dinner (after waiting a half an hour for a table-I might add), when a manager-type comes over and tells us that Oliver cannot be on the patio and we’ll have to put him on the other side of the fence. We told the guy, that we have dined there several times and this has never been an issue and we even asked the first time, if they were “pet friendly”. The guy was very polite about it and said he was sorry and it was basically per his boss. (By the way, where was his “boss”?) At that point, we just decided to leave and asked for our check.

Phil had me take Oliver to the “other side of the fence” and towards the front door while he settled up the check. Long story short, Phil had an additional discussion with our server (who also never told us that Oliver could not be there) and yet another discussion with the “manager”. You can imagine how the discussion went and Phil said the manager was still very polite with him and ultimately comp’d our meal. Not to sound ungrateful, but taking care of our meal didn’t make us feel any better nor was what we were trying to accomplish.

So my friends, when you are visiting the Reston Town Center with your four-legged friend keep walking by Rio Grande Café, you are not welcome.