Johnny Utah's

My best friend surprised me for my birthday and made reservations for us. When we arrived, we did stand out because we are people of color. And I dont say that to sound as though that was a problem because its not. Im a black woman and my best friend is a dark skinned spanish woman. When we got to the host, my bff gave her her name. The host looked @ us then her list and said it wasnt there. My bf planned this ahead of time because, like I said, it was my birthday. My bf explained this to her and she still claimed it was not there. She asked if she could just pay for a tix and was told they were sold out. All of this could have been fiven the benifit of the doubt if we didnt witness ppl getting tix from the host and entering. We didnt want to automatically think we were denied because of our race but we were dressed appropiately, so we cant think of any other reason. It was very embarrassing and hurtful, especially to my friend who planned it for us. This is 2012, I didnt know places were still that racist.

My friends joined me for a night on the bull and were so disappointed when they were told that the bar was at capacity and they could not be admitted in. This was acceptable I guess but I was already inside and it was less than full with empty tables all over and plenty of room. Also, several GROUPS of caucasian people walked by and was admitted without fault when I joined my friends on the outside.



The explanation was that they were at capacity. I feel like they had reached their african-american capacity and I defer to racism as a reason for anything. It just seems odd that though there are minority employees, they were prescriptive about how many of us they would admit into the bar.



Disappointing but I will try again before I conclude that they're racist.

My initial take on this place was "this is awesome"! I was excited about sharing it with my colleagues and telling others about it! I even contemplated about having a party there and reserving a special area. However, as we waited on line for over 45 minutes to ride the bull, my excitement began to dwindle. Not to mention that 5 caucasian people stood at the front of the line very confident that they would be able to ride the bull before us. This frustrated me so I mentioned to them that we had been standing there for quite some time and they knew that we had been on line! Regardless of my statement, they antagonized me by saying "relax...don't be angry. It's just a bull ride" Knowing damn well that they would be given permission by the obnoxious and blantantly racist security guard at the front gate of the bull to go before us. This frustrated me because it had nothing to do with me being excited about the bull ride. This was strictly about the principle of it all. Therefore, why were they playing mind games withme. After the 10 minute break, the security guy returned and we exchanged some words back and forth since I wanted to explain the situation to him. However, he had already apparently made his decision about the predicament, based solely on what they had already told him. So my words meant nothing because his mind was already made up based on what they had already mentioned to him about me. Considering he was already biased by their explanation of the situation, there was nothing more I could have said or done to alter his opinion. Therefore, our exchange of words simply aggravated him. Then he had the audacity to tell me I could not ride the bull. So I proceeded to look for management during which, he communicated to all the other security guards to excort me out. WHY?! There was no valid reason. He was being blantantly discriminatory based soley on what he was told by those 5 people who had skipped the line. Therefore, my explanation and discussion with him was null and void, regardless. And all I requested was not to let them skip us. What kind of nonsense is this? I did not cause any scene, all I did is attempt to converse to him, the same way they did. Yet, their conversation was effective and mine was not. To top it off, he had the nerve to ask the other security guards to excort me out of the venue. Are you kidding me. Oh, I almost forgot. I spoke to some guy named "Rob" who I found out is actually Brendan Crann (yes, he lied about his name to me) and is was supposedly the manager; I was looking for RJ but couldn't find him/her. Anyway, I explained the situation to Brendan and he said he would speak to the security guy. Well as I followed him to see if he was going to do so, he jumped on the bull with a girl who had riden the bull several times, back to back, without waiting on line. I'm sure she was part of the same promotional group that the other 5 people were from who skipped us. Anyway, the point of this story is "there is blantant discrimination taking place at this establishment". So don't go there if you're not a regular or better yet "caucasian" person. Good luck otherwise...at the bar and on the bull....if you make it there!