Grammar stickler: Starbucks booted me

Sheesh!
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Starbucks' strange vernacular finally drove a customer nuts.

Lynne Rosenthal, a college English professor from Manhattan, said three cops forcibly ejected her from an Upper West Side Starbucks yesterday morning after she got into a dispute with a counterperson -- make that barista -- for refusing to place her order by the coffee chain's rules.

Rosenthal, who is in her early 60s, asked for a toasted multigrain bagel -- and became enraged when the barista at the franchise, on Columbus Avenue at 86th Street, followed up by inquiring, "Do you want butter or cheese?"




"I just wanted a multigrain bagel," Rosenthal told The Post. "I refused to say 'without butter or cheese.' When you go to Burger King, you don't have to list the six things you don't want.

"Linguistically, it's stupid, and I'm a stickler for correct English."

Rosenthal admitted she had run into trouble before for refusing to employ the chain's stilted lexicon -- balking at ordering a "tall" or a "venti" from the menu or specifying "no whip."

Instead, she insists on making a pest of herself by ordering a "small" or "large" cup of joe.

Yesterday's breakfast-bagel tussle heated up when the barista told the prickly prof that he wouldn't serve her unless she specified whether she wanted a schmear of butter or cheese -- or neither.

"I yelled, 'I want my multigrain bagel!' " Rosenthal said.

"The barista said, 'You're not going to get anything unless you say butter or cheese!' "

But Rosenthal, on principle, refused to back down.

"I didn't even want the bagel anymore," she said.

The bagel brouhaha escalated until the manager called cops, and responding officers ordered her to leave, threatening to arrest her if she went back inside, she said.

"It was very humiliating to be thrown out, and all I did was ask for a bagel," recalled Rosenthal, who said she holds a Ph.D. from Columbia.

"If you don't use their language, they refuse to serve you. They don't understand what a plain multigrain bagel is."

A Starbucks employee who witnessed the incident blamed Rosenthal.

"She would not answer. It was a reasonable question," the worker said.

"She called [the barista] an a- -hole."

An NYPD spokesman confirmed that officers were called to the coffee shop but said he was unaware of anyone being tossed out.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/venti_size_fury_A0uKw71Ky1UAOksmbjrBhI

"If " she is married ,,,, I sure feel sorry for her husband......

That entire starbucks thing is nuts. They are nuts. Anybody that buys from them is nuts. I'll take a 24oz black coffee at $1.25 from the BP across the street anyday over that burnt tasting starbucks crap that is way overpriced. Yuck. I agree the with the woman.
And then having to use their lingo. Bah humbug.

I work in NYC, I go to Stabucks, very infrequently, I order using "My terms" and give them a smile and act dumb, I go out the door with what I want. No problem.

On yes! Their coffee is yucky, Their frapacino's are great! If she was snooty, that infrequently has good results in NYC.

Their store, their rules, their lingo. Don't like it, don't go.

I go to Starbucks a couple times a week. Almost always the same store, they know me and know my order and make it up just like I like it. But I drink one of their 'fru-fru' drinks with a funny name. Personally I think their regular coffee is horrid crap, I wouldn't serve it to a prisoner let alone a friend. But their fancy stuff is pretty tasty.

Now all that said, this women is just rude.

I understand her the way she ordered, but she was then asked a follow up question of if she wanted butter or cheese. Simple question. She was a rude b***h not to give a simple answer. She could have said 'just a whole grain bagel' or she could have said 'neither' and both would have been reasonable. But what she did was refuse to answer the follow up question.

So if she goes into McD's and orders a hamburger and the clerk follows up with "what do you want on it?" I have to suspect that she will be pissed off and kicked out of there too. Or if they give it to her with mustard, ketchup, onions and a pickle, which is their default way of serving it will she be pissed off because she only wanted a plain burger?

Seems like that is the same thing.

Both Starbucks & McDonalds offer it one way as standard but are willing to alter it to your desires. If you go to McDonalds you must specify a PLAIN hamburger if you don't want condiments. If you go into Starbucks and order the bagel it comes with either butter or cheese as standard offerings included in the price. You must specify which you choose, or if you choose neither you say so.

So this crabby old biddy is now a martyr for her cause. Screw her. And its obvious from the story that she has been there before causing trouble. Too bad the police didn't arrest her and too bad the author of the story is such an idiot that he didn't dig a bit deeper to expose her as the b***h she is (and yes, that is poor sentence construction, on purpose!).

FWIW, I never order a "vente" or whatever they call it, but I have ordered medium (grande) and large (vente) and they got it right without giving me any grief.

Got to agree with MD , i,m betting this aint her first or last time . Bottom line is she got what she wanted in the end , Her 15 seconds of fame Period . Hell i can see that by the shit eatin grin on the ole prunes face

Hell, I would have kicked her out of my store for that kind of behavior. Yamn Dankee intellectual know-it-all.

With her degree you would think she could flip the switch on a coffeemaker!

I still hate the entire Starbucks thing.

I like French Roast (burnt) coffee. I had an old guy get in my face at a starbucks (in a hospital) actually calling me stupid for buying it and I finally had to tell him to get away from me. My starbucks was 1.70 and White Castle as 1.55. Why is this such a big deal to some people?

Anyone care to start a pool ad to weather she gets free coffee out of it?

She should keep her uppity nose out of Starbucks from now on.

Some people go out of their way to be a thorn in the side of the common man...barista in this case. The only truly negative experience I had during my college years came from the English department. Those professors had an arrogance that I will never forget. Let's face it, a Phd in English just means you have

Piled
higher &
deeper.

FWIW, I wouldn't hit a dog in the ass with a cup of Starbucks burnt coffee. I get my daily coffee at Speedway...any size Speedway reusable cup for $.79, including specialty and Cappuccino coffees. Buy 6 cups any size, get one any size free. IMO, Wal-Mart Arabica coffee is better than Starbucks, and it's a whole lot cheaper.

After reading the post about Ms Rosenthal's request at Starbucks
the word that comes to mind SETUP.
And I belive she knew it.
Why didn't she ask for "a plain toasted multigrain begel".