The guy asked for a pale ale. The waitress said they're out of that particular pale and mistakenly suggested a saison as a substitute. The guy bluntly says "that's not even a pale ale" and walks out.
I was not there, so all I have to go on is his version of the story; however, my sense is that her neutral reaction was her way of dealing with a rude customer. He seems to have taken her passive reaction as "OMG she works in the Taphouse and she doesn't even care that was a saison (which happens to be an ale that is pale in appearance) and not a Pale AleTM." Also, bear in mind that the beer menu is written on a chalkboard - which would indicate to me it frequently changes.
Walking out in the manner described IS a dick move. The one who needs to lighten up is the guy who walks out of a bar because a waitress made a mistake in a beer recommendation.
Also, what probably happened is the waitress walked up to the bar and asked the bartender to pull a pale ale; at which point, the bartender told her "Uhhh... we just ran out of that. Ask if they want the Boulevard Tank 7 instead."
I have not read all 614 of the previous pages of the thread, but I would guess that if this is the 14th or 15th time this has come up, then this is probably the 14th or 15th time someone posted a story about how they reacted in an childish manner to a near-minimum-wage employee who appeared to not fully grasp the nuances of various beer styles on the menu.
1) He went in to a bar -- one that calls itself a taphouse -- specifically for a certain beer they were purported to serve.
2) Said beer, as well as another from the same brewery, were listed on the CHALKboard (as opposed to professionally printed, permanent menuboard) as being on tap
3) Waitress, when asked, did not know if those beers were available (which right there tells me either they've been out of stock for some time, or they move such little volume that she doesn't remember pulling one in the last day or two at at minimum)
4) Waitress and/or bartender makes a "hey, craft beer is craft beer" suggestion of a substitution. While not a BAD substitution, a different style is a different style.
Look at it this way: If you walked in to a nice restaurant that has a sign outside advertising prime rib, which you order... when the waitress comes back and says they're out of prime rib, is a suggestion of salmon a reasonable substitute? No - I came in expecting to order dead cow.
Or, in more similar terms; if I go in to Applebees or Famous Dave's, I don't expect the waitress or bartender to have even a basic knowledge of beers outside of the BMC realm. They might have a craft or two available, but odds are pretty good they don't know anything about them. In an establishment like that, I'll take my frosted glass with the orange (or lemon) garnish on the rim and quietly drink my beer. And if they're out of what I order, I'll refer back to the menu instead of expecting them to offer another option. But if I walk in to Old Chicago, I expect the guy/gal behind the bar to have a working knowledge of the beers they've got, and be able to reference styles - as well as serve the beer properly. The waitresses working the tables, it's nice if they know the beers, but my experience has been also they are not afraid to say "I don't know, let me go ask the bartender"
And, frankly, you're probably reading too much into the original post. He said he left. He didn't say "we stomped out and slammed the door". It could have been a polite, "No, thanks, I think we'll go elsewhere." Either way, it's not his fault the establishment failed to update their (easily changed) menu.
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