526 Main Dueling Piano Bar

This was our second time at 526 Main. It is a bar with dueling pianos and there were 6 in our party that came with the intention of staying until closing. Patrons beware: If there is a line waiting to get in they will take every opportunity to get you out including lying, bouncers and the Royal Oak PD. My nephews wife stepped out to put change in the parking meter, had her hand stamped for re-entry, but wasn't allowed back in by a bouncer who told her they were at capacity. Her purse was inside in her seat but they still would not let her back in. She touched the hostess on the arm to get her attention. The hostess then proceed to accuse her of being violent. Once we saw what was going on our entire party went over to the waiting area and tried to explain that we had been there all evening. We were promptly escorted out by the bouncers without our tab. One of the bouncers followed my nephew and his wife to their car and would not let them leave. I called the cops who of course told us we had to pay the tab so I went with the cops back to speak to the hostess who then proceeded to tell them that I had become beligerent and aggressive (an outright lie - I only spoke to the bouncers and was never beligerent). I asked her to see the security tape of the incident and she said she couldn't do that. I explained to the cop what was happening and all he could say was the law was on their side about the tab. I explained that none of us were trying to stiff them for the bill but we were unfairly asked to leave. He said he gets called here all the time for similar stories and that I would have to subpeona for the security tape.



Sadly, this is a great place for fun and the waitstaff was terrific both times we were there. But I'm not at all pleased about the way we were treated by the rest of the staff. Anyone patronizing 526 Main should be forewarned that if they want you out so they can get some fresh money in they have absolutely no scruples. By the way, we spent between $200 and $300 while we were there so it's really not like we were drinking water all night. I feel bad for our watiress since she got stuck in the middle of it all and lost out on a nice tip.