Microsoft employees aren't letting the company's plans for an on-campus pub die quietly. A senior Xbox manager, Matt Patriot Gradwohl, has formed a Facebook group called "Bring Spitfire back to Microsoft" that has attracted nearly 70 members, many of them Microsoft workers, as of late this morning.

"I am embarassed to work at Microsoft sometimes," Gradwohl writes on the new group's page.

The reaction follows the news Friday afternoon that Microsoft has canceled plans for a Spitfire pub in the new Entertainment & Devices complex west of state Route 520 on the company's Redmond campus. Company spokesman Lou Gellos said Friday that Microsoft had reconsidered the potential impact of having a bar in the middle of a business setting.

The decision came three days before entrepreneur Jonathan Sposato and his team were to open the new pub. Sposato said Friday that he was "completely stunned and disappointed by the decision." The space was ready to go with a giant bar, a fireplace and eight beer taps -- plus 22 pub employees ready to go to work. Spitfire has an existing pub in Seattle.

The last-minute nature of the decision seems to be adding to the level of frustration. "It's way too late in the process for this reason to have killed it now," writes one member of the newly formed Facebook group.

In the comments on our original post, some readers are drawing parallels to the time when Microsoft ended complimentary towel service for employees who play sports on campus or ride their bikes to work. The towels became a lightning rod and a symbol of broader cutbacks made at the time, and the company ultimately brought them back. 

Meanwhile, Sposato said Sunday that he did not know if there was any work going on inside Microsoft to save the pub. But he said he's received a number of personal emails and Facebook messages from employees offering their support.

We're also trying to track down whether other companies serve alcohol on their corporate campuses (A TechFlash reader said Nike may have a pub). It will be interesting to see how those facilities operate.

[Follow-up: Microsoft revives Spitfire pub under compromise arrangement.]