By: Bite Marks #22

Bite Marks #22 — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 15:54:16 +0000

[…] of you may remember my negative experience and rant at Lab Café a few months back. It actually had me pretty much ignoring any of the new, more or less hipster […]

By: dan

dan — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 17:11:14 +0000

So, I received an email from a reader in regard to my little rant about the coffee shop above. He pointed out, rightly, that if someone had a bad experience at my restaurant I’d want the opportunity to make it right and hope that they’d give us a second chance – that one bad experience shouldn’t preclude the possibility of someone just having had an off day. And, he’s right, to an extent – there’s no question I was pissed off at the way I was treated both by a staff member and other customers (who were friends of said staff member, hanging out with him), and my “Won’t be back.” may be too final of a statement – after all, good coffee and pastries. But it’s also slightly different – first off, if I, or someone in whichever random restaurant happens to be having a bad day, it’s usually somewhat evident. There’s a difference between that and someone who was blatantly and intentionally rude to a customer, having adopted an attitude of customers are here to serve us, not the other way around. I have no problem, by the way, with their policy of ordering at the cash register and then receiving the order before sitting down – hell, it’s the model of every fast food and cafeteria style restaurant out there. But there’s nothing posted, at least that I saw, saying to do that, so there was simply no call for him being nasty about it, like I’d violated some moral precept. Second, we’ll see if someone from the place at some time reaches out to apologize and offer to make it right – without that, and yes, I realize there’s no guarantee they’ll read this column or followup, why should anyone expect a second chance? But the part that for me was the egregious insult wasn’t the whole policy thing, it was the interaction – well, lack of it – with the three friends of the barrista. They were insulting, self-entitled liars, who were backed up by the barrista’s actions. He, or they, could very easily have just asked me if I’d mind moving to another seat so they could sit together. They could have also just waited, I was just having an espresso and a small pastry, I was roughly a minute from being done when it all happened.

Comments on: Bite Marks #19

By: Bite Marks #22

By: dan