6/11/12
2 stars
The 45-Minute Pizza-Joint Table Waiting Game
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Readers, please note: This is not based on an actual dining experience at Cafe Reyes. If I have one in the future, I'll update my review. (7/15/17)
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After a long hike, wood-fired oven pizza looks and smells really good at 7pm on a Sunday evening. Virtually no one is outside this spacious joint, and, seeing no sign of a host or greeter, the two of us walk in to check it out.
Almost no one is inside either: Of perhaps 20 tables, only two are occupied, so we grab a small table.
A guy (who appears to be the only person working) comes out to bus an adjacent table, so (just to make sure) I ask if it's OK for us to sit anywhere. He says yes.
About 10 minutes later, a couple walks up to the empty bar across the room, and a different man appears from the back. He tells them the wait for a table is 45 minutes.
They glance dubiously around the essentially empty dining room. Barring further explanation, they leave, looking perplexed.
I start walking toward the bar as someone else pays for their food. (The man says it's $45 but let's call it $40 with the local discount.)
Once he completes the transaction, I ask, did I hear you say that the wait for a table is 45 minutes? He says yes, adding that he'd noticed us sit down (!) but we need to vacate that table and let him know if we want to put our name on the list. I say, but the bus person told us it was fine and no one else appears to be waiting.
His response: I'm sorry he told you that; nevertheless, the wait is 45 minutes.
Another couple enters, approaches the bar, and asks for glasses of wine. The man tells them it will be 45 minutes before he can serve them. They say, but we only want to order wine. With a straight face, he repeats (totally sounding as if he's on auto-pilot) that it will be 45 minutes.
Puzzling over that response as it echoes off the walls, they say, seriously(?), and leave.
At no point does he offer any explanation to potential customers, like "Despite the look of things, we're way understaffed tonight and I'm working the kitchen to help keep up with the to-go orders."
This bizarre experience (plus reading other folks' reviews here) raises various questions and possible scenarios...
* When he first spotted us, was he (not to mention the person busing tables) really too busy to take half a minute to proactively inform us of the 45-minute wait?
* Were they unexpectedly understaffed that evening? Or do they generally just have the same number of staff seven days a week despite the opportunity to cash in on the weekend influx of people from other towns?
* Had we just missed a big rush after which the staff was catching up in the kitchen?
* Had a party of, say, 100 made a reservation, or had someone called in a to-go order for like 23 pizzas? (Or maybe the dining guests and the crowd of folks waiting to get in were all invisible, or perhaps most tables were just oven-heat mirages.)
* Why not post a note or a do-it-yourself wait list by the door? (Or is the vagueness intentional, a random, passive-aggressive way of saying, we choose whom we serve or even acknowledge, and being rude and vague works well as a disincentive?)
* Are they mainly in business just for neighborhood locals who call in to-go or pickup orders, and reticent about serving people who don't appear to be local enough?
* If so, or if they can (or only intend to) serve one or two parties at a time, why have so many tables? (Consider using all that extra space for art, music, a dance floor--or benches and magazines for people to use during their 45-minute wait.)
* How long would it take for the food to arrive if we chose to wait?
* What if we'd lied and said we were "new in town" (rather than from far away in Marinwood)? Would we have received better service?
Most of these questions imply reasonable expectations for a professional establishment. However, we didn't ask any questions (partly due to our growing hunger, the late Sunday-dinner hour, and the 20-minute drive home afterward, but largely because of our initial impressions). Instead, we left and went to the nearby Station House, which (in sharp contrast) was visibly swamped yet organized and, to our relief, seated us promptly.
Oh, the crazy mysteries of customer service. The only positive note I can add at the moment (based on limited sensory input) is that Cafe Reyes's food looked and smelled as if it would be superior to that at the Station House (where, for example, the dinner "vegetable" was overcooked peas and carrot shavings) -- and that the reviews here indicate that the pluses (fresh, locally sourced ingredients and quality preparation) could outweigh the minuses.
User ratings of my original review (from my old Yelp account, which I can no longer access) as of 7/15/17: Useful: 8 - Funny: 2 - Cool: 1 read more