Minimum spend required - tourist trap
I commute through central Bath every weekday (morning and evening) and also regularly travel through Bath at the weekend to go to/return from London or to/from one of the London airports. When commuting, I often have to wait up to 1 hour for my bus, and when travelling, I may have to wait for up to 2 hours, depending on whether I am taking the coach or the train. I tend to while away the time at Waitrose, Costa or Nero, but it gets a bit repetitive, so when I saw a Comptoir Libanais was opening in Bath, I was extremely enthusiastic: I used to buy Lebanese take aways and oriental pastries several times a week when I lived in Paris and missed having something similar near where I live/work. When coming back from Paris a couple of weeks ago, I had a 30-minute wait before catching my bus home, so I decided to try a mint tea + cake. I don't think it takes that long to brew tea, however I was told they could not serve me as it was 'too late'. The place was near empty, so you would have thought they would have been happy to have one extra customer, even for 20 minutes, you know, put bums on seats. Since then, I have found out they have turned away people who wanted to order mezze for corporate dos as the orders were 'too small'. These would have gone on to become repeat clients, just like me. I think the company's way of doing business is to charge clients as much as possible, in the knowledge that it will be their first and last visit. As they are right next to the railway and the bus stations, and Bath is very touristic, they reckoned that there will always be a supply of gullible tourists. The locals however will take their business elsewhere... The place also features a small grocery: before my first (and last) attempt to eat there, I dropped in one evening to see if they had verjuice. I sometimes cook Middle Eastern dishes at home, and buy 'exotic' ingredients such as verjuice in London or on the internet. The staff I spoke to didn't know what verjuice was, and tried to convince me that pomegranate syrup/molasses would be the same (thank you, I have some at home, I specifically wanted verjuice which is difficult to source). Not impressed. read more