I came here last Sunday to fill my friend and I's craving for a delicious açaí bowl. We were in…read morebetween choosing Beech (delightfully familiar with) and Huriyali (an açaí shop on James Island we'd never tried). After coming to the conclusion that we were open to trying something new, we were met with the exact fear of disappointment we hoped we wouldn't face. The place was decorated with colorful vibes and modern surfer-esque themes. We were excited as it seemed this place was a higher-scale açaí place.
When we walked to the counter, the girl at the register was the most stank, ill-faced, unwelcoming biatch. She was sipping on her pitaya smoothie at the front counter without a care in the world. I thought to myself, when I worked on Kiawah, this was never permitted, as it looked unprofessional in front of the customers eyes. We instantly knew we walked into a poor decision. I began to order by introducing with, "Hi this is our first time here!" I ordered the og açaí bowl without banana and peanut butter and substituted it with pineapple and honey. She looked at me like I had made the most inconveniencing request. Then, my friend ordered the green bowl without banana as well.
After we completed our order, we stood there in the corner waiting and watching for ours to be sent out. Almost 10 minutes passed, and someone behind the counter finally acknowledged us with a vocal fried voice, "Are you guys waiting for something? You can go sit down. We'll bring it out to you." We were not informed to after our order, so we had no understanding to do so. We walked ourselves outside to dirty tables. We sat there for 10 more minutes while listening to a gaggle of girls next to us talk about financials with even worse vocal fry.
Our bowls were finally brought out, and they looked pretty for 3 seconds, as they were the most soupy, runny, açaí bowls we'd ever tried. I kept tasting it looking for banana because the whole thing tasted like banana, even after they did not add any upon my request. My friend experienced the same phenomenon. We were amazed with how displeasing we felt through every bite. A food runner was outside, and I asked her if banana was mixed in the base of the açaí. She said, "Yes." I think after revealing it was our first experience when beginning our order, the mean cashier girl could have led us to understand there is still banana in the base. What if either of us were allergic to banana? From knowing this, we would have turned around and walked out instantly, but instead we sat there through the whole experience yearning for our lovely beech bowls that filled our expectations with joy.
As generationally born and raised Charlestonians, this place was another example of how Charleston is losing its charm. As Charleston continues to overpopulate with transplants, our people are losing quality customer service and southern hospitality. We will not be coming back here. Poor service, a misleading menu, runny, soupy, banana ruined açaí, and a yankee atmosphere.
I just direct delivery ordered Beech to my house while writing this, and it still arrived practically frozen meeting all expectations of flavor. #beech4L
