Three strikes even before we got our food. Please try not to laugh at the absurdity of this review.
Here goes: any place that claims "no substitutions" is already barking up the wrong tree.
They claim the "kitchen can't handle them," but the excuses they make up, and the time they waste explaining them to customers is the real waste of time, and why this review had to be written.
I asked if my ham sandwich could be made on their sourdough sliced bread instead of the semolina sesame seed bun, and this is the ridiculous excuse I got from the 35-ish blond woman behind the counter.
"Well, the way we layer the cheese and ham and lettuce, makes it more difficult to get built on the sourdough bread, and sometimes there are many holes in the bread so we only make the ham and cheese on the semolina." I swear, without actually rolling my eyes so far in the back of my head, I could actually see the people behind me.
First, the sourdough was already cut in a basket by the cook's station. I could see it had no holes, and so what! The bread has holes. Can you imagine bread with holes in Sicily? How would their race survive the great hole calamity?
She also said "well, it can get messy with the sauces dripping through." OMG. What??
How and why does this place have such ridiculous, unrealistic and childish rules?
On top of this, their desserts were uncovered and to the left of the cash register and the breads and pizzas right in front of the cash register...again, uncovered. Do they realize that their patrons are still wearing masks in the store, and that they should be more careful with their food being RIGHT there at the counter during yet another wave of the pandemic and Monkey Pox, nevermind sneezing and coughing. People are leaning right over the food when they're at the register paying, with their shirts actually touching the food.
Anyway...back to the ridiculous "Sad-which" debacle.
I even said, "I don't want any sauces or Mayo or anything on it, just ham and cheese. When she said "no," I asked if she could make it on French baguette"
Her answer? "No, I'm sorry, we're all out baguettes. Someone came in and bought all of them." Strike two: don't sell all of your baguettes to one person. Reserve some.
And then, for my the salad I ordered, "I'm sorry we ran out of that type of salad and those types of green and can substitute it with other greens."
Strike three.
While I'm waiting for the food to be made, why did I see two huge baskets filled with French baguettes five minutes later on the bar? Were those old and just for looks? We're they not French baguettes,
or similar? Why, for the love of crust, couldn't those be offered?
And the big question of the day...how do you run out of all this at 12:30pm, a half hour into lunch time. I don't get this place, at all. These kinks should have been ironed out weeks into your opening.
Aside from the fact that it was 100 degrees outside today (No joke, it was one hundred degrees), there was no circulation and possibly, at best, a poorly functioning air conditioning.
Sadly, this is what happens when people don't understand the food service business from the ground up.
Everything about my experience was poor, with the exception of the sandwich which was just okay, but NOT even close to what I wanted.
Let me be clear, I never even showed any sign of incredulousness, or acted argumentative, I just said "cool, yeah, let's try the sourdough."
We didn't want to buy anything else there, since it was exposed to everyone, and did everything I could not to show my displeasure, hence this terrible review....after I had a few hours to think about.
I promised myself if it still bothered at bedtime, that I would write this and use it as a teachable moment for how you treat your customers.
This is an opportunity for your business to understand, when a person asks for a substitute bread on a sandwich , you say "yes, no problem!"
It's not your concern if the Mayo spills through the holes in the bread, or if the arugula falls off the plate.
That's a tragedy the customer will deal with on their own.
People who eat in your place may be eating out for the first time after two months in the hospital, and are craving their first sandwich a certain way.
Make it the way they want! And don't make up BS rules that make your first time customers feel like THEY were being reprimanded for "making a special request."
I've just never heard of such a stupid thing.
Remove that "no substitutions" nonsense. You're not a Michelin rated restaurant with a chef's menu tasting. You're a deli/bakery.
You're number one job is to make people happy and never, ever, say no to such a simple request. Ever. read more