Didn't even get to the food.
Customer service is everything in the service industry IMO and this place has rave reviews about the product, but the staff was so unkempt and unwelcoming. We get casual is the new cool, but some attention to service would benefit this place tremendously.
Upon entering the store, we were greeted with a very forced and unenthusiastic YELLING MATCH (read from script?) from an unkempt, disheveled employee. The large, tattooed man behind the computer started his run down of the menu, which looks fantastic, but upon entering the store my family was greeted with his literal shouting from behind the counter that continued even up to arriving directly in front of him at the counter. My children were frightened by this man which is already daunting when trying new food for them, like a calzone! Strike one. I don't know if the shaggy-haired young man was hard of hearing or just having a bad day, but we felt a sense of total disinterest from the employee who proceeded to describe the menu with "ok?" after each sentence, as if we had trouble understanding that we can create our own or choose from a cleverly designed menu. Once he finished his dialogue he continued to stare at us expecting an immediate response, to which we said it was our first time at the restaurant and we'd like some time to take the information in and decide. At that point he let out a large, exasperating sigh of disinterest, told another employee who was cleaning a table near us to instead take our order, jumped on his phone and without looking up at us said "let me know if you need anything else, alright?" to which we were dumbfounded. It is an unpleasant feeling to be handed off because of his impatience and underwhelming behavior. We drove over 30 minutes to try this restaurant only to be extremely turned off by this specific employee's behavior. Was this a manager? He displayed a much too casual demeanor to a potential customer paying him for a product.
FURTHERMORE...
Once the extremely friendly, soft-spoken young lady asked us if we had any more questions before ordering, she felt the need to apologize about her co-employee's behavior once he was out of sight. Strike 2? Nevertheless, we knew at that point it wasn't the best day to try this renowned calzone shop.
All in all the kids got even more skeptical just from the interaction and my wife suggested trying the brewery down the street instead (which was an absolute smash!).
Maybe we will try take out sometime or a different location as we've been recommended this spot prior, and hopefully an employee with similar behavior as the nice young lady will help us.
Side note: upon entering the restroom for my son to use there reeked a severe smell of vinegar throughout the restroom with graffiti and key-carved messages along the walls, and toilet paper/hand towels streamed across the floor. Maybe they had a rough day and hadn't gotten to it yet, but with urinated stains caked on the stall wall, our decision to leave on that day was strongly reinforced. A clean restroom is vital for customers. It wasn't busy when we arrived but maybe they had a rough morning.
Cleanliness and common respect from the employee of the restaurant would sure have gone a long way during this experience. But ho hum - hoping for a better experience if we decide to try this place again in the future. Good luck! read more