We recently visited Breakers on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, only to have it ruined by a bartender with a bad attitude. Below is the e-mail we sent to Breakers & their response. Apparently The Breakers does not place much value on their customers, you can decide for yourselves.
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2013 10:23 PM
To: thebreakers@cfl.rr.com
Cc
Subject: Recent experience
To the Owners & Management of The Breakers Restaurant,
My wife & I have been loyal patrons of your establishment for 20 years. We are locals & support your business year round. We have been sending family, friends & business associates to The Breakers since we first discovered your restaurant. My wife & I are not beach goers; we frequently make the trip to New Smyrna Beach specifically to enjoy the food, atmosphere & service of The Breakers Restaurant. Unfortunately, for the first time in all of these years we had a bad experience. Actually it was far beyond a bad experience, if it were just a bad experience, I wouldn't take the time to write this letter, I would just chalk it up to a bad day and try again next time. This experience was so horrible in fact, that my wife & I have no intention of returning to The Breakers until the situation is rectified.
We had some friends visiting from out of town so, like we often do, we asked them to meet us at The Breakers. My wife & I arrived early, so we sat at the bar & enjoyed an appetizer & a drink while we waited. Our friends called us to say they would be there shortly so we began to look for an open table. We asked our bartender if anything was available, he pointed to a table in the corner, but it looked to be a bit small. Just then several folks left the bar & there were plenty of seats available, so we said to our bartender, "We'll just save three of these chairs". Suddenly the other bartender on duty spouted off, "YOU CAN'T SAVE SEATS'!! His tone & demeanor reeked of rudeness. He spoke as if he were a prison warden barking orders to his prisoners. We choose to ignore him and continued the conversation with our bartender who indicated that it would be alright to save the seats as long as our friends arrived soon. We no sooner finished the conversation and our friends arrived. One of our friends happened to be 13 years old, as soon as the other bartender saw this, he again barked, with even more voracity, "MINORS CAN'T SIT AT THE BAR"!!! My wife turned to him to question the rule which he had just barked; he became even more rude and demeaning. I held my tongue as long as I could but he was beginning to insult my wife, I was forced to tell him what I thought of his behavior in no uncertain terms. Next he told me that we would have to leave, which is laughable, as if we would stay after the treatment he bestowed upon my wife and my friends.
This guy, whose name is Elliott, seemed to be more interested in telling us what we couldn't do rather than wanting to see how he could help us, rather than showing us common courtesy, rather than treating us like customers. Your employee obviously has no customer service skills what so ever and has no business working in the service industry. So long as he is employed by The Breakers, we will not be back. I am sending copies of this letter to all of the family, friends and associates that I previously sent to your establishment to make them all aware of this truly disturbing turn of events. I look forward to a response regarding this matter.
Lance
Dear Mr. Lance
I apologize for the bad experience you had at The Breakers. I have spoken to my bartenders that were working at that time, and although it is company policy that seats are not to be saved and anyone under the age of 21 is not allowed to sit at the bar, they have been told that they need to explain these things to our customers in a friendlier tone.
Elliott, as well as all of my bartenders, have been employed here for several years and this is the first complaint I've had about him. He has apologized that his tone seemed rough and his words demeaning, as that was certainly not his intent. Please accept his and my apology, and we hope to serve you in the future with a much more pleasant dining experience.
Sincerely,
Brandon McKenney
Owner
The Breakers Restaurant read more