We didn't die, but I can't recommend this place.
The Sign on the Door says HELP WANTED.
Eating at a restaurant that is short staffed is always risky.
But in this case, they may need some help from someone who can teach them the fundamentals of running a restaurant.
* * *
This is a crepe place but they have an extensive menu of other items.
In fact, the menu is huge, given the small size of the establishment and the relatively small amount of business they get.
This means that a lot of their perishables are going to go bad unless they use a lot of frozen ingredients.
If they use frozen ingredients, they need to figure out how to defrost those items quickly.
(This is foreshadowing.)
It also means if they are short staffed that there will be many items that the cook has not fully learned how to prepare due to lack of practice.
(Foreshadowing.)
* * *
There was a very amateur cook in the kitchen our night.
This being a creperie, a typical order would be serving the savory crepes first and the sweet crepes second.
The sweet crepes are usually dessert.
We ordered a savory crepe, a sweet crepe and a sandwich with french fries off of the sandwich menu.
The cook, being pressed for time, cooked all of the crepes first, and then made the sandwich and the fries.
So we got the dessert crepe and the main course crepe at the same time.
So we either had to eat them both at the same time or one of them had to get cold waiting for the first crepe to be finished.
While we were struggling through the crepes,
The bacon pesto chicken ciabatta came.
That had to sit while we finished our crepes.
So by the time we got to our "main course" after "dessert",
The fries were stone cold and soggy.
The sandwich was leaden.
The ciabatta might as well have been a cannonball.
The room temperature chicken and bacon were okay as long as you avoided the ciabatta.
* * *
The room is not a pleasant place to sit in.
Some of this is not the owner's fault.
They are right at the intersection of I-35 and I-45/Hester's Crossing.
Giant concrete highway ramps dominate the view.
The rest is parking lot.
* * *
However, the owner makes things far worse by having large TV screens that display commercials for why you should come to his restaurant.
So a wide variety of menu items are displayed with the TV urging you to
Come and Try This!
Come and Try That!
Come and Try the Next Item!
How About This Item?
* * *
Advertising is supposed to bring customers into your store.
If they are already in your store, then you do not need more advertising.
Once the customers are IN your store, you need to try to give them a pleasant wonderful experience, so they decide to come back the next time.
No one goes out for a night on the town to watch commercials for the night club that they are in.
* * *
Plus, if it is irritating to watch commercials,
It is 400 times more irritating to watch the same commercial on a loop being repeated over and over and over and over and over again.
Repetition kills the charm of whatever you put on the TV the first time.
* * *
Back to ingredients coming out of the freezer.
My sweet crepe was a mango crepe with some other minor flavoring.
Mango is a fantastic thing to put into a crepe.
The crepe we got was 1/3 frozen, 2/3 cooked.
* * *
When I pointed out the frozen mango to the waitress,
She was sweet and kind and lovely and sympathetic.
She gave us a free banana muffin to compensate us for our woes.
* * *
This is not a bakery, so undoubtedly the muffin was brought in from an outside provider.
It was awful.
It had a bad chemical taste that probably came from using low grade artificial banana flavoring.
Either the muffins came from an associate of the provider, or the muffins were selected because they were relatively cheap.
On baked goods, you get what you pay for.
* * *
I suspect cheap, because inappropriate cheapness also showed up in the furniture.
The chairs are upholstered golden fabric Middle Eastern chairs with a flocked texture that were undoubtedly were beautiful once.
The store has only been open a few months,
But those chairs were showing the signs of years of wear and tear.
I am fairly sure those dingy chairs were purchased used.
The chairs were the first thing we saw.
First impressions matter.
* * *
I hope the owner learns from his experience when he opens his second restaurant.
His first restaurant won't last long. read more