One of Carbondale's fixtures, this restaurant, has degraded so materially, that I can scantly believe the downward transformation. What used to be a rather remarkable food experience, and value, complete with friendly, caring service, great pizza and above average pasta, instead, has devolved into a poorly managed afterthought of the highest order.
Arriving at 8:45pm tonight (Saturday) with the place published as open until 10, began a series of painful, bizarre experiences of the ilk that I must conclude that the restaurant must either be under new ownership or perhaps the ownership boarded a 6 month one way sailing trip to a very distant land.
It all began with me patiently waiting alone in the unattended lobby for 7-10 minutes. No one came by. No one tried to fix the situation.
Strike 1.
I give up and walk into the dining room and sit near the roll up doors next to 2 other parties, sweeping the mound of other l, prior customers' spilled food off of the carpeting. Fifteen minutes into the dining room wait, following the 7-10 minute lobby wait, not one server enters the dining room. Yet there are 4 tables--about 1/3 full--of customers. I thought that I must have been hallucinating. How can you have a thriving, (at least previously, anyway) successful establishment with several staff people present, yet somehow forget to check the dining room for customer needs? They managed. Behind me is a server who's violently stacking their plastic chairs into towers (of plastic chairs), on the deck, making a horrendous series of thunderous, explosive sounds. She never stops the closing obsession (about an hour before closing) to inquire as to what the customers might need.
Strike 2.
Now it is 9:10 p.m. and I'm beginning to wonder if I am not a de facto ghost. Maybe people can't see me?
I decide to move to the bar itself. There's a bartender that is waiting on others a little, talking to other servers, but one I can't seem to talk to. But there's virtually no one seated at the bar. No menu is available. No one asks me anything. Just more solitary confinement.
After sitting there for about 5-7 minutes, finally the bartender asks me if I had ordered. I tell him not, but gently explain that I spent 7-10 in the lobby, another 15 in the dining room and cannot manage to attract any attention from anyone. You'd think that, maybe??? He's apologizing or bringing the manager (but there isn't one) or offer something as a condolence. Not a thing.
Strike 3
Burying my grievances, I politely ask the bartender if I can order. I order a pasta dish with Caesar salad. I'm finally believing that maybe I was just on a bad trajectory and maybe now everything is going to return to normality. The Caesar salad and iced tea come. I finish both and cannot manage to get his, or anyone's, attention for a refill. Ten minutes go by. A gigantic group comes in at about 9:20 and garners 100% service. Servers are bustling behind me, attending to their every need.
I want my pasta dish cooked extra crispy. But there's no one anywhere to ask. Finally, I walk into the soft drink area SE of the bar and just ask the staff if they could request that the cook give my order extra time. She asks where I'm sitting and I tell her, the bar. She helps, I guess, with this request, and tells the bartender that I had to walk into her station just to get help. No one apologizes. No one says a word.
Strike 5
The iced tea glass has been empty for 15 minutes. I cannot get anyone to notice me or the glass for a refill. You'd think that an iced tea refill at a 20% capacity bar would be a simple challenge. It proved impossible.
Strike 6
Here's where things become truly inordinate. The waitress from the other station comes into the bar and announces that the staff brilliantly threw away the iced tea for the night. I finally went ballistic, and could barely believe this utter stupidity. I told her that I had been waiting by then 25-30 minutes for an iced tea refill. So I asked her to remove the tea from my tab.
Strike 7
Instead of her apologizing or getting the manager (there isn't one), she takes the glass away in mild rage and says "ok.. I'll take the glass then."
Strike 8
After suffering so many intentional and inadvertent screw ups, rude service, being ignored for a more important party at every turn--even before the large party arrived-- I leave.
CONCLUSION
What happened to this restaurant? In summary, it's a bunch of non-managed young people who serve you if they wish, ignore you if they desire to, and basically exhibit unbridled, unequivocal apathy of the highest degree. While I wish that there were other pizza or pasta options in the area, with White House pizza having basically collapsed, I can't tell friends and family where to go now. This is a grand tragedy and disappointment, to see this place fall so hard and so far. read more