Breakfast in America

This is true in almost all industries, but it is essential – critical – in the food business.

The past couple of restaurant experiences have prompted me to add another facet to this Blog topic – Customer Service and Advertising. Nothing can ruin a meal more than poor customer service and nothing can turn customers away faster than poor advertising. There are simply too many choices out there to put up with bad service and if it’s challenging to determine hours and location, potential customers may pass by your establishment just as quickly as they navigate away from a bad website.

Today, I’d like to share a couple of recent examples of both bad service and poor advertising. The first earns a popular Portland restaurant a spot on the first Food Biz Buzz post. The Original on 6th Avenue has a lot going for it – good food, jazzy atmosphere, and smiling servers and hosts galore. What they do not seem to have is good training.

On this particular weekend, a large group of us were staying at the Courtyard Marriott adjacent to the restaurant (or Dinerant™ as they like to call it). It was a wedding party with people coming and going at all different times, but often meeting together for meals. On my first visit, I told my friends I was running late, but to go ahead and order and I’d catch up. Upon my arrival, I easily spotted my group. I paused at the hostess stand to point them out and said “I meeting those people over there”. I then proceeded to their table. Immediately, I was confronted with the most extraordinary – never-before-experienced – situation. The server basically got in my face about not checking in with the hostess stand before coming to the table. Wah? My kids and I just looked at her like she had three horns – folks at the table were already making space to include us, but she said “I’m not trying to upset you [too late - she had already embarrassed us in front of the group and strangers], but you need to remember to check in next time.” That whole episode was repeated one day later I might add by the same server to other people within our party. This phenomenon became the butt of many jokes over the weekend. It’s that experience we will remember the most about The Original. Would I go back – probably not. There are too many other choices in Portland to bother.

The second occurrence of the week was on Monday. I take special care on Sunday evenings to select a place for our Monday Morning Breakfast Bunch gatherings. This week I selected a brand new place that’s gotten some notice from other bloggers  – the Fireside Cafe in Vancouver. I chose to stay local this time as it’s not easy for everyone in the Bunch to get down to Portland where there are choices galore. I was excited to see their website (albeit, still in the nebulous stage of development) advertise breakfast with an early opening of 6am. I arrived in anticipation of meeting up with new members to the group and eager to welcome them to the experience. When I approached the counter, however, something just Wasn’t. Quite. Right. This attractive little  coffee shop with bakery counter appeared to  be just that and only that – a coffee shop. When I inquired about breakfast, I was told that it was only served on Fridays and Saturdays (Sunday they are closed). I pointed out that the website seemed to indicate differently and in fact, I  called their number the night before to make sure the breakfast was indeed being served. The voice message didn’t seem to indicate otherwise. The woman behind the counted admitted that the website is not clear (obviously) and that  this problem (sadly) keeps happening a lot. Poor her! She even made it quite clear that she was getting tired of having to explain the confusion to so many people.

This is an easy fix, Mr./Ms. Restaurant owner – fix that site and get the correct word out pronto or you’ll be wondering why you’re having to throw away so much leftover food at the end of the day. Will I give them a second chance? Eh…possibly. When they finish working out the kinks .