no way to treat people, no way to run a business. how terribly tragic and sad. this business is completely and totally on auto-pilot. the obvious operational lapses are second only to the arrogant and indifferent attitude of the business owner, who is clearly (and sadly) in way, way, way over his head. today was my second visit to the garden brunch cafe. my spouse and i took a close friend who told us she'd seen some positive local press on the restaurant, and we were eager for her to have a positive experience. standard operating procedure when you arrive: first, you have to hunt down the host to take your name. we had to walk back into the bar area to find the host, who appeared to be in his mid teens, and holding a clipboard. we inquired about the wait time, and he took our name. "thirty-five minutes," he assured us. if you want a drink while you wait, good luck. not only do they not have a server assigned for this task, you have to wait until the bar area clears to even get to a bartender to order. the garden brunch cafe has a sort of twilight zone-ish pace; waaaaay, waaaay too relaxed for any business in the hospitality category. no one is hustling, no one is overseeing anything. no one is in a hurry or eager to please. it is as though everyone working there is drawing a good salary, and there's no trace of "to-insure-promptness" (tip) working to be found. everything is dysfunctional and slow. if you want to check on the progress of your wait, you have to find the teenager with the clipboard, who always parrots the same answer no matter what the question: "there's just one party (or ticket or drink order, etc.) ahead of you." this place needs a good general manager, and fast. our waittimeended up being 65 minutes (one hour and five minutes). when we inquired about the wait time, yes, you guessed it. "there's just one party ahead of you." when we finally got seated, our server came along. another fresh-faced late teen or young adult with absolutely no clue. we ordered drinks, looked at the menu and all ordered the same dish--tilapia and grits. ten minutes after ordering, the youngster came back by and apologized, telling us they were out of tilapia. we asked if they could substitute salmon, and she said yes, but it would be a one dollar upcharge each. fine, we said. another ten minutes went by, and the owner appeared with the teenager in tow. "we are out of all fish. what else can i get you? (we had to ask to see the menus again). we decided on something, and he left. fifteen more minutes passed, and all we saw during thattimewas one coffee refill. we waited, and waited, and waited. finally, we inquired about what was taking so long, and the reply: "there's just one ticket ahead of you." at that point, i headed for the cash register to pay for our drinks and tell them we were leaving. as i stood at the cash register near the bar, he flatly offered this: "look, the food is about to come out." i replied, "we waited one hour and five minutes to get seated, the service has been dismal, and we've now been here going on an hour and forty five minutes, you're out of what we ordered, and we still haven't seen food. we are leaving, but i'm here to pay for our drinks because we're leaving." the owner snorted, "the food will just have to be thrown out. how about if i pay for your food?" i replied, "it isn't about the food. we've been in church this morning, and we are starving. this isn't about the food at this point, it's about how horrible this experience was, and you need to know that." about that time, some pie-eyed, woozy patron at the bar piped up "it will be worth the wait." i looked at him and said, "it isn't about the wait. it's about the almost two hours we've been here and so far, we've had drinks." with that, the owner turned on his heel and walked away, leaving one of his teenagers to take my six dollars for our drinks. this place is really designed for people who are aggressive enough to get alcohol, and lucky enough to get served plenty of alcohol while they wait. if you're willing to fight to get waited on at the bar, then have enough drinks that you don't mind waiting while the entire place operates in slow motion, you'll love it. but my recommendation would be to avoid it. nashville's a big town, and there are plenty of other places nearby to have brunch. this owner doesn't understand how to run a restaurant. he's an amateur, and everyone who works for him is clearly on that same level.