if it wasn't the only place to go. to take your family for a meal on the near east side i'm not sure jockamo would/could sustain. i want small family owned places to open, thrive and improve our neighborhoods. so this review is hard. but this is the third time in so many months (evidence there are too few options!) that we have had poor quality product, extraordinary wait with contradictory rushed table service, filthy/greasy tables, seats and dishes.
we were seated at the table at the end of the runway (geez only 15 other tables were cleaned and ready and set, but obviously that was the table closest to the bathroom walkway, bus/dishpans, kitchen door, and cash register, since we got there at 8:00 we wouldn't want to make anyone take too many extra steps.) the table had grease munge all over it, the cheese shaker looked like a toddler had licked the container and re-rolled it in the parm, and the bench seat was covered in missed-the-hole bite scraps that my son (yes, my 18 year old son even) had to wipe off.
our waiter asked if we were ready after he handed us the menu and before we opened it and returned three times within approximately three minutes of being seated after we had been waiting over thirty with empty tables throughout. when taking our drink order i asked about the local taps and after i ordered the fountain square pilsner he (at the ripe old age of 21?) asked "do you know what a pilsner is?" to which i replied, "um, yes, like--budweiser?" at that he turned and brought back my lipstick schmeared pint.
a variety of near east side teenagers are the primary workers who are delightful (as are my own) but they are far too interested in one another to be flagged down for a fork. they are also pretty interested in getting their evening wrapped up to get on to the friday night festivities so they interrupt table conversation to ask you every ten seconds if they can take every paper/scrap/spare plastic container/plate/bowl away. i started to count how many times we would be interrupted and twice tried to stop two different bus boys/girls for another “pilsner” during their interruptions before they turned to walk away and they didn't bother to stop. i was never asked if i wanted a second even though i was finished with the first while i was waiting for the pizza.
there was an odd cash register receipt debacle that made us really uncomfortable. we actually paid for someone other than ours’ food and drink bill! he left us with a tab and rambled something about not to worry and didn’t let us get a word in edgewise. he assured us we had “come out better” and that “he would eat the difference because it was his mistake” but i can’t imagine how he would eat the difference if the other people never actually got a bill and we paid for theirs and ours was never rang through?
now for the reason why we actually go out to dine--the food. the pizza was originally an amazing change of pace and served in an eclectic uber-hip for near east side venue with one of "our own kids" managing the place. having local people serving locally crafted noms using locally purveyed vendor choices (smoking goose and papa roux--also our own kids) is amazing. however, if you produce an inferior product with their superior ingredients it's sort of embarrassing. if i were them, i would be concerned. the pizza toppings/ingredients are now scanty, lumped dead center, and the crust is consistently soggy these days due to running the pizzas through too fast.
yes--friday is big night out--you're busy--so is everyone else in the metro area but they figure it out.
clean up your act, literally--yuck. hire a room mom at the very least to keep the kidlings in check with some manners and get some order back in that place.
i'm a proud east side mom. you're disappointing me. you may be a cash-cow now because you're the only gig around but for pity's sake, put some pride back in it kids--we're all counting on you!