the good, the bad & the ugly. i go to the local joint several times a week. i've probably done breakfast, lunch and dinner an equal number of times, week days and weekends, so i feel i'm writing a solid "report".
in some aspects, i absolutely love the local joint. it's wonderful to see a business finally "make it", in this particular spot, where so many have failed. it's even more wonderful to have arestaurantin fairview who uses local farmers and merchants and cares about good, quality, local and organic foods, beers and wines.
with that said:
the good: a pretty unique menu consisting of mostly good food, made from a lot of local farmers and merchants. warm, fun, local environment when you're there with your neighbors or friends, especially on a cold morning (with good coffee!!) ; a nice local gathering spot.
the bad: the wait staff. while they are all different ages and personalities, they all seem to have a common thread....and its not a good one; a apathetic attitude and a sense of entitlement. i've seen 1 female server with a friendly attitude but all of the rest of the waitstaff seems to be hurried, stressed out and very angry or unhappy.
the ugly: attitudes. none of the wait staff seem to give a sh*t if you are there or not and most all of them act as if they are doing you a huge favor by waiting on you or as if you are encroaching upon them if you ask more than 1 question. god forbid if you ask more than one question or have a special request or food allergies! they don't bother trying to hide their displeasure and dirty looks. some of them do little "huffs" and one female server (who seems to be there all the time and works every station) all but rolls her eyes at you every time you say or ask anything.
i also have to say here that i have put in my years as wait staff, in every environment from mom & pop greasy spoons to 5-star restaurants, so i know the life. i know how ugly the public can be and i know how you can be treated and then not get tipped or make any money from it, therefore servers have my empathy and i always treat wait staff with respect and i always tip well, even when the service is less than ideal. (i've even tried tipping the one really obnoxious female server there really well to see if it would make a difference in how she treats me the next time i come in. nope. she doesn't care. she's always just as impatient and obnoxious every single time.)
how do these people keep their jobs?
the cook staff doesn't seem any better. often their eyebrows are furrowed in the most unhappy and even angry expressions. are they unhappy or hung over or just plain miserable, or what?? i've heard the wait staff and cook staff fussing and snapping at each other. "why is this here?" "where's my ____?" if you go to the counter at the end to place or pick up a to go order, the cook staff will be all over the place within a foot in front of you and will not even bother to look up to see if you need anything. i realize that's not their job but i really don't think it would kill them if they could at least look up, make eye contact and at least smile. i don't know....maybe a few of the rigid faces would, indeed, break, crack and fall off.
fairview as a whole is such an artsy fun community and most people in fairview have really great attitudes. all of this negative stuff seems so out of place in fairview!!!! attitudes like this usually "trickle down". if management or the lead wait staff have horrible attitudes, they tend to hire people with the same "energy" or "vibration". i've heard good things about the owner of the local joint, so i have to wonder....is it coming from her? or is she too far removed from the daily grind and it's coming from her management or lead staff?
whatever the source of it is, i sure hope the owner sees this and has a wakeup call.
as much as i love my little local restaurant, i'm afraid my experience there yesterday was just about the last straw. i've tried to look over it, and focus on the good aspects and i've tried to deal with it but i think i've had about enough of the really negative attitudes and i think it's worth it to drive further into asheville, to the restaurants where you're treated as valued and appreciated.
it's a p-i-t-y.