seriously disappointed, twice. my first visit was the 3rd or 4th week they were open. i'm retired and came in by myself on a weekday. the place is open and airy with a semi-open kitchen in a modern diner type of feel. the place was somewhat busy yet had a number of open tables, most of which were still dirty. as i stood there, a number of servers walked passed me, some more than once, all without ever saying anything to me. i looked around for a sign or something, but there wasn't any. after looking over the room for a bit, a guy comes out and starts bussing a 2 top in the center about half way down, next to a cleaned table against the wall. as i make my way down towards the table, the guy bussing sees me coming and stops to look over the table i'm heading to, then turns back to the one he's cleaning. i take my coat off and set it with my cane on one bench and then sat down on the other. the guy bussing turns his head and says "did you put your name on the list?" he backs out of my way, signaling me to get up and waves me towards the front. i asked him where, since there are no customers waiting as well as no employee not to take their names. he gives me a dirty look and heads over to another table and starts to wipe it down, having left the dirty dishes on the 2 top. i got up, put my coat on and took my cane, he was giving orders to a server as i passed him at the door as i left. he never said anything to me. well, no one did.
my second visit was with my wife, 3 weeks later on a weekday. the place was full, it looked like every table, but there were a couple empty but dirty. however there wasn't anybody waiting to be sat. as we stood there, this guy in the kitchen, big guy with a beard, turns and stares at us. doesn't move, holding a towel, just standing and staring with a complete blank look. granted, he may well have just been looking right through us yet, my wife started to laugh when she saw some customers pointing at him and watching. that's when i saw the bussing boss coming out from the kitchen. he looked over the dining room, looked at my wife and i standing there, turned and walked to the very back of the restaurant, looks into an open door then starts to bus a table in the back. we are side stepped by a server heading to the front booth, she kept going around us, back and forth, from the counter to the table, carrying only 1 item for each time, back and forth, never once saying anything to us. a quick check of the kitchen and sure enough, the guy hasn't flinched. amazingly, none of the other staff in the kitchen seemed to find this strange, because no one told him to move, they all just went around him as if this was quite normal. now the bussing boss is carrying a couple dirty plates. he's going to random tables adjusting chairs, but still carrying these dirty plates. between each table he's prairie dogging us, then turning to move to another table, as he slowly works his way up towards where we're standing. he stopped at 7 tables on his way up to the front, the server had walked around us 9 times, never once saying anything to us. bussing boss gets to us and says "we don't do waiting lists here you can just sit wherever" and walks away. i kind of chuckle and we head to the only open table, the one he bussed by the open door. we get back there and the table hadn't been bussed, he only picked up 2 of the plates and was just carrying them around. we stacked the dishes and sat down to find we're left looking into the open bathroom just steps away.
after waiting 10 minutes that way we left, walking right past the bussing boss (obviously some kind of person in charge) and 3 other servers. none of them said anything to us.
in fairness, they may have a sigh now, they may block the bathroom door or atleast keep it closed, and i don't doubt the food can be quite good, there seem to be enough reviews confirming that. as well, they seem to be doing quite a lot of business, so my lost business doesn't carry any impact.
the active indifference displayed constantly towards their guests shows me they are counting on a high enough volume that guests walking out aren't a serious consideration. and that model seems to be standing true.
if you go, you may well get to place an order and be one of the lucky ones to get a good meal, then again...
i believe very firmly in supporting our local restaurants and wish their continued success, and at the sametimeit was made very clear to my wife and myself that we are not the target market.
i can only hope they decide a different approach towards customers in the new place next door, we'll see.