For my review I will post the email I sent to the WildFlour Cafe...
My mother and I attempted to eat at your establishment Sunday. It was one of the strangest encounters we have ever had in a restaurant. We arrived at 10:05, just after opening. There were already several customers seated, which we thought was a good sign. I had attempted to eat at your restaurant once before with my wife a few years back, but the restaurant was closed for some reason. On this occasion we entered and waited to be seated. The servers were busy, so we waited 6 minutes to be seated. We were going to bike the VA creeper trail and were a little crunched on time, so we looked over the menu while we were waiting to be seated. As we were seated I told the server we were pressed for time and wished to go ahead and order. She said we could not order. She said that we must wait for everyone who was seated before us to order before we could. At that point I knew we could not wait and still make our bike trip, so I asked if we could put in a carryout order. Again, the woman told us no. Once again she said everyone else seated must order before we would be allowed to place our order. Throughout our conversation with the server her approach to us as customers was not..."how can I help you"...it was more like, "no I cannot and will not help you." So, unfortunately, we had to go eat our breakfast at McDonald's across the street. That was not the breakfast I had hoped to treat my mother with for her birthday.
Now my father owns 6 restaurants. My uncles own 2 restaurants. Our whole family is passionate about food and spends most vacations at destinations we have chosen only because of the food available at those locations. I have been to an ungodly number of restaurants in 49 states and I have never had someone refuse to take my order. If this ever happened at any of my father's restaurants he would be very upset. We were trying to put money in the pocket of the person I assume will read this complaint. We were willing to forgo eating in for the opportunity to simply try your food. We were, in essence, begging for an opportunity to try your food. If it is truly the strategy of this restaurant to not serve anyone until everyone who arrived before them has been taken care of, that is the most ludicrous concept ever. What if the large group on the porch decides chat for a while before ordering? Will the server go to the table and tell them to hurry up so others can dine? If this is the way you want to run this business you should run it like a butcher shop or deli and give everyone a number and make them order at the counter. Otherwise, this is the worst way to serve your customers I can imagine. How would you ever turn over tables and increase sales? This simply blew my mind. I write for a food blog and saw this as an opportunity to maybe do a write up of your place. That obviously didn't happen.
If the server we dealt with is also the owner, get a clue!
If not, and this is indeed your strategy to serve customers, all I can say is wow! Good luck with that.
If not, and this is not your strategy of serving, I may speak with that server about her gruff and non-helpful attitude.
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