Justin C.
Yelp
October 24th! Fall is here, Halloween is around the corner, the nights are getting longer - let's get some pizza!
I just moved to the Sugarhouse area from Los Angeles and have been on a dry spell of some good authentic slices. I have walked/driven/scooted past Este several times and have been intrigued by the aesthetic and it's been on my list for a while. I was out running some errands and needed to get some take out for dinner - Este popped up on Grubhub and I was STOKED. Grubhub process went smoothly - we decided to get The White as we are fans of CHICKEN and WHITE SAUCE. Yeah, baby! We're on the path to a great dinner. Pickup window is estimated 8:55-9:05pm. No problem! We'd be getting there right about nine. I was excited to check out the interior and see what's up with this place.
Parked on the street as there was a football game going on and the TWC crowd took up the whole parking lot. But you know what? No problem at all!
This is where everything turned into a dumpster fire of hunger, sadness and disappointment. Of the 3 front of house employees (a girl with dark hair and kinda gothy, a tall dude in a Rick & Morty shirt and a gal with glasses who seeeeemed to be a lead), none of them greeted us. There was one 6 top in the corner but otherwise it was dead, yo. The girl at the counter sighed and looked up as we said Hi! We're here to pick up a Grubhub order. She asked my name, I gave it, and she said OK about 10 minutes (without checking anything). I noticed there weren't any tickets in their to-go window area so I thought it was kinda weird, but hey maybe they're just doing things a little differently tonight.
We sat at a table and waited. And waited. And weren't acknowledged. And waited. And watched 2 other pickup orders come/go. Every employee gave us a weird look but couldn't be bothered to ask why we may still be waiting. OH! I was 9:20pm by this point. 20 min after we had been told 10 minutes. I decided I'd give them 10 more minutes to figure things out. Once we'd been waiting 45 min after the estimated pickup time, I approached the counter and the Morty of our dimension would NOT make eye contact with me. I asked - Hey, excuse me, could you check on our order? He responded - Uhh, sure...
He goes in the back for another 5 min and all FOH employees and a confused pizza prep girl are all talking, vaping and rolling their eyes.
Main counter goth girl comes back up, looks in their warmer next to the register and - guess what - OUR PIZZA WAS IN THERE THE ENTIRE TIME. FROM BEFORE WE WALKED IN THE DOOR. She handed it to us without saying anything, without offering napkins or ANYTHING, and we left. The pizza needed to be reheated at home and it was actually decent for being hour old reheated pizza.
Why was everyone so dismissive and rude? It was wildly unprofessional and a really really bad first impression for someone who was so stoked to try this out. My partner and I have both worked in restaurants and couldn't imagine giving someone this experience, you'd have to go out of your way to make people feel so forgotten about and ignored. I am completely turned off of the idea of ever even attempting a dine in experience here.
Este, shake things up with your staff - the disgruntled 20 year olds aren't working out.