Matt N.
Yelp
Preface: I have visited countless times. I've always felt Fireroast delivered a great value, especially for a local cafe.I've never felt strongly enough to leave a review however, until today where my wife and I were asked never to call again.
This morning my wife suggested fireroast cafe for breakfast, and our 3-year old was excited too. I placed an online order while my wife was already out and about the the toddler, and saw the option for vegan cheese. We're allergic to dairy and gluten (celiac), and so are the kids at this point. Excited, I thought "sure, I'll try their vegan cheese, why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ " . I requested curbside pickup since the toddler was still barely clothed in pajamas, and getting a toddler in and out of a car rapidly can be a unique challenge. My wife arrived early due to their location and presumed she'd be waiting about 15 minutes for food to finish up. She called to let them know she *was* there whenever it was done, in case when it finished was the perfect time to run out.
The employee who answered let her know that the food hadn't been started yet, and the owner had left the building to go get vegan cheese. She asked if he could just skip the cheese, but he said he was not allowed to start until the owner returned. The employee was also unable to give any estimate of when that would be.
***As I mentioned, we've eaten at the cafe and to-go numerous times for the last 5 years. Knowing nothing was started, that meant the wait would be a minimum of 20 minutes. Normally this is 100% acceptable wait time since this place *actually* prepares *real* food, but since we ordered to go and hadn't anticipated 20 minutes and longer waiting, the ticking timer that is a toddler waiting was already too close to the end. ***
With this in mind, we requested the order be canceled and refunded (since it wasn't even started). The employee said he wasn't able to cancel the order and couldn't promise a refund. They also said the owner would call when he returned.
An hour later, my wife called to follow up so we could confirm if they refunded & canceled the order. The owner answered and said she'd made him sad for showing up early and canceling the order. The owner proceeded to raise his voice, guilting her for canceling when "he went and got the cheese just for you" and how he "went through all this effort for you". Eventually my wife said that the conversation was making her uncomfortable and he then said she'd hurt his feelings! The call ended after a while of invalidating my wife's reasons for her call and feelings about the situation, with the owner eventually shouting "Fine! I never want you to come back here or call again."
I thought surely there must a misunderstanding here and any business owner would be open to an adult conversation or feedback about their business or how this could have gone differently. If I were in his shoes, I would be made the food without cheese. Or offered to make it with cheese with a significant delay (still not sure why nothing would star until a finishing piece were on it but who knows, it doesn't matter that much).
So I called the cafe back to inquire if a refund were going to be given or not (my wife said it didn't sound like it); and I wanted to clarify what happened from out point of view.
The owner answered, asked what order I was calling about, then told me (with no chance for a word) he'd already refunded it and he told my wife never to call again. With that, he hung up.
Ironically, what started as a happy discovery that one of our favorite cafes had vegan cheese suddenly turned into no breakfast, and no more cafe. I didn't make the owner offer something he didn't have, nor would anyone have been upset if they said "we're out of vegan cheese". If anything, the last two years have really made it the norm for something to be out of stock or different that expected.
TO THE OWNER:
I do hope you understand how you've hurt your reputation as a business in the community, on a personal and professional level. My wife and I have taken new clients to your cafe to eat and get coffee numerous times and we've enjoyed taking our very young children as well. I'm very sorry you're clearly going through something personal right now. Please be more kind to those around you. Customers, employees, family. I wish you luck getting the help you need.