Zaria H.
Yelp
My father came to visit me in Charlottesville and I wanted to take him to Matchbox for lunch as I had previously patronized the establishment for lunch with coworkers. And had a great time the first time I went. Unfortunately, I did NOT have the same experience today as I had weeks prior.
When I went a few weeks ago, the vibes were great. It was much busier then than it was when I walked in today. Out of curiosity, prior to our arrival today, I called to ask if there would be a wait time. The lady that took my phone call said no. Being that my dad and I were already in Stonefield doing holiday shopping, we took a two minute walk from our car to the restaurant.
The host seated a woman waiting in line in front of us. After he led her to her table, he said it'd be a couple of minutes before he could seat us. This was odd to me being that there were several empty tables in areas of the restaurant that that could easily accommodate two adults. The host walked towards the kitchen twice and came back to the front of the restaurant empty handed both times. Silverware and menus are at the front of the restaurant at the host's station--i'm not sure what exactly he was looking for, but anyone with good customer service skills would've prioritized seating customers in a restaurant that claimed there was no wait time for a table.
After about 5 minutes or so, the host then led my dad and I to the table directly behind the woman that was waiting in line in front of us. I only mention this because the table he took us to was vacant (and clean) from the moment we walked through the door. As previously mentioned, the restaurant wasn't that crowded. I'm wondering why the host was reluctant to seat my father and I. It honestly felt discriminatory. At this point, I'm more observant of the actions of those around me because I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were not being discriminatory and see how we'd be serviced at the table.
Our server seemed friendly, but slow in pace when it came to waiting on us. She had more pep in her step when bringing food/drinks to the surrounding tables. My father and I both asked for water with lemon and proceeded to place our order. She brought the waters. She asked if we wanted straws, I said "yes, please". She said okay and walked away.
It took her about 10 minutes to bring us 2 straws. In that ten minutes, our server did the following:
* brought food to 2 of the surrounding tables
* brought a round of cocktails to the table right next to us
*verbally acknowledged/ and checked in with the customers at the tables she was serving (except the table my father and I sat at of course)
* aimlessly walked around the back of the restaurant talking to the host and kitchen staff (the restaurant has an open floor plan, you can see most of the space)
* checked her phone behind the bar--whatever it was must've been more important to her than doing her job, but not urgent/important enough to clock out and leave.
Not once did it seem as if she forgot where the straws were located, nor did she have to locate and restock a new package of straws.
When she finally dropped 2 straws on our table (which I found disrespectful, but I guess since she did it with a smile on her face, that made it socially acceptable to her) I requested that she cancel our order.
I pointed out that I didn't appreciate that she decided to check her phone and service other tables and disregard the fact that she had another table to wait on, she took the straws back, as well as the waters and told me to have a good day.
As someone who worked in hospitality and food service as a teen and in college (which was less than a decade ago), you can tell when an establishment has a team of employees that are overworked/overwhelmed due to understaffing. That was not the case based on my observation. She genuinely did not want to serve us and did a mediocre job of trying to hide it. We are not beneath you in any capacity and I was not going to tolerate that type of treatment.
The experience I had this afternoon ruined mood. It made me cry twice out of frustration realizing that there are still people out there who judge
and show bias towards others simply because of how someone
looks or what they're wearing. It's unfortunate that I received better treatment from the staff when I had lunch with my all white colleagues, than I did when trying to dine out with my black father.
If a Matchbox employee or manager reads this , take this review as a learning opportunity. It may be worthwhile for you all to consider doing some self assessments on your character. While you will never receive my business again, I want you to do better in the future. Treat others as you want them to treat you, no matter their color creed or appearance.
