Kim P.
Yelp
PA BBQ is our go-to place for Bar-B-Q, and we stop by every few months. The food is consistently good and the service is usually excellent. Until now.
I always order the grilled chicken sandwich and request cornbread instead of the bun. It's never been an issue until our last visit when the manager, Steven Brown, got involved and told me that he's been working at this location for 12 years and has never authorized the substitution of cornbread for the bun. I explained that I've been visiting this location for 14 years and have NEVER been refused my seemingly minor request. Sensing my frustration and recognizing that I was about to leave (which I was), the manager, who was clearly irritated that I would make such an outrageous request, agreed to allow me to have a piece of cornbread "just this once". I said that "just this once" would be sufficient because we weren't planning to ever return.
To make matters worse, my dinner arrived with a burnt bun and no cornbread. I politely asked the food runner to get my cornbread. He was happy to do so. Clearly the manager never conveyed to the server nor the kitchen that he had grudgingly approved my cornbread request.
The whole incident started with the server, who should be fired for her poor attitude. When I made my initial request for cornbread, she said that she'd have to check with the manager because she normally worked at another location and they didn't allow such a substitution. I explained that my request has ALWAYS been honored at the Boynton Beach location.
After the food arrived, we never saw the server again. When she passed by our table, she saw that I had received the cornbread and had set the burnt bun aside. She must have been irritated that my request was honored because she did not once stop by our table to see how things were going or if we needed anything. She dropped off the check and picked up the payment with nary a word. Needless to say, her tip reflected this poor attitude and poor service. In fact, based on how we were treated, we probably shouldn't have left a tip at all. But the food runner and the kitchen staff did their jobs, so we wanted to be sure they received a portion of the tip.
Why would the manager be willing to lose long-standing customers (including the friends we tell about this experience) over a piece of cornbread? Does it really cost the company that much more than a bun? If the issue was truly cost, the manager could have suggested that we pay a small upcharge for the cornbread. That would have been a reasonable compromise and a way to provide some semblance of customer service.
We've noticed that PA BBQ is not nearly as busy as it had been in the past. The food is reasonably priced and tasty, with a nice selection of BBQ sauces. It's a good value, although the half-chicken with two sides at $14 is a much better deal than the thinly pounded single breast chicken sandwich with one side for $13. Perhaps customers are being driven away by the poor attitude of the staff and management?
