Johnny B.
Yelp
I've always gone to this restaurant whenever I find myself or my family in or around Big Bear Lake. Would go out of our way to visit and dine at this place every time!
Well, sad to say that we will NEVER AGAIN.
Today, we came in as a party of 7. Done it before and we never had any issue. Today, I was told that they cannot entertain groups of that number of people and will only be able to sit part of the party but the others would have to wait 30 minutes.
Ordinarily, this would be fine with me since I'm big on fine dining and have dined with my family, friends and business associates in countless restaurants before. From the mom and pops type to Michelin type to those TikTok featured types. BUT, the one common theme whenever I hear that type of challenge is that... the restaurant is usually PACKED with people.
This, on this particular day and time, was not the case!
I can clearly see open tables inside and they had vacant outside seating that were available and we have been seated there before with the heater on. I even offered and stated it would be fine with us, but they refused and said they're not sitting outside at the time so I guess we were just out of luck.
Even after talking to the manager when he explained that because the place was not spacious, they could not sit all of us. I even told him that I even have pictures on my phone when they were able to sit us before and it was much busier then than today.
He mentioned that he had a party of 16 that if we could wait, maybe they can sit us. MAYBE. But wait, did he just say 16 when the receptionist clearly turned us down for being a party of 7!? At this point, he just made me feel worse and I guess they really just did not want my business.
As you can see from the picture I took from the outside, if you zoom in, the place was not all that packed in the inside and the outside seating was empty.
I guess I should have told my party to pretend that we didn't know each other and spread the team so we can be seated at the same time! Would that have worked!?
I feel bad for the owner of this place because today they just lost good, loyal customers, business and brand following.
This, in my opinion is a situation where a brand has gotten too big of an ego that they could care less if one or two or three people complain since they think people will keep coming back either way. Even after being embarrassed or not given value. Maybe, but not in my case and the people I share this experience with.
I have too much of a dignity to not stand up to being treated unfairly after all these years of being loyal.
I'm loyal to a brand, no matter what the price is as long as quality and service are deserving. The reason why I never looked at any other restaurants in Big Bear when I'm around the area. If they would have asked me if I'm willing to pay for 16 and not just 7, I would have probably still dined in.
But, I guess now, The Bone Yard across the street would be our new go-to place... and in hindsight I'm glad his happened, otherwise I would not have been able to discover how great Bone Yard's chicken was.
Farewell Peppercorn...
One door closes, another one opens!