Bo W.
Yelp
To Whom it May Concern:
To preface, I am a general manager for a staple restaurant of Nashville that has been around for many decades and I also have been in the hospitality industry for multiple decades. I am not one to "complain," but as a leader in the industry I feel that my experience tonight must be shared with the company. Tonight I invited my mom, an avid football fan, to dinner at the Green Hills location which I have frequented multiple times since its opening and also been an advocate to many people prior as a recommendation for both food and sports atmosphere. I hyped up the ambience and really raised the bar for her expectations to match my personal own. We were looking forward to watching the Dallas Cowboys vs Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday Night Football game starting at 7 central. My lady and I arrived and were seated at 5:48pm and texted my mother our location for when she arrived. We were in no hurry as the game had a weather delay, but what we experienced would be alarming for any restauranteur. After 15 minutes, we pondered whether or not a server was aware of us. The restaurant probably had around 35-40 patrons at the most at the time so not empty but definitely not busy. Eventually we were greeted and we ordered our two cocktail drinks as well as water. About 15 minutes later, mom arrived and our drinks had still not arrived. Mom was greeted by the server and she ordered her cocktail. 15 more minutes go by and the server returns to apologize on the delay in drinks and asks if we were ready to order any food. I reiterate the desire for water as we are now around 40 Minutes into being sat with still a baron table. We also ordered the nachos with chicken at this time. Soon after drinks arrive, and they were great as usual. The night goes on with similar delayed service points. We order entrees and another round of cocktails immediately upon finishing the prior. This round is quicker but still delayed in comparison to normal standards. Food tardily arrives and there is no follow up to quality checks until we are done. We ask for a To Go box and we wait for another 45 minutes with no follow up. My lady is also in the industry and has grown uncontrollably impatient. I decide to go to the restroom, and on my way I notice the manager leaned over hanging out and laughing as the restaurant around her fails. I continue to pass by and onward to the men's room. Upon exit she hasn't moved an inch hanging out with other employees laughing and having a jolly time. I am now not around my mom and have no regret in expressing my concern. I ask the lady if she is the manager on duty to which she confirms. I express my concern and deliver my current experience to which she "apologizes" and offers us a round of drinks which is far from what I was looking for. To rewind, the biggest concern, which I expressedtp the "manager" is that the staff had 1 gear the entire night. We had lots of apologies from the server for the delay in drinks and service, meanwhile the bartenders had 6 total guests and were constantly on their phones. The manager and servers walked around at the same slow pace the entire time with no intensity or desire to get "out of the weeds." The managers excuse was that the servers had been there all day and were tired. Again, I am in the industry and get the climate of difficulty in staffing. I personally do not deal with that as I am part of the team and I do not let my team fail which leads to Staff retention. Even after expressing my experience, the manager continued to stand around and banter with the staff as opposed to getting involved with tables and making sure the guest experiences were rescued. The drink round she offered us took another unbelievable 20 minutes to arrive as the bartenders stood around pointing at our table and laughing. I could care less about their opinion on us as I wasn't looking for free drinks. We have now been there for 4 hours before this round arrives. We would have spent way more money and been there way less time should service had been timely or management had been managing. When our bill arrived, not only had nothing been taken care of to salvage the experience(again not that I was looking for that, but that's what should be done in such a scenario), but the pricing was actually over what was advertised via drink specials which i inquired about for the service industry prior to things going south. I was embarrassed to recommend this place to my mom and will deter from recommending this place moving forward. I told the manager on duty that the restaurant was in the midst of a recipe for failure and based on her following behaviors, I don't expect this restaurant to be around for decades such as myself or my company. Again this is my experience on a place I hoped to be a staple, and this is my delivery to hopefully salvage from the top down as the people at the forefront don't seem to have that intent.