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| - How long is too long to wait for food? 20 minutes? A half hour? An hour? What about an hour and a half?? What if you waited that long, got crappy service, and the manager was totally unsympathetic?
I went to Industry Public House with a group of friends (6 altogether) for hopes of a tasty meal and a few drinks. The atmosphere is fun, the decor is very cool, and the drink list is humongous. However, the service is absolutely abysmal, to the point that I will not go back.
It was a Saturday evening during the Rock All Night Tour, which is a very cool music festival that took place in several venues with several music genres. The idea was to showcase local music and the Lawrenceville neighborhood, so we thought it would be fun to eat local as well. When we put our name on the list, the wait was supposed to be 40 minutes, but we only waited about 15 minutes- a plus. The hostess was considerate and sat as down right away- another plus. Our waiter came running over with menus and took our drink orders, which were brought to us in a relatively short time- great so far. Then, he took our orders- on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet- and promised it would be quick and efficient, thanks to the electronic ordering- very cool.
And he was right, the appetizers we ordered came out very fast. My wife and I had the pot roast gravy fries, which tasted like Kennywood Potato Patch fries only smothered in pot roast- yum. Another couple in our group also enjoyed their appetizer, and frolic and joviality ensued. A great start to our evening.
But then, it all went downhill. Maybe I'm being too hard on our waiter- perhaps he was kidnapped by aliens, or was wrongfully incarcerated, or had to deliver a baby in the backroom. Something must have kept him very busy, because 30 minutes after we finished out appetizers, there was still no entrees, no drink refills, no new beers, and our waiter was MIA. This was about the time we all started commenting on the length of our wait. We watched as other patrons were sat, ordered, waited upon, and paid their bills as we waited an hour after our appetizers to finally inquire what was happening. I like to believe my group and I are pretty laid back in these instances, but this was ridiculous.
We finally flagged a manager over to ask what was happening, which was about the time our waiter finally reappeared. I guess he must have stopped the asteroid or disarmed the bomb, or whatever important thing he was doing that he finally got away from to come running over upon seeing us talking to the manager. When we asked the manager what was going on, he stated that they were slammed and our food would be next. When my friend asked him why everyone else seemed to be getting their food without waiting, he looked over at a table and snapped back "that guy's eating nachos, which takes like 2 seconds to make." He then promised to buy us a round of drinks and that are food was already ready and would be over right away.
We waited. And waited. A couple sat down near us, ordered food, ate, and were paying their bill as we waited. Finally, a half hour after the manager promised our food was coming, we gave up and proceeded to leave. After all, it had been over an hour and a half since we were sat, and this was unbelievable. I could have gone to the grocery store, bought the items needed, made the meal, served it and washed the dishes in the time it took them to bring out two hamburgers, two grilled cheese sandwiches, a salad, and a cup of chili. Unfortunately, our waiter reappeared with our food as we were standing up to leave. Arrgh, now we're eating after all.
Despite the wait, the food looked good. My wife enjoyed her chili, and my burger with goat cheese looked yummy, but it was room temperature when I got it and I wasn't about to send it back. Everyone else commented that their food was good, but maybe it was because we were hungry, angry, and just wanted the evening to end.
Amazingly, the waiter was quick to bring our bills and take our payment. We left a 15% tip, despite my objections that that was too much.
Later that evening, I was visited my Montezuma's Revenge. Of all the times I've been sick from food, this was easily in my top 5. The next morning, I was still tasting goat cheese and bile in my throat.
It's unfortunate that such a hip place in Lawrenceville would have such poor service. I guess I was wrong to assume that a business with a menu would actually want to serve food, and not try to be a night club/bar. If you are going to have a full menu, then serve it. Otherwise, serve tapas and appetizers and focus on the drinks. And if you are the manager, be a bit courteous and listen to complaints- we really tried to be understanding and support a local business, but we won't be going back.
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