Before you dismiss this as a shallow attempt at revenge by a former employee, I must say that the food is actually pretty good, albeit overpriced. I was an in-and-out employee, the kind the long-term employees forget after about 2 days or so. Thank God for that. I only wish I could erase my experience at that place from my memory.
First off, everyone who knows anything about food knows that the best places are the little independent restaurants. Period. Places like Applebees are strictly for those with no originality and no pallette. That being said, the only thing worse than all that corporate crap is an independent small town minor league businessman with delusions of grandeur, thinking he's creating the next Starbucks or Panera bread, right next to a paint shop, a used record store, and a Family Dollar. The guy had a chance to build a really cool little coffee shop with some taste, maybe bring in local music, stuff like that. Instead, we have a soulless wannabe corporate dump, run by one of the most soulless and despicable human beings I have ever met.
I knew I was in trouble as soon as I began to see what I bitchy micromanager he was. He would even go so far as to badger employees in the middle of a business rush, breaking their concentration. He cared about the most idiotic and inconsequential details that no one in their right mind would even bother to notice. He bullied the young girl who worked their into tears, and drove just about every employee out in a matter of weeks. I have been told that's pretty much the way it goes there. He overcharges for food, and by the way, his recipes are all deliberate immitations of stuff made at other places--Starbucks, Einstein Brothers, Panera, ect. with a few exceptions.
Worst of all, he favored the ass-kissing employees over anyone else. Anyone who kissed his ass and towed the phony corporate line he had going on in his head was magically treated better, while anyone with enough dignity not to do that got pestered over meaningless crap that had zero effect on the business. And, of course, he's one of hose guys with an ingenious ability to defend his own actions when questioned on them. I left after about one month of that crap. The Upside: I heard from a regular customer that he was once married to some Russian chick who was about half his age. She stayed married to him just long enough to divorce him and be allowed to stay in the country and take half his money. That's hilarious. Another thing he doesn't know is that a competitor from somewhere else in the city paid one of his pet buttkisser cooks a hundred bucks for his recipes and got them. If you want good food and coffee contribute your money to someone else's business, and whatever you do, don't ask for an application. Just friendly advice.
--A Barista
Pros: I don't work there anymore
Cons: I used to work there.
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