One way to judge the quality of a business establishment is how the owner/manager handles unexpected events that affect a customer. This is especially the case with a dining establishment. If something goes terribly wrong and impacts the customer, how is this handled? A quality establishment will generally bend over backwards to ?right the wrong? and make sure the customer leaves satisfied. This was most definitely not the case when I went to Caffe Boa in Tempe, Arizona for New Years Eve, 2011. I had eaten there one time before and had a good experience, so suggested it to visiting relatives. Our experience was unbelievably bad. In fact it was the most outrageous dining experience I have ever had. Two visiting relatives from Minnesota and I were seated at a table inside the restaurant. They did not have a record of the reservation we had made the day before which in hindsight was the first sign of a poorly managed establishment. When I sat down I immediately felt a cold wet sensation and got up. There was a huge puddle of water on my chair and my pants were soaked through. The temperature outside was around 35 degrees, we had entered the Tempe Block party and my car was parked maybe 5 blocks away. The option of leaving to go change my clothes would have meant a 15-20 minutes walk in freezing weather with wet pants. No one at Caffe Boa expressed any concern at all about this. In fact, it took awhile to get anyone's attention at all. All I got was ""sorry."" I asked to see the manager and she said ""sorry? and would look for a hair dryer. Meanwhile I went into the ladies room to use the wall-mounted blow-dryer attempt to dry my pants. It took over 30 minutes of holding my jeans and underwear over the dryer connected to the bathroom wall. Finally the manager came in and said ""sorry, no blow dryer."" I asked to see her boss who turned out to be the owner. He offered a glass of Champaign to ""calm my nerves,"" in a quite condescending tone to boot. When I told him a decent quality dining facility would likely make a greater compensation to their customer for such an outrageous experience, he started complaining to me about how he worked so hard, didn't get to see his kids very much, etc. and now he had to deal with me, a disgruntled customer and if he paid for my meal it would come out of his pocket. It was truly unbelievable. Nor did he make any attempt at compensation for a nearly ruined New Years Eve on the coldest night of the year or ask if my clothes had been damaged by the water and dryer. The owner of Caffe Boa should be running a hot dog stand instead of a major restaurant in Tempe. I would never go to this establishment again.
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