I'm surprised that this guy is still in business. Although I've heard his food is good, I've never returned to find out for myself. Several years ago, when I had returned to the Indiana after living away for many years, we took my Mom here for Mom's Day lunch. The wonderful part of this gathering was that, as she had just recovered from cancer, we were delighted to have her with us and bet together with her and all three of us, her daughters. As we were seated, one of my sisters was still at church, and on her way, as we explained to the waitress. The waitress came back in a minute or so, after taking our drink orders, and told us that they would need the table in one hour. I thought this completely uncalled fo and, I --sort of jokingly---asked if she was serious. The look on her face was one of shame and she whispered as she glanced back at the kitchen, "He wanted me to tell you, I'm sorry..." as she referred to Chef Joel himself. This was COMPLETELY RUDE and uncalled for. So, I told her we were not going to rush our Mom's Day lunch. Needless to say, since it became very painfully obvious that we were going to be expected to give up our table in less than an hour (at this point) we chose to leave immediately. And, since the place is small, it was quite apparent that we were not happy. I made a comment to the rude owner of this establishment that I had never been treated so badly in all my years of dining out (all over the country and some parts of the world.)
Ironically, we chose another much more laid-back and pleasant local dining establishment, and told the waitress our sob story. Well 'lo and behold, the waitress there knew Chef Joel's mother. She said he ought to be ashamed of himself and we agreed!!
I'm surprised he's still in business 3 years later if this is the way he treats his customers. Rude, rude, rude man! We'll see how much longer he fares; I can't imagine that we were the victims of a bad mood. But, maybe he was just having a bad day that sad Mom's Day a few years ago???
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