I love chocolate ice cream. In fact, I'm a complete chocolate addict. I've been to the South Beach Ghiradrdelli Chocolate joint a few times. The first two times, I went with my dad and had a great time (after our Jerry's Deli jewish food orgies.) The third time I went with my wife Amy and it was profoundly average. Today I went with my friends Warren and Ilana and had a horrible time.
As we entered the store, we noticed that it was crowded and there were no seats, although the seats upstairs were empty. We headed for the upstairs and then saw that it was cordoned off and closed - presumably because there wasn't enough staff in the store. So - we decided to order to go. We ordered quickly in the take out line (no wait) and then settled in for a 30 minute wait for a cup of coffee and two frozen mocha coffee drinks. I got a seat at the counter and watched absolute chaos ensue as the four people tried to crank out ice cream desserts for the surley crowd. There was little patience - about every two minutes one of the customers started yelling at the ice cream producers.
The main issue was the ice cream producers had absolutely no process. They were constantly doing one off ice cream ordered, bumping into each other, running over each other, running out of stuff, screwing up orders, and generally being miserable.
I sent Ilana and Warren to wander around with the assurance that I'd call them when our drinks were done. 15 minutes later, I was almost rolling on the floor in tears for these poor people that were have an awful experience trying to produce ice cream treats.
Pass on this one - go to Starbucks.
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