The weather was beautiful and we were hungry for authentic Italian food for lunch and what better place to go than The Hill? I had never had the chance to meander the sidewalks of The Hill and found the area to be historic and charming. We ate lunch at a small cafe called Amighetti's (fantastic food and friendly service!) and having picked up some cannoli's, discussed how wonderful a gourmet cup of coffee would compliment our desert. Amighetti's packaged our cannoli's in to-go boxes for us and we walked a few blocks down to Shaw's Coffee Ltd. \r
After ordering our coffee from one of the owners or possibly a manager of the establishment, she took our money (almost $15.00 for two cups of coffee and a chocolate muffin for our 8 year old daughter) and emanated a somewhat hostile tone with me at the counter when asking, ""Are you going to eat that here? (pointing to the unopened box of cannoli's)."" She then went on to say, ""We actually serve food here. There's a sign on the door that actually says not to bring in your own food. It's a health code violation and what you are doing to us is actually a slap in the face. I'm going to ask you to leave."" I was stunned because I had never experienced someone so insolent and unprofessional in the service industry. She was plainly agitated and angry because we simply brought in food from a local competitor. I had no words in return other than ""Okay, then."" She never thanked us for our order. The owner (possibly her husband) who witnessed her behavior was mildly apologetic and offered ""outside tables"" for our use where we could finish our coffee and eat our desert. I told him that I would never return for a second cup and that I had never quite experienced such rude and unprofessional behavior. I would rate the establishment an ""F"" and will never return. We then walked back to Amighetti's and ate our desert with our coffee on an outdoor patio. The coffee at Shaw's was decent, but I have had much better service from my local Starbuck's where the barista is polite and knows my name and the coffee is ""actually"" less expensive. \r
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