ALKI CAFE!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

If you’re compassionate you can’t call out an a**hole? How does that work?

relarson, thanks, your post is helpful in seeing both sides.

[Dee]

This has gotten a bit out of control. The bottom line is that he treated his customers badly. This is not the first time, I’ve seen him SCREAM at a woman for politely asking him for another tea bag(“WHAT KIND OF PLACE DO YOU THINK I’M RUNNING THAT I GIVE AWAY A FREE 2ND TEA BAG!?”). That’s what he actually said to her. People are starting to get mean for no reason. Should it be illegal to talk about a personal tragedy in a public place goodvisit? I have experienced a personal tragedy and spoken about it, it’s called freedom of speech and it helps people heal to talk openly about it.

[Keith]

SCREAMIEST THREAD EVER!!!!!

Seriously, my virtual ears are ringing.

[Dee]

Sorry Keith, just wanted to get the point across that his man has anger issues and gets extemely angry at patrons for silly things.

[JoB]

jt…

i am a compassionate woman and i use a**hole more often that hubby would like..

and not always affectionately:)

oops .. does that sound like it was always directed at hubby? thankfully.. not.

[Erik]

JoB – I met your better half, he looked absolutely terrified!

[Gina]

http://seattle.citysearch.com/review/10792518

http://alkicafe.home.comcast.net/~alkicafe/

google “Alki Cafe” and read the older reviews. Quite interesting.

[JoB]

Erik..

yeah.. he quakes in his boots…

my better half holds his own…

nearly 18 years wed now.. and over 20 together…

i am beginning to think we are doing something right ;->

[JoB]

reading those reviews.. something caught in my memory.. so i went back to check…

one of the first rave reviews for the cafe on citysearch came from servergrrl… in 2004 i think…

and one of the more caustic defenses in this thread came from servergirl…

i don’t know that it is the same person..

but i do know that sometimes our habits give us away…

[apattalochi]

Thanks gina for putting the link to city search. go read the reviews everyone and you will see. This restaurant consistantly gives bad service, even to groups of 6 for Mothers Day!

Just very unprofessional, and sad to see a business with such bad standards. Please dont give them your business. Trust me, it is not worth it.

[LBG]

wow JoB…I was determined not to post on this thread anymore but couldn’t resist after your detective work. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?

It reads like a commercial for the place…further solidifies for me what I hypothesized in an earlier post…

collusion, collusion, collusion.

[socrates]

Ok… this is my first post in this forum so go easy on me.

My wife was in the party of 14. I’ve heard every detail from her and read every post so far.

I think the best summary post is proffered by DSV90 at post #106. So I’m in that camp.

But to those who think nobody should say “Don’t go there anymore,” …isn’t that just the free market at work? If this owner (lintle) had any business sense at all, he would treat people politely, regardless.

Some have said the owner is just all about business. BS. The Alki Cafe only serves breakfast and lunch from April to October. Granted, they can run their business however they want, but if they really wanted to make money they would be open for dinner and year-round. Maybe they would even make enough to hire a real restaurant manager that won’t yell at paying customers.

I will not eat there until there is new management and I will encourage my friends to go elsewhere. I hope the owners find another way to make a living.

Several have suggested they should have walked out but they had already been served their food and walking out then would’ve totally stiffed the good servers who deserve the 18% large group tip. My wife compliments their server, by the way. She was very nice.

One more thing. For anyone that has b*tched about them being there a long time: we actually looked at the receipt. It shows they were out at 10:15 am. They first arrived just after 9 am and were seated around 9:15. So 14 ate and were out in one hour. They had a timeline to keep as other events were planned and there were children to get back to (like mine).

[Sue]

Actually, this restaurant does not “consistently give bad service,” apattalochi. I go there pretty much every other week, have been there at least 25 times, and have received consistently good service, good food, and have never witnessed anything remotely close to what is being described here. Maybe this manager simply isn’t in at 8:30 or 9 a.m.when we’re there? I don’t know. I’m not saying that the manager isn’t doing these things, nor that people aren’t having bad service; I’m just saying I haven’t seen it personally, so I can’t speak to what I haven’t witnessed. All I know is that I would not consistently return to a place that gave me bad service, so for my husband I, they are certainly doing something right. And socrates, they actually are open all year round for breakfast and lunch – I’ve been going all winter, so I know they don’t just open in April for the season.

As for public review sites, people usually are much quicker to give a bad review than to heap praise on anything – that’s just human nature. If you look at the reviews on yelp at http://www.yelp.com/biz/alki-cafe-seattle?rpp=40&sort_by=date_desc you’ll notice that most of the reviews were pretty decent, until the 7 or so reviews, all posted in the last week (mostly on 4/14, 2 days after this party) by people who had never posted a review on there before and who are all talking about the rude manager.

[andrea]

despite your assertion to their hours otherwise Sue, I live right around the bend from the Alki Cafe and I can say in all honesty that I hardly ever note them to be open in the mornings when I run by, or in the evenings when I’m walking my dogs…I thought perhaps they had closed or gone out of business for a time until I noted they were open a few weekends ago…so they can’t be in it for the money, because as their neighbor, I don’t see them their trying to make money like their counterparts along the same road…

just my two cents on that

[servergirl]

Jo B

Am I really that boring? I would never write something so void. I have never before this written commentary about a restaurant until this incident was heard through the great vine of Alki. Also thanks for the comment I address caustically because it puts a difference of opinion, adds flame to the fire and I am absolutely loving the debate. I don’t think that servergrrl from city search is in comparison.

Just to see people so passionate about a topic is exciting, its like a soap opera or more like a good book you cant put down. This is real life.

Sue I went to yulp.com and totally see whats going on. I did some investigating of my own and saw that all other sites have been taken over by the gang of eight or so.

andrea

I work on alki and when driving by the cafe in the morning and having eaten there they open at eight and close at two. Also I used to eat dinner there a long time ago and asked recently why dinner is no more. I guess you need a good cook and there are too many restaurants around here to choose from to match or surpass the overhead.

I also realized when reading your two cents that the Cafe owners have been open for fifteen plus years, they must be doing something right.

[Jerald]

I’m getting curious enough about the place (haven’t been there in years) that I might go just to check it out. Hope the volatile owner will be there. If anything unusual happens, I’ll report.

[beachdrivegirl]

Thanks Jerald…maybe you should bring a secret camera with you so we can all live through your experience. :)

[Jerald]

I’ll be sure and document the time and date, how long it takes to be served, how long before I’m thrown out, etc.

[JenV]

Jerald- be sure and ask for an extra tea bag!

[WSMom]

This has been an interesting thread. Coincidentally, nearly 15 years ago, my family went to Alki Cafe for dinner and were treated disrespectfully by our waitress. We haven’t gone back since.

[servergirl]

I just got back from volunteering at my local hospital. Most of you seem to have a lot of time on your hands maybe you should focus your time and effert towards society and something positive by becoming a volunteer. That would be a better way to spend your day instead of trying to put out of business your local resturant. Know one is perfect.

[Anonymous]

servergirl – I have remained impartial regarding this topic, but that last post was incredible.

Are you that oblivious that you do not realize the members of this forum just finished with a major fund raiser for a local business that had recently come upon hard times. And that was our second fund raiser as a group!

No one is perfect, I agree, but maybe you should do a little research before you start with the whole holier than thou routine.

[beachdrivegirl]

Thank you NR!! And Servergirl, if you knew anything about me you would know that I work a full time job and I use the WSBlog Forum to vent and take a break from my job during the day. It is very unfortunate you are so quick to judge.

[JanS]

yes…wouldn’t it be nice to have the time to just volunteer whenever…but we do work, some of us longer hours than others. NR…thanks for that…volunteer, indeed….perhaps we should invite servergirl to put her money where her mouth is for our next event, whatever it may be :) Are you up for it, servergirl?

and, just out of curiosity, which local West Seattle Hospital would that be?

yeah, I know, smack my hands for typing that :P

[spookbrian]

hi to all. sorry I’m joining this discussion so late, but I have to weigh in. These are separate issues totally. There is absolutely no reason we need to know why these people assembled at the restaurant. Just as somebody pointed out, as a server you must leave your personal outside drama out of your interactions with the costumers, then so too should the costumers leave theirs out when judging you on service.

etiquette: Both parties involved lacked proper etiquette. Businesses love money, but large parties are very high maintenance in respect to the overall picture. And are very often, from a business perspective more work than their worth…especially when they arrive at different times and with more than expected numbers. It sounds like to me initially the restaurant did all it could to accommodate until it was impacting the experience of other patrons already there and waiting to be sat. Look at it from another side… pretend this was a thread started by someone who waited over an hour to be sat because a large group of women were making it very difficult for other people to be sat?

Also, there was a lack of etiquette from the workers/owner. If the group was too large than they should have been told there was no room. But, once they were sat at a table it is absolutely the duty of every employee of that restaurant to ensure a great experience.

What people don’t understand is that restaurants are the most stressful place to work. I dare you to say otherwise. They are also the most likely to fail and they have the lowest profit margins. Add to this the fact that people want everything their way, often treat the staff like servants and complain because prices are too high and you have a volatile situation. Everyone who works in a restaurant is underpaid. They have to be in order for the owners to make any money. If the prices of the food were reflective of what the workers should get paid nobody would go out. I feel like everyone expects restaurant workers to bend over backwards for them, which most times they do, but the amount of rudeness the average restaurant worker experiences is 100% more than what the costumer ever gets…and for what? Far too often nothing. Do people realize 15% is an ok amount for tip? Anything less is Cheep!!!! If you can’t afford to tip than you shouldn’t go out to eat.

Lastly who really cares what happened? If you don’t like the restaurant than don’t go, but the only reason this has any gravity is because it was a group of women, one of whom experienced a recent tragedy, and was brought to tears by the owner. I swear I read a lot of peoples previous posts demanding the emotion be left out and simply judge the experience for what it was…well do it. So some costumers felt like they were treated rudely? Is that news? BTW I love WSB!!

[Author]

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