01/23/07

Natural at Best

by pleaseplayagain

This is a new company, I understand they are just getting started. I met a few of the corporate people and most of the food servers in the cafe. Being that it is a new company it is extremely disorganized. I have worked in and run restaurants myself and I have a funny feeling that many people that run the company have not. It is run more like retail or maybe a freshman college project.

I'm a vegetarian and if I were to have my sandwich toasted they would throw it in on the same paper with a chicken sandwich and toast them right together. I once watched in horror as the woman serving my tomato soup held a ladle full of beef stew right over the tomato soup. It entirely ruined my appetite for the day.

One morning I came in to get a yogurt and I saw the nice young woman putting the greens out for the made-to-order salads and they came out of a box that said, "Natural Lettuce by Sysco." Later that day I went in to see what they were serving for hot lunch and heard the manager say the lettuce was organic! Maybe they just reuse boxes, but maybe I'm too forgiving?

Apparently I am too forgiving. After watching beef bits drip into the soup and my sandwich coming out tasting weird I still went back. Why? Because I liked the idea of an organic fast food place. Except it's not fast. They, like most places of food, were terminally understaffed. I only met the manager a handful of times after going in at least once per week for a few months. Once I realized the green frumpy shirts they wore meant Manager and the khaki shirts meant regular I soon knew to look for the manager better. One time the manager was behind the counter near the food with a man in a nice shirt, whom I believe was corporate, discussing their drinking that weekend while the other people worked.

Unprofessional. Not organic - just natural at best. Kind of mediocre food. The soups are good but I hear they don't make them anyway. Just thaw. Also I don't think anybody there knows how to make coffee.

• Pros: Good idea, good retail items and third party products.
• Cons: Name is just a name, it's hardly organic except for third party products.