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Laura Baughman writes:
“This past Saturday evening, our 15-year-old son and his girlfriend wanted to celebrate their ‘six-month anniversary’ by going to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. They both dressed up; he wore a dress shirt, slacks and dress shoes, and she wore a nice dress.
Its treats such as the Oreo Dream Extreme Cheesecake that make this chain popular with young diners.: Courtesy photo
“His girlfriend’s grandmother dropped them off at the restaurant around 6:45. They went up to the hostess and gave her their name, and she gave them a pager and told them it would be about a one-hour wait. They sat down and waited while others were being paged with their pagers, and also, the hosts were coming around and calling out names for people who didn’t respond the first time to the pagers.“After the first hour, they got a little anxious but noticed that a large group of people who had arrived before them were still not seated. After two hours of waiting, my son said he wanted to ask when they would be seated, but his girlfriend didn’t want to ‘cause any problems.’ After two and a half hours, they went up to the hostess and asked about their table, and she told them she had paged them a long time ago and they never showed up.
“They were finally seated sometime after 10!“Could the reason they were overlooked be that they were just young kids? My son and his girlfriend didn’t leave the waiting room, the pager didn’t go off and none of the staff came around to give them a ‘last chance call.’ He spent over $40 of the money he received as Christmas gifts, and he even gave his server an $8 tip because ‘it wasn’t the server’s fault that they weren’t treated well.’ That’s the kind of customer I would think any server would want to have as a guest.
“(My son) was very disappointed that their celebration was marred by this experience, and we are puzzled that they would be treated this way by a popular restaurant chain.”
I reached out to a representative Cheesecake Factory-Baybrook and am still awaiting a response. In the meantime, Baughman sent this note:
“I wanted to let you know that I decided to contact the Cheesecake Factory myself to inform them of the mishap.
“I spoke with the general manager and explained the situation. He listened and was apologetic. He said that their reservations are computerized and that the fact that my son and his girlfriend were young would not affect the waiting-list process.
“He couldn’t explain why the pager didn’t go off or that their name wasn’t called and why they ended up waiting three hours to be seated (partly my son’s fault). He also said he understood that someone who was 15 might not want to talk to a manager and that my son might possibly be embarrassed having to do so.
“He ended up offering to send my son and his girlfriend a gift card and a letter of apology and hoped they would use the gift card to have another meal there.”
Reader rave
Linda Pollock writes:
“My husband and I went to lunch at Cafe del Sol in Katy. It is a fun place to go. You walk past a children’s play area and outdoor dining to go inside. When you are inside, you can observe the kitchen. We seated ourselves at a table with white tile and felt like we were in Old Mexico. The waiter was very helpful and friendly. We were served in a timely manner. Not like some restaurants that have your food waiting under the (heat lamps).
“The food was delicious. My husband had the fajitas and charro beans. He was very pleased with the taste and the temperature of the food. Sizzling when they came out. I had flautas and charro beans, which were very good. The beef flautas were well done — just the way I like them, and I might add that this restaurant is one of the few, if any, in Houston or Katy that serves beef flautas and doesn’t offer just chicken flautas. (I) highly recommend this restaurant.”
Cafe del Sol: 22116 Franz in Katy, 281-599-1886
I feel for the kid and his mom. She's right - a client is a client, regardless of age. At least TCF's manager was on the ball.
And not to get the haters going, but the same company that owns TCF also owns Grand Luxe Cafe. Coincidence? I think not.
This could have happened to anyone who doesn't go up to the check-in desk after an hour. There's no evidence to claim discrimination.
And what does Grand Luxe have to do with anything? I'm guessing you got bad service there? You know, just because the name is "Grand Luxe" doesn't mean it's actually grand or luxurious. But I guess the simple-minded are easily fooled.
Tinyhands, the reason I pointed it out is because I got a lot of flack for calling Grand Luxe "too urban for my taste."
As for simple-minded, well, here's a mirror...
And explain that whole "too urban" thing to us again? (Got your mirror right here, sweetie.)
Rose, honey, check out Brucer's comment and get back to me.
There is at least one real problem with TCF's response to Ms. Baughman. The upper management person who called had no knowledge of the facts, only what the TCF's policies from on high are supposed to be.
In the Cypress area there are two neighborhood gems; Mazzonette (Italian) and Piqueo (Peruvian). At Piqueo the Lomo Saltado-fuses peruvian ingredients w/chinese techniques. Stir fried certified angus filet mignon strips, onions, tomatoes & ají amarillo peppers. The best dish in the house. Also, you can order small dishes so you can try several menu items. At Mazzonette, fish, pasta and beef are all on the menu, and you cannot go wrong no matter what your taste buds are craving. Enjoy!
Mezzanotte and Piqueo are owned by the same people. Agree, both are good.
The Cheesecake Factory will never know how much money they have lost by this publicity although it was appropriate that they gave the guy a gift card. It sounds as if he has integrity and virtue.
Oh pahlease! Do you not find the notion of a 6 month "anniversary" more than a little laughable. Is he one of the Honey Boo-Boo family?
wow. how cynical. At 15 years old, 6 months is a lifetime. C' mon, their instinct to celebrate was sweet.
And, just to reply to myself because journalists are that way, as a person who writes about restaurants I wish their experience had been better. And I wish them far better luck in the future.
I guess in the modern day celebration of the Cult of the Child, it is as precious as a sack full of puppies, but more than a little too much treacle for me. Save it for the Channel View Gazette or Reader's Digest
Totally agree. so nauseating. really.
I think something different here is nauseating. Really.
Sounds like your childhood was very disappointing for you, Jenny. I'm sorry for you.
Intrepid, don't fret yourself over me or my childhood. It was all fine. Carpe jugularum!
I am 53 years old and when I was 15 we celebrated 6 month anniversaries. I, too, think it is very sweet and for those of you who don't want to celebrate, go off and gruff on your own. Buzzkills! Celebrate life, don't demean it.
Right on, Allie baby.
They would have had a better outcome if the the kid was trained in restaurant etiquette a little better by his parents, either a 15 or 50 yr old should know to ask the hostess about a table after the time given has expired...
What's up your ass?
Ya really want to know, sweetie?
My family and I had a similar experience the the Baybrook CCF. We had arrived "early" but the parking there is attrocious. The setting sun shines right on the entrance and we were baking. There are only four little benches out front but after about 30 minutes we were able to sit. We were on a wait list estimated to be about 45 minutes but after about 1-1/2 hours later our pager went off. We got up and presented ourselves but guess what...we were told they set the pager off by accident and our table was not ready and ordered to go back and wait. Of course we had lost our seats. I was not impressed. I was ready to leave but did not want to upset the family plans. We got our table but no server came for quite a while. We finally flagged down someone and discovered we were in the territory of a new server. When our server finally came she was bubbly and cheerful but clearly overwhelmed. She fumbled a bit with getting us a drink of water (recall we have been baking in the sun for about two hours) but finally it came and she managed to spill my water on me. No big deal but "icing on the cake" so to speak. The food was good and portions were large but they don't give it away. Given the difficulty with parking and the loooooooooooong waits I don't think we will be back anytime soon.
Anybody who would wait that long and with that discomfort for what is basically a glorified Applebees deserves the pain.
I don't even know where to start with this letter about the kids at Cheesecake Factory. I think the kid needs grow up but with a mom like that I can see why that may not happen. I guess mommy will always be there to make everything right. Who waits 2.5 hours before asking about a table? And are we supposed to be sympathetic because he used the money that was just given to him? I think the GM did a really nice thing.
I don't care what they are serving, what restaurant it is, etc. I personally won't wait more than half an hour to be seated at ANY restaurant. If it's a popular 5-star place I'll make reservations, and if they screw that up they'll never see me again. I don't have an inflated sense of self-importance, there's too many places in Houston to go to and all are competing for my dollars. There's always one that I don't have to wait to be seated. If I were that kid I'd have gone elsewhere after 45 minutes, no way I'd have been there for 3 hours.
I like Jenny and Notyo, they are telling it like it IS!!! Again...and this is the absolute LAST TIME I'm going to iterate that: if you smell that your service is going to be poor....simply walk out and go to the restaurant down the street, around the corner, a few blocks down...although we are SpaceCity, it's NOT rocket science. Two and one-half hours is far too long to wait for ANYTHING lol!!! Ok, I'm done....for now.....
See this is why I don't bother with the cheesecake factory or grand lux.
I think the most curious thing about this story is why an adult didn't intervene. You drop a couple of kids off for dinner and two hours later, you haven't gotten a "ready to go" call or text. I don't have children but I think a 10 o'clock curfew for 15-year-olds is not unreasonable. A phone call from an adult, "hey, you're not done yet?" Maybe an adult could have gotten them seated sooner.
Totally agree, Syd. When I was a teen back in the 1980s, if I didn't "check in" with my air force Dad, he'd have called the restaurant to see if I was still there. (That was way back before cell phones!) And heaven forbid if my date parked us in the driveway for longer than 5 minutes! But that's another story...
Plus, I can never recall waiting more than 15 minutes for a table, thanks to dad. If the hostess didn't know how long the wait was, or if it went past 15 minutes, he was right there politely asking her what the problem was. No response - no customers. We'd leave and offer to return when it was less busy.
I still think the kids got riffed, big time. TCF dropped the ball.
I would never wait more than 15 minutes at any restaurant. If they cannot seat their customers in that time frame they are not meeting the needs of their customers. There are too many good restaurants in this city that would love to seat their customers quickly and provide excellent service.
You said it, honey.