32 top. One server

You were not alone Gordon.

Here's another ex-Tumbleweed employee coming out of the woodwork... I was a server at Mellwood (used to be referred to as "Ground Zero" - pre-9/11, of course) for a summer during college. It was grim. The worst: 99 cent margarita nights. "Uh, ma'am, there's not enough alcohol in my margarita." There was just no good way to explain to them that you shouldn't beg for more booze when you're only spending a buck on the drink and will therefore probably drink eight of them. The 99 cent ones came pre-mixed anyway.

Oh, and the queso comes from a bag. I used to grimace as I watched the line cook cut it open and dump it into the crockpot. And then again when I had to serve some: most times you had to stir it around to dislodge the skin that formed on the top.

Back then at least they still fried their own chips on the spot. There'd be guy sweating it out in the corner of the kitchen, constantly plunging baskets of chips into the hot oil.

The last time I was there was 3 years ago. It was for my sons birthday and it also happened to be fathers last meal at a restaurant. What a bummer that was his last dinning experience before he died. The service was so bad and the food terrible. We ordered apps and after we had tried to eat them we wanted the left overs gone. I told the server that we were finished with the apps and she said okay but left the three platters on the table. Out main course came and I again told the food runner to please remove the apps as we were finished with them. He kind of looked at me like I was crazy and then left without taking the apps. Oh well. We finished our meal and the server asked if we wanted anything else. We ordered a few more drinks and wanted to just hang out and talk. They left our dishes on the table. I asked the server to please remove the plates. She disappeared. Flies were starting to congregate, as we were outside. I finally went to the manager and told her that we wanted to hang out for a few and enjoy our adult beverages, and could she please send a busser out to remove our dishes. She said that it was their policy to remove plates after the guest had left. I pointed out that this was not acceptable to us and that we really need some time at a clean table to finish our drinks. About 5 min later two burley guys showed up with tubs and did a big song and dance about us being at the table while they cleaned. We were obviously in their way and they banged and clanged and moaned and groaned. I finally told them to leave it. We left never to return.

Horrible. Awful.

You know whats horrible is that I know the twin brothers who own the place. And they are both genuinely sweet, caring and considerate family men. Their sponsoring the Special Olympics polar bear plunge is awesome and Im always happy to help participate as a safety director.

But at the end of the day...I have to agree with you Will on the quality of the food/service.

That location on the river would be amazing. Seafood concept would be a natural. I think you would need a heavyweight chain restaurant to really bring in the customers. McCormicks is a great concept. They started out of Portland, Oregon and grew to have stores all over the country.

Oh, and the queso comes from a bag. I used to grimace as I watched the line cook cut it open and dump it into the crockpot. And then again when I had to serve some: most times you had to stir it around to dislodge the skin that formed on the top.

Back then at least they still fried their own chips on the spot. There'd be guy sweating it out in the corner of the kitchen, constantly plunging baskets of chips into the hot oil.

I used to have ONE woman come in to do "prep" in the mornings. She would start with turning on the fryers and the steam wells. While the fryers heated she would throw multiple bags of queso, beans and beef into the steam wells. Then she fried chips for 4 hours.

Voila! Tumbleweed prep.

A guy I just hired worked at Tumbleweeds in Highlander Pointe. I told him about this post and he agreed saying he had 7 microwave ovens to look after!. That was the extent of his cooking! I only ate there once 5 years ago and was not impressed - never been to a Tubmbleweeds since.

Wow. I worked at the original one for 1 year. Lots of stories. Hope a better local restaurant can move in there sooner than later.

The original on Vincennces St in New Albany? I used to walk there from my first apartment in 1976. No service issues at a walk up counter lol

Wow. I worked at the original one for 1 year. Lots of stories. Hope a better local restaurant can move in there sooner than later.

The original on Vincennces St in New Albany? I used to walk there from my first apartment in 1976. No service issues at a walk up counter lol

No issues because George and Linda Keller waited on you.

Tumbleweed and Joe‘s Crap Shack are terrible "ambassador" restaurants for the Waterfront Park area. Me thinks that the Mayor/Metro Council needs to get more dictatorial and mandate minimum quality standards for restaurants to occupy such prime spaces.

I also worked at Tumbleweed, right when they started to branch out into the food court operations. The bagged beans, queso and enchilada sauce was well-suited to that type of operation. Things started to go downhill after they opened up a location in the Biggs Hypermarket.

Tumbleweed and Joe‘s Crap Shack are terrible "ambassador" restaurants for the Waterfront Park area. Me thinks that the Mayor/Metro Council needs to get more dictatorial and mandate minimum quality standards for restaurants to occupy such prime spaces.

Am I wrong in thinking that a former mayor had a hand in situating those restaurants there? I had heard that Mayor Jerry worked to get those in there.

The story I heard was they were negotiating to get a Landry's Seafood and after the deal was made, the parent company switched it to Joe's Crab Shack. Nice bait-and-switch...

We went to Joe's twice, underwhelmed both times.

I also worked at Tumbleweed, right when they started to branch out into the food court operations. The bagged beans, queso and enchilada sauce was well-suited to that type of operation.

These are a necessary evil of the multi-unit industry in order to ensure consistency, but it doesn't have to mean a decline in quality. Where this goes wrong is that it allows employees to get lazy and quality standards to dip. If the food is still the same, with the same quality and same ingredients, the fact that it is prepared off site and reheated on site doesn't have to be a knock against quality as long as the employees on site are taking care of the food and handling it properly. This is where good restaurant management comes into play.

That said, if the food going into the bag is schlock, then you're dead in the water before you start.

The last time I ate at Tumbleweed, I had the White Chili. It tasted like eating nothing. A cup of thick, goopy nothing. From a bag or made on site, lack of seasoning and flavor knows no difference between the two.

Wow. I worked at the original one for 1 year. Lots of stories. Hope a better local restaurant can move in there sooner than later.

The original on Vincennces St in New Albany? I used to walk there from my first apartment in 1976. No service issues at a walk up counter lol

No issues because George and Linda Keller waited on you.

Sorry, I forget about the original original one:-). Mellwood, the second original one.