Coals Pizza and Non-existent service

My wife and daughter went to Coals on Tuesday night. They said it was a pretty moderate crowd. Even though there were seats vacant it took them a long time to be seated and they waited close to 30 minutes without being waited on. They finally left about 10 minutes after telling the host that they had been waiting for 20 minutes without being waited on. I can't say they had bad service as their service was essentially non-existent.

The host evidently apologized a couple of times saying he was new and really didn't know what he was doing. Seriously?

I've eaten at Coals a few times and the food was good. The service, at least in my opinion, was never really a strong point. I keep thinking, however, that this is why restaurants fail. The food can be really, really good but if the front of the house is incapable of providing adequate service, I find myself very reluctant to go back. Additionally, having a person not know what he/she is doing in the front of the house is pretty lethal. Having that person tell everyone that he or she doesn't have a clue as to how to do their job amazes me.

I live in New Albany and we have a lot of local establishments. At this juncture my experience is that every one of them is providing really good service. One place, which had excellent Mexican food began to go downhill service wise and they quickly closed down. I'm thinking if I own a restaurant I really want and need to know when my establishment is doing poorly. Coals may have very good food but I don't see it as a stopping place any more. There are too many good options for our family to spend our money.

John,

I can't speak to your experience, but I will share mine:
I hosted a large group ( 18 people) at Coal's on September 28th; we had reservations for the party room upstairs. When we arrived, we found that another party ( maybe 12 people?) was using the other part of the room.
Overall, our service was good to very good. Our young server was a little frazzled getting everything out to so many people, but service was as prompt, friendly and efficient as I would ever expect for such a large group at a casual restaurant. Our food was great! Overall, our whole group loved Coal's ( and I got lots of kudos for suggesting it ).

Deb

That's good to know. I'm hoping they had a really off night.

Deb,
I have to ask since you mentioned it, did you expect to have to party room to yourselves? If it were me and I had reserved a private room for a group then wound up having to share the space with another group totally unrelated to my own, I would not be so kind.
As far as service at Coals I have found it to be adequate at best, the first visit there were definite problems and on subsequent visits it was only slightly better but the food was worth it.

Bev,
I should have explained better. I was totally aware that there could be other people there. My reason for mentioning was that the Coal's team did a great job of handling two large groups at the same time.

For anyone looking for a venue, you can reserve the room for private use, but there is a minimum.

Deb

[Robin Garr]

For anyone looking for a venue, you can reserve the room for private use, but there is a minimum.

Deb, would you be willing to share details? Public is fine, but a PM is fine too, if you prefer.

It is always disappointing when you hear of problems after they happened. Your wife and child were very patient to sit for 30 minutes without service. I would have been livid.

We hate to hear these kind of stories. We recently hired a new host, Brian, and it is our fault he felt unprepared. Tuesday nights are typically slow and they make great nights to train on the job under the watchful eye of our team leader. If there was a problem our staff is trained to make things right, immediately, without question. I am sorry we dropped the ball.

With that said, we like Brian. We believe he will become a great member of our team.

Madeline,
Can you answer Robin's question on private room arrangements? I don't want to mis- quote your business policies.
Thanks for a great Adult's night out!

I don't want to complain either, but...

We went to Coals on a very recent weekend night, and the service was ok. (not bad, not great, but nothing to complain about.) The food was, as usual, excellent! We were seated against the back wall at a two top in the middle. That's fine too. But John sat on the bench part and I sat on the chair. The spot where John was sitting (and there was no wriggle room due to the nearness of the other tables) was where one bench ended and another began. So he was very uncomfortable our entire time there. I know the need for two tops, but table should not have been there because of the huge crack. It really needed to be moved over and made into a four top along with one of the nearby tables, thus avoiding the crack from hell.

Did I mention how good the food was?!! And the desserts? I swear I'd go there just for the desserts! (even if I have to sit in the crack...)

.....thus avoiding the crack from hell.

Ah yes! The crack from hell. A little design flaw that will not be repeated in the second restaurant. Sometimes the choice between waiting for another table or sitting on that uncomfortable crack will depend on how hungry you are.

Deb mentioned the rental policy for the upstairs room. Since we need to bring in staff we just need to meet minimums. If you go to our website http://www.coalsartisanpizza.com and look under the "About Us" tab you will find a link to Private Parties.

[Robin Garr]

Deb mentioned the rental policy for the upstairs room. Since we need to bring in staff we just need to meet minimums. If you go to our website http://www.coalsartisanpizza.com and look under the "About Us" tab you will find a link to Private Parties.

Thanks, Madeline! Here's a more direct link to the specific Private Parties page:
http://coalsartisanpizza.com/private-parties/

Thank you Madeline. I hope the young man works out. I'm sure he's a fine young man and will learn. I appreciate your response.

Not dissing Coal's here...its one of my favorite restaurants in the city.

But if a table sits for 30 minutes without being waited on the problem goes far beyond the host. How would another server or manager not notice this??

On the flip side if you've been sitting for 10 minutes without being waited on you may want to check with someone to make sure there was not an oversight. I mean, people make mistakes it doesn't mean the overall quality of the restaurant service is bad.

I'm sad to say that in the handful of times that I've been to Coals, the front of house has never been good. The pizza was always fine, but the service...not so much. After the last time we ate there, my wife and I decided that we've given them enough chances and we've have moved onto other places for pizza.

But if a table sits for 30 minutes without being waited on the problem goes far beyond the host. How would another server or manager not notice this??

I had the same thoughts. How exactly is poor new Brian to blame for this?
Except for the fact that upon being notified by the customer he should have gone straight to the on duty manager.