Another early closing – Monday night, not weather related.
My wife and I were heading out to a late-ish dinner Monday night, and decided to try a newer place near us (Springhurst area, East end). I checked the web page, and found that it was in fact open on Mondays, not closing until 11.
We arrived at the restaurant at 8:40, to find the doors closed and locked. A bartender and waitress noticed us, and opened the door, saying that they were in fact closed, but if we wanted they would prepare food for us to go (telling me the kitchen in fact hadn't closed yet?). I mentioned the 11:00 closing time on the web page, and the waitress said that this was for their other location, not this one (?). I pointed to the painted sign on the door giving their hours, which also said 11:00 closing, and was told that they really closed at 9 unless they weren't busy, when they closed between 8 and 8:30.
This leaves several questions:
1. If you have a web presence, put the correct hours on it!
2. If you bother to paint your hours on a door, put the correct hours on it!
3. If you decide to close even earlier than your "real" (rather than advertised) hours, and someone shows up, if the kitchen is still up serve them!
4. If the kitchen is down, then do something . . . offer a 20% off coupon, offer a coupon for a free dessert, do something to encourage them to return, just don't turn them away!
I am not releasing the name of the restaurant, as (a) if the owners are here they should recognize themselves, and (b) I'm not writing to get freebee's, just to give advice on how to keep business . . . I know there are a LOT of restaurants in the Springhurst area, and we were able to enjoy a nice dinner elsewhere (not as good as I'd heard the closed place was, but certainly adequate for our wants at the time). Even though people continue to rave about this place, we are in no hurry to go back.