Coals Middletown Issues

What is up with Coals middletown location? They are getting slammed on Yelp.

We tried to eat there ourselves on friday, parking lot and half the restaurant was empty. Went inside and they told us it would be a 60-90 minute wait. What?? I asked if there were a bunch of reservations or something, they said they were understaffed and the kitchen was crushed by to-go orders. We left and went elsewhere, wasn't going to deal with that mess.

The St. Matthews location is one of our favorite restaurants. Hopefully just growing pains at the new location? I would say stop taking call-in orders if you can't service the customers in the restaurant.

[Robin Garr]

Yelp? That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

We were there Friday at 5:15 with a party of 9. We were seated immediately but they did ask if we had reservations and it looked like there was a list. As for it being half empty, you are right but I think that may be by design. I know the new place is designed to have a private party room. If they are under staffed, they may be not using the other half right now. I believe I do remember Madeline saying on our first visit that staffing had been an issue. As for the food, we had three pies, two apps, and three salads and everyone was very pleased. Service was good.

Yelp? That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

No, not really because probably 95% of people that use Yelp post legitimate reviews. Its only a few entitle a-holes that are out posting negative reviews as some kind of revenge to get even with the man, and any halfway intelligent person should be able to sort those out from the rest. As for the company's business practices, thats really irrelevant to the point I'm making.

Also by half empty i mean scattered tables everywhere. Not a closed off area. Empty spaces in the parking lot. I mean the restaurant was half empty and they were on a 90 minute wait. Combining my experience with the yelp reviews leads me to think things are not going so smoothly. I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience or it was a one-off.

Yelp? That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Also by half empty i mean scattered tables everywhere. Not a closed off area. Empty spaces in the parking lot. I mean the restaurant was half empty and they were on a 90 minute wait. Combining my experience with the yelp reviews leads me to think things are not going so smoothly. I was just wondering if anyone else had a similar experience or it was a one-off.

Gotcha Jason. When we left all the tables were full it seemed. As I said, we had a good experience, but there was a bit of a "we are still getting our legs under us" vibe, which was expected. I think once they get the kinks worked out, it will be a great addition to the area!

Not to open the whole inside the Watterson v outside the Watterson can of worms but...
Could it be an issue of location? Could it be that people living in that area of town are more accustomed to ordering pizza as a to go or delivery meal instead of a sit down and relax and enjoy the experience in the restaurant type of meal? I personally wouldn't want to order take out from coals but I can understand someone doing it if you are unfamiliar with the type of pizza they make and just view it as another pizza place to try.

Not to open the whole inside the Watterson v outside the Watterson can of worms but...
Could it be an issue of location? Could it be that people living in that area of town are more accustomed to ordering pizza as a to go or delivery meal instead of a sit down and relax and enjoy the experience in the restaurant type of meal? I personally wouldn't want to order take out from coals but I can understand someone doing it if you are unfamiliar with the type of pizza they make and just view it as another pizza place to try.

This is exactly what i was thinking. I was wondering if it was something they hadn't anticipated and it was overburdening them. There's only so much space in the oven, its not like its going on a conveyor belt like Dominos.

If I remember correctly, the original location had similar issues/complaints to what Jason mentioned when it was new.

Oh Lord Yelp! I am not too worried with those initial reviews. I do follow them closely and share with the staff and adjust accordingly. Staffing has been a big issue, kitchen especially. Our regular guys have been clocking 60-65 hour work weeks with a restaurant that has been slammed. This past Sunday we had to close in order to catch up. Middletown is starved for sit-down local restaurants and without advertising our numbers exceeded our expectations. The reason you saw a half empty restaurant the other night with a 90 minute wait-time is because customers left in droves. The hostess was told the kitchen was in the weeds due to take-out orders and pulled back with an over abundance of caution. So it is just training and timing with this very new space. With everyday we get a little better at what we do.

It's funny how the entire crew now realizes how easy they had it in St Matthews!

[Robin Garr]

It's funny how the entire crew now realizes how easy they had it in St Matthews!

That's a great teaching tool, Madeline!

It's funny how the entire crew now realizes how easy they had it in St Matthews!

Thanks for the response. I was hoping this was just growing pains. I guess in my head i was thinking you guys have the process working so well in St. Matthews it would translate easily to a new store...i guess not lol.

We will definitely be back...but maybe give you guys a couple of weeks to work out the kinks.