On December 26, 2007, I took my family of 5 people to Defuniak Springs to see the Christmas light show and have dinner at Hotel Defuniak's Bogies "fine dining" restaurant. My family came up to the panhandle to spend our first Christmas since my dad's recent diagnosis with cancer.
Unfortunately, the total disregard for respect or quality service at Bogie's restaurant made our evening a horrible experience and left a very bad image of the otherwise quaint town of Defuniak Springs.
We arrived at Bogies and were told it would be an hour before we could be seated so we took this opportunity to see the wonderful Christmas light show. The attendants were friendly and the light show was wonderful!
We returned to Bogies at 6:45 and were promptly seated and our order was quickly taken. We got our drinks quickly but it took 45 minutes to get our bread and butter. We finally got our salads an hour and a 15 minutes after we were seated. 3 tables that were seated after us were served and finished eating. Finally after 1 hour 45 minutes, my mom went up to the hostess and said it's been nearly 2 hours and while we were told it would be a while because of a another large table, 2 hours is just ridiculous. We were then told 3 times that our dinner was coming and after 2 hours our dinner finally arrived - COLD! We told the waitress that we were leaving and to bring our check which came to $30 and we paid it.
At this point, we had received bad service which can happen at times but what happened next was the most appalling thing that I've ever seen in an establishment of fine dining. I asked to speak to the manager and was told to talk to the bartender who had me wait about 5 minutes and then finally approached me. I calmly and softly explained what had happened with our dinner, that we had driven over an hour from south walton and how disappointed we all were. The bartender was very rude and asked "What do you want me to do?" I told her the least that should have been done was to have our 3 drinks compted for the frustration and inconvenience. She looked at me and verbatim said "Nothing that I can do would make you happy because you're PISSED!" I couldn't believe the language and rude attitude at such an establishment. I told her that I was not "pissed" because if I was I would be upset and yelling at her which I was not. That I was trying to tell her how terrible the experience was. I then said, "This is just terrible, my sister is diabetic and asked where were we supposed to get dinner at almost 9PM". She just stood there and looked at me with a blank stare. I then asked her for her name - to which she asked me why. I said because I was told that you were the manager and I intended to contact the Walton Sun. She then told me that she wasn't going to give me her name and that I should leave. I really couldn't believe that the manager used profanity, was absolutely unsympathetic and refused to give me her name.
It is so sad that people are so unkind, especially at Christmas. As we drove through the beautiful light show with it's various lighted messages about peace and the spirit of Christmas, I never dreamed that the arguably "best" restaurant in town had none of the spirit of christmas of small town neighborly love.
The best food in the world is terrible when it's served cold, after 2 hours of waiting with poor and disrespectful service from the employees. I will stay on 30A where the restaurants strive for excellence but even if delays or problems do occur, people still treat others with respect and kindness.
Replies
134
Beach Fanatic
...and the beat goes on........however,beachhouse25 must have thankfully found the red bar tonight !!:clap:
Beach Comber
I wonder if she says "puh-leeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!111one" at the end of all of her statements when she speaks in person too?
SWGB
I disagree. Everyone has made their point. Give the man a chance to respond. If this witch hunt continues you're not only hurting his business, but the jobs of everyone that works there. Let him respond to the complaints and try to make changes in his workplace to promote better customer service.
Mark
He hasn't and based on his response he doesn't seem to mind that his employees and himself may be unemployed based on a very poor choice of response.
Where is Redbar?
Follow the sounds of hooting, hollering, and the smell of Patchoulli thru Grayton. :cool:
Wow! :popcorn:
I think they have certainly gotten their share of criticism and then some!
Yes, that was not the most diplomatic reply, as it just sounded like a harried person's quick attempt at damage control before they headed back to the kitchen, not a prepared response for public consumption. IMO it was not handled well on either end. I know I couldn't work in food service as my response would probably be the too truthful "nothing I do will make you happy as you're pissed off" as well.
Has anyone besides the original poster actually eaten there and had a similar or dissimilar dining experience? :idontno:
Apparently GraytonKid didn't enjoy there experience either. 😀
I wonder if she says "puh-leeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!111one" at the end of all of her statements when she speaks in person too?
Where does he ever refer to himself as a woman?
Banned
I wonder if she says "puh-leeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!111one" at the end of all of her statements when she speaks in person too?
Come and meet me... I will be at Fire in the morning... Oh PaaaaaLizzzzz come meet me LOL...
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Banned
...and the beat goes on........however,beachhouse25 must have thankfully found the red bar tonight !!:clap:Yuppers went there and WoW it was packed! Grabbed a quick drink and the wife and I went to Bud & Allies and the Tarpon Bar had another drink..wait maybe 2...naw3 anyhow, It was a great Night out. Sowall has so much to offer and some wonderful folks. I even saw a few Sowallers there laughing and talking.. Life is fun.. Thanks for the directions... Looking forward to Fire in the morning.... See ya there!😀
Beach Comber
Haha, it's a dude? I guess that female avatar earlier caused me to assume otherwise. My apologies.
SWGB
Haha, it's a dude? I guess that female avatar earlier caused me to assume otherwise. My apologies.
Insert definition of assume here.
Beach Comber
Yeah, I know. I ought not to assume. I'm new to this forum, however, so I consider it a reasonable mistake.
Beach Fanatic
1. No excuse! 2. Still, no excuse! 3. OK, so how long does he need to offer a sincere apology and personally email or pm, Cork? 4. "#3 on a google search is probably heartbreaking to a local business owner". Well it should be, but, I doubt it! :idontno:
Wow, you all are tough. I've been lurking here for quite some time. We just got back from a trip to SoWal yesterday, as a matter of fact.
I work somewhere up the food services distribution chain and I've known my share of restaurant folks and owners. You guys are slamming this guy way too hard. I have never heard of his restaurant; nor have I eaten there. And I'm not saying the original poster is wrong. For all I know this guy is a tool.
But 1. it isn't easy to run a restaurant these days. Obviously this guy is working hard, he's short-handed, its the slower season, and trust me when I say much of his food costs are going up while competition is forcing him to keep his prices lower. For all we know it 2.may be a struggle some weeks to make payroll.
Again, I'm making a lot of assumptions, but it is obviously that he takes his work very personally and that probably came out as very defensive -- as he himself admitted at the start of his post. 3.Give him another chance to reply without flaming him. Maybe he'll do a little more 'groveling' which is what most of you seem to want anyway. And frankly, pointing out that this thread is 4.#3 on a google search is probably heartbreaking to a local business owner.
Most of you are usually so uber-supportive of local businesses that I was surprised to see this thread take such an ugly turn.
Enough of my blabbering.
Mark
SoWal Expert
Dead horse. Really dead. Pretty much glue and gelatin products by now, with the good parts hitting the dinner table in France.
Beach Fanatic
1. No excuse! 2. Still, no excuse! 3. OK, so how long does he need to offer a sincere apology and personally email or pm, Cork? 4. "#3 on a google search is probably heartbreaking to a local business owner". Well it should be, but, I doubt it! :idontno:
Who cares? Get over it already. It has nothing to do with anyone, but Cork and the owner. It's not our job to police how the guy handles the situation. No need to take it on yourself to continually beat the guy into the ground over it. This may be the dumbest thread I've seen on Sowal yet.
Yeah, the guy obviously has mishandled the situation. I wouldn't say that Cork handled the manner in the best possible way either by blasting it to every media publication possible. Yet, that's how the two chose to handle it so good enough.
Mr. Bogey, I'm begging you to please get on here and grovel to the Sowallers so they will quit posting in this thread! ;-)
Beach Fanatic
Dead horse. Really dead. Pretty much glue and gelatin products by now, with the good parts hitting the dinner table in France.
Ha, my thoughts exactly :clap:
Hopefully they're not serving that horse at Bogeys!
SoWal Expert
Ha, my thoughts exactly :clap:
Hopefully they're not serving that horse at Bogeys!
I do think that this thread originally had well-earned criticism and sound advice for the owner, but quickly deteriorated into entertainment and ranting by a few that dragged the whole thread down the tubes. These types of threads can be productive- if you look at some of the other restaurant threads, there has been constructive back-and-forth with the owners and management. But the majority of the posts here have been childish and irrelevant.
SoWal Insider
Dead horse. Really dead. Pretty much glue and gelatin products by now, with the good parts hitting the dinner table in France.
Ha, my thoughts exactly :clap:Ugh, this thread has just gotten so putrid. The remaining third of these posts are as hurtful and as damaging as they can possibly be. Good grief. There seems to be no self-discipline here.
Beach Fanatic
Just might be, the best thing that you've offered in this thread, Josh!:clap:
Mr. Bogey, I'm begging you to please get on here and grovel to the Sowallers so they will quit posting in this thread! ;-)
Beach Fanatic
Just might be, the best thing that you've offered in this thread, Josh!:clap:
Why do you feel entitled to an apology of any sort?
Beach Fanatic
The funny thing is that those moaning about the thread still having life, continue to post on it.
If you want to have it die, DON"T POST! duh....:rolling:
If you want to have it die, DON"T POST! duh....:rolling:
Edited
Beach Crab
After some consideration about my original posting, and some advice from my better half, I have decided to retract my original post.
I was responding as anyone would have done who is being talked about negatively in a public forum, I was defending myself and my restaurant and explaining our side of the story. Perhaps a public forum such as this isn?t the best place for that. As some of you have said, a simple ?we?re sorry? would have sufficed instead of a two-page version with more info than needed.
After reading some of your reply posts (I only got through the first page, I will try and read more once the holidays are over) and re-reading mine I do agree that it did come off as somewhat harsh, I didn?t intend to ?Corky bash? if that?s the way it was perceived I do apologize for that, I was simply defending us from what seemed like a verbal attack, and wanted to try and set the record straight.
Again, I would like to apologize to Corky and her party that dined at my restaurant for the bad experience that they had. We did offer to pick up the tab for their dinners, which we did, and they were welcome to stay and eat, but they declined.
I was responding as anyone would have done who is being talked about negatively in a public forum, I was defending myself and my restaurant and explaining our side of the story. Perhaps a public forum such as this isn?t the best place for that. As some of you have said, a simple ?we?re sorry? would have sufficed instead of a two-page version with more info than needed.
After reading some of your reply posts (I only got through the first page, I will try and read more once the holidays are over) and re-reading mine I do agree that it did come off as somewhat harsh, I didn?t intend to ?Corky bash? if that?s the way it was perceived I do apologize for that, I was simply defending us from what seemed like a verbal attack, and wanted to try and set the record straight.
Again, I would like to apologize to Corky and her party that dined at my restaurant for the bad experience that they had. We did offer to pick up the tab for their dinners, which we did, and they were welcome to stay and eat, but they declined.
Banned
After some consideration about my original posting, and some advice from my better half, I have decided to retract my original post.
I was responding as anyone would have done who is being talked about negatively in a public forum, I was defending myself and my restaurant and explaining our side of the story. Perhaps a public forum such as this isn?t the best place for that. As some of you have said, a simple ?we?re sorry? would have sufficed instead of a two-page version with more info than needed.
After reading some of your reply posts (I only got through the first page, I will try and read more once the holidays are over) and re-reading mine I do agree that it did come off as somewhat harsh, I didn?t intend to ?Corky bash? if that?s the way it was perceived I do apologize for that, I was simply defending us from what seemed like a verbal attack, and wanted to try and set the record straight.
Again, I would like to apologize to Corky and her party that dined at my restaurant for the bad experience that they had. We did offer to pick up the tab for their dinners, which we did, and they were welcome to stay and eat, but they declined.
Sir, Thank you on my behalf I will say that you have gained my interest again as a future customer! Thats acceptable to me. I hope that the rest of us that felt strong about your 1st response will open the door and say that yup we all make mistakes and lets lend a hand in helping one learn from them. Again, Mr.Harding I will be in your restaurant after the 1st and surely look forward to an excellent meal. Happy New Year!:clap:
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