Sheri Shepperd is one of talking heads on The View (which in my opinion does not do her justice). She’s got a great story of being a single mom and never giving up on her dream. Imagine trying to raise a child on your own during the day and doing stand up comedy at night – now that is what I call intestinal fortitude! Most of us hit a tiny speed bump and we cave in. I think a lot of times we see these nice smiles on TV and think I could do that, but I’m going to say no! For crying out loud - I got two kids - a great feakin’ wife and a slew of people in my corner and it’s all I can do to get this show out each week. Let alone wonder how I’m going to feed my child, while walking onto a stage and trying to make people laugh – Sheri Shepard you are legit American success story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re living in a fake frat house in San Francisco with five dudes in your 30′s! Needless to say its nasty-dirty compound! You turn to your highschool buddy who you live with, and just so happens to be a chemist, and say “ we should make a catchy soap brand”. So you come up with an echo friendly formula, design some ground breaking bottles – collect some serious investor cash from everyone you know, and BAM! There you have it 0 the story of Method Cleaning.  It’s just quintessential American. See a need – come up with an innovative response, find the “coin” -  and work hard!

 

Erik Ryan is the marketing half of Method Cleaning which is now the 7th fastest growing company and worth a cool 150 million dollars.

Dear Nate,

My name is Larry Olson. Me and my family love your grilled cheese sandwiches (the mushroom Gruyere is very love-able). Great for our family to, because we can eat outside and let the kids run around and not bug other people.

My mom was coming into town, and she loves grilled cheese, so we thought we’d bring her to your place. We went at 11:30 this past Saturday so that we would avoid the noon time rush.

When we arrived we were told no sandwiches until noon. That was a huge bummer. Breakfast sandwiches only until noon. O.K. I say, not the end of the world. Then the lady says, but half of our breakfast menu is sold out. Not a whole lot of choices at that point.

I stand there dumbfounded with my 70-year-old mom, 3 and 1 years olds. I ask if there is anything they can do and your young lady at the cash register says to me, “hey, it says right there on the front door, breakfast only until noon”.

As I turn to leave, one of the lady’s half reluctantly says, “maybe I’ll ask the chef if he can make you a sandwich”. By that point, with their pour attitude…there was no way I wanted a sandwich.

I know running a restaurant is a labor of love. Sure you want to make money, but its more about sharing your vision and food with others. With the long lines I see every day around noonish, you guys have clearly done a good job. People love your product.

Just didn’t seem this one time that your people cared about my business.

I say all this…. because I pay special attention to businesses and their customers service. Do they actually care about the people they serve. I once had a restaurant owner chase me and 8 friends out of her place at 8pm (prime time) to ask me what she could do to get me to stay.

You’re people just said, “the door says no sandwiches till noon”.

—————–

response:

Hey there Larry,

Thank you so much for the email and the continued support. As the owner and general manager, I’m terribly sorry to hear about the unsatisfactory service you received upon your recent visit. I’m happy to offer you a 50% gift certificate for your next visit. I’m not sure that makes up for any of this, but it’s the least I can do.

Yes – this is a labor of love. My partner and I are here 7 days/week, typically 14 hours + a day. We love what we do, the team we’ve built, and the customers we serve.

Unfortunately, what you experienced last Saturday – the breakfast to lunch switch – has been one of the toughest challenges of this restaurant, that we are yet to have a perfect solution for. If you don’t mind, here’s a quick explanation:

Our kitchen is tiny. About 200 sq feet. We offer a breakfast grilled cheese menu until 11am on weekdays and 12pm on weekends. 95% of our customers know those hours (they’re on our website), rely on them, and expect that service. Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to serve both breakfast and lunch sandwiches at the same time for a few reasons: mostly the physical space (the breakfast sandwiches take more space as we fry the eggs fresh), the oven/grill temperates (different temperatures for breakfast vs lunch sandwiches), and there are health code restrictions as to avoid contamination with raw eggs. So we’re adamant about keeping the two separate. Unfortunately, this does result in the occasional customer, ESPECIALLY on the weekends, coming in during a time frame where the menu they’re looking for, is unavailable for some time.

More recently, our Saturday and Sunday breakfast period, 10am-12pm, when we only serve breakfast sandwiches, has become the busiest period of the week. And yes – as we get closer to noon, we simply sell-out of some of our options. We keep prepping more, and keep selling more – not a bad thing. So as a business owner, we’re still determining how to keep up with demand, without over-prepping and having to throw away inventory. And typically by the tail end of the breakfast period, yes, there are limited options. But switching to lunch early, when we have limited options, would mean that the folks still coming in for breakfast, that may still be satisfied with the limited options, will then be disappointed if we stop breakfast early. We do our best, trust me, our VERY BEST to please everyone, but in this business as in all businesses, there will sometimes be snags and you can’t please everyone all the time. As I mentioned, we’re still working out the weekend breakfast to brunch switch and satisfying demand, and it continues to improve every week.

As for the service and attitude you received from the staff. I cannot apologize enough. I’m sincerely positive that this person did not mean to offer you sub-par service. I can understand that their tone or attitude may have been strict or insincere and that’s not cool. I will say, and this is no excuse, that perhaps this staff member was simply trying to get the message across that the kitchen wasn’t ready for lunch yet (trust me, I was there. We weren’t. It was an incredibly busy morning and we were cooking off breakfast orders well into the lunch hour); we often have, and dare I say, the occasional “challenging” customer that simply won’t accept that we can only offer one menu vs. the other, and they give our staff a hard time, make a scene in front of the other customers (literally – we’ve had swearing and hysterics). I very much appreciate your sending me a personal message – it’s super kind and thoughtful. You’re clearly someone who cares.

We have a staff meeting coming up this week. I’m going to bring up this incident and make sure to address behavior and attitude during these busy and stressful times. We typically get complimented on our level of service, so this is a shock, but there is always, ALWAYS, room for improvement.

We really do care – it’s why I’ve taken a good amount of time to write this exhaustive email. Once again, I’d like to invite you back for a 50% discount (and you know what – some free drinks!). We’d love to host you, and give you the excellent service you expect and deserve.

All the best,
Nate