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Review content:
I visited Zeds for Easter brunch on 4/8/2012. I made a reservation a week prior online, for a party of 3, for their Easter brunch at 11:30am. I had requested outside seating when making the online reservation.
After some initial confusion about not fining my name for the reservation, a very young hostess walked my party outside. Their outside seating area actually consists of 3 areas: a covered wood deck, a covered bar, and an uncovered bunch of tables on the grass.
When teh hostess walked us outside I immediately noticed that the collective total outside eatng areas was almost completely empty, save for about 2 tables that had customers. In seeing how the wood deck was the most attractive area of the areas, and that it was completely empty, I immediately asked
the hosted if she could sit us there. ""Oh no"", she replied. Those tables are all ""reserved"". I thought she meant that they were reserved for a wedding or some special occasion, and she said ""Oh no, nothing like that"". So I pressed the hostess, because I didn't understand why exactly I couldn't be seated there, since I did in fact have a reservation also.
She went on to explain that the deck was either for large parties, or for parties of just 2. I asked her ""can't you just stick a 3rd chair at one of the ""party for 2"" tables?""? She said ""Oh, no. I need to sit you on the grass"". I asked ""Really? On the grass with no cover? The sun is getting pretty hot alread""?
She then offered to sit us at the bar. I looked at the bar, it looked OK, but not as good as the deck, and the way that she said it.....""Wellll, I coiuld sit you at the barrr"", she made it sound like something was ""wrong"" with the bar. So, I politely declined both the grass and the bar, and asked to speak with a manager. After all, sometimes hostess' are told by their managers to seat customers at certain tables for different reasons, and a
quick talk with a manager can often times help with the seating. Especially when the entore seating area is bare with almost no customers.
OMG, not at this place. After 10 minutes or kind of milling around, staring at the vast of empty tables, the general manager Laura Josselson walked up to me with a mean old look on her face. She looked MAD to have been disturbed. She walked straight up to me with a deep scowl and immediately ""scolded me"" for ""demanding"" to sit at the deck, and that those precious deck tables were ""reserved"". Not being intimidatedd by the scolding, I politely inquired as to the definition of her ""reserved tables"", since I in fact had a reservation. The woman stared at me, jaw dropped, and then scolded me again - this time with a stern warning that she will do what she can to accomodate me, but i ""may not like it"". What was that supposed to mean? Was she going to sit me in the batrhoom or something? I was afraid to ask.
What was strange, though, was that for several strange seconds after this, she just stood there staring me in some sort of weird silent stare-down. It was uncomfortable. To end the staredown and to get her moving, I politely informed the woman that I would give her 5 miniutes to get some sort of table for me. In response to this, Laura Josselson THEN sclolded me a 3rd time, by telling me that she ""will not be disrespected"", and that I need to ""treat
her with respect"". I was utterly bewildered by this woman's unprofessionalism and apparent knee jerk reaction to my very reasonable seating request.
I swiftly informed this manager that I did not come here to argue with her, and that she needed to stop this negative confrontation of hers quickly and get on with the business of geting my party a table. At this point I was ready to leave the restaurant, but she beat me to it. Yep - She asked me to leave...as in...she was now refusing to seat me anywhere, and was kicking me and my party out....on Easter....all because she got her unprofessional self mad.
Unbelieveable, and unacceptable.
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