5/18 Famous Dave's Horror Story

Josh you suck. Lobster bisque is soooooooo good. I don't know any place here that sells it here either - especially since it is out of season now. :(

halltd said:
Josh you suck. Lobster bisque is soooooooo good. I don't know any place here that sells it here either - especially since it is out of season now. :(

No way dude! I live in New England and everything Lobster is totally in season... come visit and we'll throw down. Lobster Bisque, Lobster Roll, whole lobster... we got it all!

...actually as soup goes I prefer she-crab... but that's a Chesapeake thing.

Well, there's a lobster "season" in the Caribbean. You are only allowed to catch lobster between August 1 and March 31. After that, you'd have to import it or use lobster frozen from during season. My favorite sushi roll has lobster too, so it sucks not being able to get it.

Everyone who is more successful than you had crappy nights at horrible summer jobs. You can either apply yourself and be professional when things go bad, or you can be a whiny little baby and feel sorry for yourself, choose the former and your life will progress and you'll eventually get a better job than serving crappy food to tired angry tourists. Chose the latter, and you'll be serving crappy food to tired angry tourists forever.

I'm sorry, but working in food service at an amusement park is not a horrible job. A job is only horrible if you, personally, hate it. I have had better paying and signifigantly easier jobs in offices, but chose to go back to working in an amusement park because that is what I really love. I spent three seasons at CP and now I am working at my home park, Kennywood. I love it. I have a huge smile on my face all day long, and I can't imagine anything I would rather be doing.

I have yet to encounter any guest that is angry. I greet everyone politely and with a huge grin and I always get the same in return. I love amusement parks, and in fact I love working at one more than I like going to visit as a rider. So please don't assume that everyone working at an amusement park, and especially in food service, hates their job and suffers through it. I feel that I'm as successful as I could possibly be.

Granted, there are a lot of amusement park employees who, for them, it's just any old job or a crappy job even. And that's too bad. But please, success is relative, and for me it's about loving what you do, not necessarily bringing in loads of money.

Well said Cassandra. I don't think Cable was intentionally trying to dis food service workers, but I understand & respect your response. Good for you that you have found work you enjoy & can take pride in. Some of the most memorable people on their jobs I have come across, are not those in glamorous positions. But rather those working in what others might consider mundane assignments, that shine.

Like the guy in this one parking garage that always greeted everyone with a big smile & a hearty, "have a blessed day!" as they pulled away from the gate. The guy took ticket money all day, yet was the happiest guy in his work & touched numerous people t/o his life.

As a guest, I wish we hadn't lost you to Kennywood!

I like Lobster Bisque... I wouldn't want to pee in it.

Would you believe we agree on something? :)

that is a horror story! Aw man knowing my dad he would have been shouting making the whole building shake. (Ex police officer temper). Wow; I think they need to over staff there at Famous Daves to compensate for all the newbies.

okay let me give you my official opinion of famous daves. It Rocks!!!!! I love that place and have never had a bad meal or experience. It's my 2nd favorite restaurant at the point.

I think what we can all take away from this is that, Cedar Point seriously needs to shift its focus from building new rides to re-building its food services department...

I've said it before and I'll say it again: building Maverick, and introducing two new chains does jack for the pre-exisiting poor quality food options available. Adding new things does not, and will never deter from a growing problem.

Furthermore,

Opening Weekend is no excuse for poor service. Slow, yes, but not poor. I worked two seasons and was trained extensively in park ops before opening day, so there is no excuse for the poor employee behavior exhibited in the recent story. A restaurant run as poorly as Famous Daves does not deserve nor should it exist in a Cedar Fair park.

My sister (Mrs Brit) and I were there on Saturday for Maverick's opening. After our ride, we moseyed on over to Chuckwagon. There, we walked right in, were greeted politely, and our orders taken and provided promptly and correctly.

I noticed one of the servers was from Detroit, and I playfully bantered with her about the Cavs/Pistons series. She allowed that the Pistons were going to win it in four. (Heh heh, at least the sweep got avoided -- but I digress.)

The establishment was clean, and mostly empty, the food hot and fresh. Oh yes, it is still the same recipe as Frontier Inn's pizza. Yumyumyum. Two big slices of pepperoni, bacon, and a heart attack, and a large drink ran me twelve dollars. But seeing as I had just received a voucher for a free Maverick First Rider tee shirt, I was not at all ill disposed to pay it.

So if you want a good food experience at the Point, go to Chuckwagon!*

*This post sponsored by Pointbuzzers for Pizza.

Ah, a thread close to my own heart... As a former resort foods employee and guest, I agree that Resort foods are a waste of $. My worst experience was working as a server in a restaurant in Breakers when our silver tag had gone home for the day and took the keys to the liquor cabinet with her. Now, I'm waiting on a table with a really nice couple who just ordered a bottle of wine. At least 15 minutes go by as the crack management staff tries to find the silver tag's phone number, or at least someone else with keys. Finally, as I'm at the table, keeping the guests entertained and explaining why it's taking so long, the head cook comes out of the kitchen, stands on a chair and begins prying off the hinges to the liquor cabinet with a butter knife. I paused, turned to my customers and stated with droid-like CP political correctness: "We thank you for dining at our resort. As an employee at one of the Point's classiest restaurants, I must tell you that our head cook is NOT standing on a chair, in plain view of guests, prying off the hinges to the liquor cabinet with the business end of a butter knife. Your wine will arrive momntarily."
The couple and I convulsed in laughter and I ended up with a 20 dollar tip for my comedy (service?)

In reality, CP really needs to give it's employees some leeway. Too many restaurants have a bunch of diverse college kids from thirteen different states thrown together, only some of whom have experience.(I got sick of it and left a few weeks later, opting to work in a chain restaurant on rt. 250 instead. I've got news for you...the Point AIN'T the best summer job on the planet!)
Employees, and low level managers are so afraid of getting fired that they are afraid to fix these types of problems and instead find themselve flipping through semi-threatening policy manuals trying to figure out how to respond. The more you empower employees, the better things will get. CP hasn't gotten that idea, though, at least not since the Robert Munger era.

Of course they haven't, they might lose a quarter by someone giving it away for poor service.

we had horrible service at Midway Market once time.

brand new server. i even remember his name, but wont say it here. ANYways, he comes over, gets our drink order and DISAPPEARS. we are waiting for drinks for 20 minutes. finally i ask someone "where is he" and they say he is ON BREAK!! DURING THE LUNCH RUSH!!

it was even worse when we wanted refills!!

finally i went and found the manager and complained. he said "well,its his first day." i didnt buy that at all. its a BUFFET. all you have to do is keep drinks filled and clear plates away. the manager said he'd talk with him.

we went back in October and decided to give MM another chance, as we love the fried chicken there and the cobbler as well. besides, what are the chances this guy SURVIVED the whole season? or of him working that day? we walk in and i ask if this guy is working. "why, YES he IS!"...i ask for anyone BUT him as a server. what do they do?

they send him over as our server! i immediately find another server and ask them if THEY will take care of us for him. they do. WITH this guy's help. our drinks again take forever. how can you work an ENTIRE SEASON and NOT have the hang of your job yet?

then i see a Silver Tag go by and i motion him over. i tell him of our HORRIBLE experience earlier in the year and how we are basically stuck with the same bad server and how much we LOVE CP and how we expect BETTER than this from them. he agrees and we never see the bad server again.

see, i waited tables for years to put myself through school. twice. i am more understanding than most BUT i am also aware of the BASICS of good service and this guy was NOT giving even mediocre service. when i go out, i expect to be treated with at LEAST the kind of service *I* gave to others.

i dont think thats too much to ask.

It doesn't surpise me at all actually :)

Oh... someone mentioned Chik-Fil-A, and I must say, the 4 meals we ate there rocked. (please understand the my wife and I currently reside in Connecticut where there are no Chik-Fil-As, but grew up in Virginia, aka the south, where Chik-Fil-A is a food group, so we had no qualms blowing $10 each on a standard Chik-Fil-A meal).

I will give you a little information about how full service is done there, I would suggest to avoid there the first 2 weeks and last 3 weeks (As they are new, and tired)

The 04,05,06 Head chef/Mgr was a good friend of mine, and really knew his stuff, tried to keep it spot on (And did), if I walked into the kitchen he would be in there helpinig get orders out ect.. Reading this post (As I did not return for 07) "Danny" is not my friend. The actions that were taken by "Danny" were unacceptable, and if you feel the need the Food Service office is located in the park, behind the scrambler go talk to them. If nothing else works send them an e-mail because those get sent to dept heads over lower level mgrs

When it first opens, the mgr / "Blue tag" does the most of the training, from there its kinda passed on from one to the other, they do not bring in people from other famous daves, only regional mgrs stop in. *** Edited 5/29/2007 4:00:31 PM UTC by wwrgsww***

Had my own horror story @ FD this weekend. After getting off of Maverick and having to wait til One to get our fleeces, my fiancee and I went over to FD to get a bite to eat for lunch and kill time. We got there about 11:20 to avaid the noon lunch rush and were promptly seated. That is where the promptness ceased. There were only two waitresses and about four tables other than ourselves already seated. Then I noticed that the only two wait staff were already apologizing to the guests seated before us. When one finally checked with us for our drink orders after 20 minutes we placed our orders then as well becuase people started coming in like crazy and noone else had shown up to help relieve these other two waitresses. We waited for about another 45 minutes to an hour just to get our order of 2 sandwiches ( not like we ordered full slabs or anything). Just as we were served our food I noticed a large group of CP maintenence employees and managers walk in the door and were seated at a large table in the back. Following shortly behind them by a couple of minutes were John Hildebrandt and Monty Jasper. a few minutes later I saw Dick Kinzel himself walk in to join the group ( I assume). He walked back outside after a few minutes at the restaurant and when I noticed him walking past my table on his way back in, he did not look to be very pleased about something. I can only hope it was his dissatisfaction with what he saw going on at the restaurant. Normally we swear by FD and eat there all of the time, and when I read this post originally I thought to myself "no freakin' way" but after seeing it first hand on Monday, I can only hope that Kinzel's look of disgust was to due to the service being provided to the guests and something was done or being done about it.

One bright spot at Famous Dave's is Joe behind the bar. I've know him for a few years and he provides the kind of excellent service that should make CP proud. Just thought I'd mention that because I'd hate to see him lumped in with some of the stories of bad service here.

I hope as the season goes on, the staff progresses to the excellent staff they had last year. Everytime I went last year it was an excellent experience. Especially the last weekend of the season when they had very inexpensive shots that were bartender's choice. Fun times!

Saying that, as I was leaving Monday, there was a guest yelling at the hostess to see the manager. He was very upset and mentioned wanting to rub BBQ sauce over the manager's shirt. Not good...

It is sad to hear all this. I always eat there on my trips to CP. Since they opened three yrs ago, we have only had bad service once. And below par food once (which they apologized and took the drinks off the bill and gave us free dessert).

I think both parties in Cable's situation handled it poorly. I do agree that no matter how much you try to keep calm, there is a breaking point with everone. I know I snapped at a couple of employees at soak city a few yrs back. It was when they opened early in season. But they did not have proper staffing. I was trying to enjoy lazy river. But I kept getting yelled at to keep up with group so lifeguard could see everyone together. I do remember, however, that when complaining to the employees, I did mention that I was sorry that that they had to hear it. I luckily saw a supervisor on my way out and told him of the situation. He apologized, explaining they were short staffed so early in season. It was very hard remaining calm. But I did finally say that if they can't get enough people to work, don't open!

For training, as far as I know, they do open the restaurant to park employees and their famlies a couple days early.

Again, sorry to hear about the experience. I have eaten there both days opening weekend and had no problems whatsoever.

It was always a distraction in resort foods when silvertags came i to eat. The management would immediately panic, which would lead to that table recieving the best service available, often to the detriment of other tables. Perhaps your service may have been (inadvertantly)harmed by the suits' presence.

Magnum (Candy) Man, I had a similar experience on the lazy river. I was floating, minding my own business with sunglasses on when some big, dumb russian lifeguard with little command of English jumped on me, without warning, cannonball-style. He apparently figured I was asleep or something and the phrase "hey you!" eluded him, so he suddenly jumped on me without warning, knocking me off the innertube.

I was pretty ticked and reported it to the manager, but they didn't really respond, basically stating that the guy was new and didn't speak the language very well.