Grand Cafe Revolt - A Cautionary Tale for First-Time Restaurateurs
Gail Jennings
November 2005

Early reports of horrible service at Grand Cafe & Bakery were attributed by various reviewers to the opening struggles virtually all new restaurants experience. When a few months had passed and reports were still coming in about faulty service, I began to wonder what was really going on.

I received several emails during the ensuing months and they all pointed to one principal reason the restaurant was still not providing adequate service - certainly not on a par with the food - and the reason was the attitude of the owners. A reader reported one of the owners told him that service didn't matter since people kept coming anyway. Contrast that remark with the attitude reported in this story by Nina Wu in Pacific Business News in April when the restaurant opened. Nina quotes owner Mona Chang Vierra as saying, "Our goal is to be the Nordstrom's of food, with great customer service and quality food for a good value."

I eventually went to Grand Cafe & Bakery myself just last month and found that service remained uneven, falling apart as the restaurant filled with customers. I felt the restaurant had so much potential that I did something I don't normally do in a review, I made some practical recommendations for improving service and the dining experience. The review prompted a signed and dated letter from a former employee of the restaurant relating what can only be described as horror stories of front of the house staff struggling to provide service without support from the owners. Quoting from the letter, "Despite requests to increase staffing or implement a sequence of service, a system that would put all staff on the same page, no improvements were made. Believe me when I say that I, as a server, never want to give bad service. Why would I? I make a living off of gratuities provided by customers. If they're not satisfied with service, my rent doesn't get paid."

The upshot of all of this is that within the past few days eight staff members have quit and much-lauded pastry chef, Samantha Choy, is leaving the restaurant as well. What an unnecessary waste of potential. I trust that all of them will find positions where their talents are appreciated and rewarded appropriately.

GRAND CAFE REVOLT - PART II

The dust has settled at Grand Cafe & Bakery. The owners hired Larry Sato, formerly of Zippy's, Columbia Inn and, most recently, the Hawaii Convention Center, to manage the restaurant. To replace the numerous servers who fled after many months of efforts to raise the owners' awareness to the service problems, the new manager brought in several banquet servers.

After this happened, the sole remaining server from the original crew stayed on a bit longer to try and help bring the new servers up to speed with ala carte service and just left a few days ago. In a conversation with this person, I was told that the share of pooled tips had dropped from between $100-$150 to less than $50. If you've never worked in a restaurant, you can't appreciate the importance of tips nor understand how the amount received can be maximized by a skilled and experienced server. This translates into a healthy bottom line for a restaurant and the business thrives.

Pastry chef Samantha Choy completed her last shift at the cafe on Wednesday November 16 and headed over to Nico's at Pier 38 where she will be baking and using their kitchen during that eatery's downtime.

The servers who left have all found employment, most of them in the food service business, though one of them told me that she plans to pursue another career. When I asked why they had stayed so long in the face of the challenges, two things were uniformly mentioned. The first was that they all believed the cafe was close to perfect with chef Kevin Dee's food and Sami's pastries and the second was as phrase I heard repeatedly, "It was the best crew I ever worked with." We wish each of them well and thank them also for their willingness to share their experience. We also extend our best wishes to the cafe and hope that they will be more conscientious about service and staff going forward.

As we learn of new developments in this ongoing restaurant and human saga, we will certainly update this article.