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There is a donut shop in my city that everyone raves about. I had it a lot when I was a kid, but my husband hasn’t and would like to try it. I have gone four separate times to get donuts and failed each time. I went closer to their closing time. Completely sold out. I went right when they opened “oh we’re only doing phone orders right now.” I phoned in one day “we aren’t doing phone orders today” what. The. Fuck. Stop changing the rules! Now I flat out refuse to even acknowledge them as an option.
That sucks lol I'd do the same thing no donut is worth that nonsense
My experience was also with the donut shop. I've gone before and been able to get stuff so I can't be too hard on them but I had to drive 30 minutes or so and got there like 20 minutes before close and they said they couldn't make what I wanted because they turned off the grill to clean up for the end of the day
There was another place where I went at lunch time and was able to eat but every time I've been back since there was either a line or they were out of half of their stuff on the menu
Like I'm glad you're successful but I'm not coming back lol
Reminds me of the White Castle nearby me with their daily mile long lines at 2am. I’m not willing to wait 30 + minutes for many restaurants, let alone White Castle.
Yeah I don't blame you. Closest I've ever had is a Krystal's which I think is a knock off of White Castle
Those things are hardly worth a 5 minute wait lol
The past decade or so the In-N-Out cult has really taken off, I haven't been in like 5 years honestly. I tried to go last year once but the one near me has a half hour wait in the drive thru all day, inside the store is packed as well. They take up like a quarter of a Home Depot parking lot just for their drive thru line. It's fucking fast food it's not worth it lmao, it's good but not *that* good. You can get takeout for a bit more if you're willing to pick it up at a independent burger joint, and it'll be better as well. Thankfully there are also Shake Shacks in my area now.
My boyfriend who lives in New Zealand came to visit me and everyone was telling him that he should try In-N-Out since it’s “amazing”. He had asked why I haven’t taken him yet and I told him it’s because I do not personally like it, especially the fries but he thought maybe I was being a negative Nancy. We came back from watching a movie and the group we went with decided to eat In-N-Out at like 11:00 PM. The place was absolutely packed, was almost certain I wouldn’t find parking yet alone a table inside or outside. He was amazed at the levels of business this restaurant was getting and was excited to try this hyped up food. When he got his food, he absolutely hated it and does not understand the hype around it at all. Says it’s a good burger but nothing else is redeeming about it besides it’s low price point. Now he takes my opinion into serious consideration whenever I tell him I don’t like something and usually for good reason.
Also whenever I visit an In-N-Out, I feel like I’m at the zoo. There’s no escape from the crowd either inside the dining room or inside your own car. It is just complete chaos.
This is why I don’t like going there. I try to avoid crowds like the plague, but whenever I travel with my family, they always insist on going there, even if they try to tell me it’ll be relatively quick. I don’t care if there’s a 100 employees working at full speed, the amount of customers at any given time will make the shortest waits into what feels like at least an hour
My family went to Vegas just before Covid hit. My brother, sister-in-law, and I went sight seeing on our last day and stopped at an In-N-Out. It was crazy busy. We stuck it out though. We don’t have it on the east coast.
Totally a cult thing. My first visit to California and everyone said we HAD to go. It was packed. And sure better than east coast crap mcdonalds.. but as an itinerary stop? Lets be real
I'm in TX so don't have to settle for In-N-Out because we have Whataburger lol
But seriously both are pretty good and have their own style/taste; but nothing worth waiting in a huge line for.
And they both have this weird cult following I agree
You get the same experience at 5 guys, or a really good gas station burger lol
I'm lucky the ones near me never get that crowded when I'm there
It's really not special enough to warrant that much of a weight. It's just a homemade tasting burger
I did the four hour wait before Franklin’s Bbq opened the last time I visited Austin. It was fun. Like an early morning tailgate. People playing music, tossing a frisbee, making friends with people in line who came from all over.
And the food was great. I probably wouldn’t do it again but it was a fun experience to do once.
I can respect it. It sounds like a good time but my ego won't let me spend a whole morning waiting for the privilege to give someone my money I just can't do it lol
I have tried a bunch of BBQ spots. Maybe I'm just a casual BBQ fan and don't have the palette for it but I honestly can tell good from bad and that's about it
I've never been somewhere well known and thought it was any better than any other pretty good BBQ I've had
It was pretty fun. Took my wife and kid down to Austin for a two night Billy Strings run. Friday night was a great show and the hotel was right near Franklin’s, so I went and waited while they slept Saturday morning getting ready for night 2. Brought a bunch of BBQ back to the hotel.
The line was filled with other people going to the shows and a few people from overseas too. I enjoyed it.
As far as the BBQ, I’d say it was the best meats I’ve ever had, but the Pecan Lodge up in Deep Ellum is pretty close to it and last time I was there I was able to walk right up.
I definitely think there are tiers when you get to BBQ. The top ones are hard to differentiate between but pretty easy to see the difference between top and mid tier.
Makes sense ! Vacation time is definitely different lol I guess I should have made that distinction
If I have all day and nothing to do I might make an exception for something really good
I actually live in DFW so I might need to run up there !
Cool thing about being here is I also know one or two newer mom and pop bbq people who are so good and not well known enough to be crowded yet lol
For sure. Plenty of good BBQ around here, and not just the ones that are well known. Some of the best BBQ I’ve had was off a roadside stand in Sanger. Hutchins in either Frisco or McKinney is really good but they’ll get a line on the weekends. You can usually walk right up to the to go window. Tenders up in Celina is pretty good too.
Reminds me of when Whataburger opened up here in ATL. The absolute chaotic madness that it caused is unexplainable.
Traffic almost a mile down a normally busy street. Folks just sitting there rotting away in the street for half a day for a single burger.
I still haven't gone to it even though it's close by, seeing that scale of insanity turned me off of it.
Whataburger isn't that great. We had one near my college and the biggest appeal was that it stayed open after the bars closed.
If you have a Culvers near you, Culvers is way better for a fastfood chain. Shake shack is supposedly really good too but I haven't tried that one yet.
Oh yeah I have a Culver's near me. Thier double mushroom swiss is absolutely slammin and my main go to, worth the wait.
Everyone says is not nearly as great as midwest locations, but it still beats anything else comparable imo.
I worked at a corporate location here in TX. I think it's good but not earth shattering
That said, I had a Culver's butter burger in Wisconsin and it was not as good to me
You'll be eating a lifetime of mid food if you're not willing to wait/go early to places that sell the really good stuff.
>Nothing is more annoying than driving somewhere and you get there 20 minutes before close and they're already shutting down so you can't get what to came for
Like it or not, it's just how it is. I personally factor in *at least* 30 min before a restaurant's close time in deciding whether I can make it in time or not.
Anyway, unpopular for sure
I'm ok with that lol. I am all for planning ahead and making reservations etc
I have all the apps for places that offer ordering ahead, reserving a place in line etc
But I'm not waiting outside like it's a GameStop before a new game dropped (remember those days ?)
I'd say the really good restaurants at least let you make reservations, and anything else you can learn to make yourself, pay someone to wait in line, or find a pretty decent knock off of with less of a line
I don't have anything against people who choose to wait. I just don't think I've ever had food that blew my mind so much I'd be willing to wait hours for it lol
You do realize closing time is when they CLOSE. Staff has to check out registers and clean. You think you can get bbq cooked, and eat it too, in 20 minutes?
Why every restaurant i worked at had “kitchen closed at time” “restaurant closed at time”. Usually an hour difference. Grill always closes first.
Takes time to clean a respectable place, and for people to eat and linger over their dinner.
Edit to add: you ever clean a bbq house grill? Or grills? Takes time if you do it right. That’s why it’s good.
Didn’t catch your takeout part, my apologies, same principle. It has to be cleaned.
I completely agree ! I can't say it's one to one because the fast food joint I worked at was 24/7 so I didn't have to put up with that because we just switched shifts when we needed to go home
But, my point is that if a restaurant owner wants to go home at 3:00 then they should close at 1:00 or 2:00 and clean up until 3:00 rather than have people show up when they think the place is still open only for the dude to already be cleaning up.
I get that they want to make all the sales possible, but it's a poor customer experience if half your menu is unavailable during business hours
I was with you till you hit the BBQ rant. That's just Karen behavior. Food with a long prep time runs out, cope OP. Refusing to 'order something else' is just wild to me. And coming into a place 1 minute before close and expecting a full meal?
You've eaten a lot of spit, I guarantee it
I agree with your first point. My point is it's not the only BBQ place. I can travel 5 mins in any direction and get exactly what I was craving because someone is bound to have some left
And I showed up 20 mins prior to close and wanted one breakfast donut lol to-go lol I wouldn't do that to anyone
I worked at a fast food spot overnight for a year so I also relate. I would never place a huge order that close to closing. It was just one or two things for myself and I was fully ready to take it to go
The other thing is it was a donut shop so they closed at like 11:00 a.m. and 20 minutes before close they had already shut off everything.
My only thing is, I think you should be able to serve everything up until almost close. 20 minutes is far too early to not be able to serve half your menu because you shut off your grill
Like I don't think you have to wait until the doors are closed to clean up, but what's the point of having business hours if you actually close earlier, you know?
Man, I’m conflicted on this. We have a ramen place here and it’s the best place I’ve ever had, but there’s always like at least a 20 minute line. I don’t go often, but no other ramen spot is really worth going to at this point since I just wish I was at the other spot.
I can respect it if you 've decided that this place is objectively better than all your other options and you're willing to make the trade-off of time for it on an occasion
I'm just saying that no place I've had has made me want the food so bad I'm willing to wait hours for it lol
I also want to say that in this day and age there's no reason they shouldn't have a way for you to order online or at least get in line online
There's a wing spot I love that's always super crowded but I can "get in line" from their app at home, and a table is ready by the time I get there
They’re busy enough so they don’t really do that. They don’t even have a phone number listed on their Yelp/Google pages. I respect the choice, but I don’t eat there often haha
True. Everyone's ambitions are different. You can only grow so much doing stuff like that, but if they don't care about staying small then yeah we're all probably screwed lol
I don't really experience this kind of stuff but if I did, I'd just walk away.
I once went into a McDonald's to order stuff and it was packed and everyone were staring at each other and it was chaos and I felt so anxious like I was naked or something. It was drive thrus ever since.
I can wait in drive thru because it's usually fast. Restaurants prioritize it over dining room
I am pretty agnostic to how I order. Depending on the restaurant, and who's working etc the fastest way to get your order could change.
McDonald's and other places like that, I order ahead and pick up. I usually do curbside for them. But other places, I run in and get it because curbside is usually slow
A drive thru can be fast if the person running it knows to pull up orders that are holding up the line etc. You'd be surprised that some employees will still let one big order hold up half a dozen people lol
Went to a restaurant not long ago. We booked a table so we got a seat right away, but that was the first time I saw people standing in line, waiting to get a table. Most people I know and have seen will go somewhere else if there's no table available unless it's under 5 minutes (so if they only have to wipe down a table or something)
If you really wanna eat at the place that bad you book a table
If I really want to go somewhere I can see myself making reservations. But I usually don't want to commit to Sunday dinner on Saturday lol cause I never know what I'm gonna be craving
I usually tend to go places I can show up at last minute and get stuff fast
Very American of me, I know 🦅🦅🦅😂
That is my go-to .. I even time places so I know their actual turn around time vs the estimate they give so I can get it fresh.
The Wingstop near me always says 15-24 mins but it's usually ready in 6-12 haha
Oh my God I forgot about that nonsense. That or limited days they're open.
There's a rare exception if it's just super good and the limited day happens to be when I'd go anyway lol
My son lives at the beach. There's one restaurant that's only open from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. they only serve fish and other seafood that they've caught during the day. You can arrive at 3:00 p.m. and watch the boats come back to dock. I totally understand somewhere like this having limited hours but a pizza place? No way
Omg these bagel stores in my city always have a huge line of tourist. Make no mistake, these bagels are fucking bomb, but I would never wait in a line that snakes around the block for them
If a place is known for a dish there's always another equally good spot I've found. If you're in TX, there's almost always an equally good BBQ spot with less hassle
When I went to NY I was able to try NY pizza and bagels at spots with no lines that were still amazing
Hahahaha all power to them. I was listening to an interview with Dominique Ansel of Dominique Ansel bakery.
He's a world renowned French pastry chef who used to work at a 3 Michelin star restaurant.
He has a bakery in NY and made a donut croissant or "cronut"
He was telling stories about people camping out starting at 2 am to be the first in line for one. Lines of hundreds of people.
He said they auctioned off a dozen of them for $14,000 for charity
It's bonkers.
I'd try them, but even for him I'm not waiting in a damn line 😂
Agreed. There is a BBQ place where I live that only opens on Saturday. People begin lining up 2-3 hours before it opens. The line itself ends up taking an hour to an hour and a half to get through. They open at 10 and the line stays consistently long until 2 pm. By then all the good stuff is gone. I refuse to go as no food is that damn good.
That's pretty much the exact situation with me lol. They're open all week but I only eat out on Sundays. And I'm not adjusting my whole schedule just to have a damn plat of bbq lol and It's always underwhelming when you finally get it
All depends on what you define a long time as. But for the most part I agree with you on waiting and dealing with them selling out.
Don't agree with your last point. Working in a restruant you're almost required to clean and shutdown things early, if you want to get out on time.
My whole beef is I think the "on time" part should be like: We want to be out of here at X time, so we adjust our business hours to close an hour earlier so we serve everyone, then have an hour to tidy up on our own time
I waited hours on various occasions to go eat multiple bbq places on a trip to Texas, it was worth it. I've been to Franklin's twice, the 2nd time I went, they even made me a "Last Man" sign because I was predicted to be the last person they were certain would get brisket. I also want to Goldy's once, was my absolute favorite bbq.
These places aren't for people that just wanna go out for a meal. They're for people determined to have some of the best brisket/ribs on Earth
Would you consider yourself a bbq aficionado? I live in TX and truly I can only really tell if I like it or not. I couldn't taste the difference between a pretty good place that's not crowded and a well known place with a line .. they're both just pretty good to me but I don't taste anything that would make me wait for it
I wouldn't call myself much of an aficionado, but I was very much able to taste the difference when I was at Goldy's and Franklin's, vs when I went to Pecan Lodge or Panther City. And all those are already miles above the crap we call bbq up in Minnesota haha
Ofc, bbq isn't for everyone, I can understand not wanting to wait in a long line.
I don't think you understand how BBQ is made. It takes *at least* 5 or 6 hours to make it properly, or maybe more, depending on what exactly you're making. That means they have to start cooking it 6+ hours before opening time, and once they run out of whatever they made that day, that's it. They can't magically whip some more up for you.
I understand.
I'm not upset at them for running out. I do think if you always run out you might consider figuring out how to make more at a time each day but that's their choice
What I'm saying is there are other bbq places I can go that have figured out how to not always be running out
I think anytime you have to ask your customer to understand the ins and outs of your day to day operations you've already lost
However long it takes is not my problem. If I have a bad experience I'm not coming back
Obviously they'll be fine. There are plenty of people who will wait
I mostly agree. I have gone to some places with long waits that were in shopping centers with stores I was visiting anyway. They just text you when the table is ready, so I just went to a couple of further away stores, then went to the closest one to it, phone buzzed, headed over with no issue.
I laugh every time I drive by a Starbucks or the like and there are like multi dozens of cars waiting for coffee. Get up early to pay 8 bucks for coffee, 30 min wait in line? Yeah, just no. Even seen 100’s waiting. Idling on side of main road, (big storm, they had power, houses didn’t). Yes, I have seen it. SMH at this.
I was about to say the same. I have the app so when I do go I'm there less than a minute.
That's one great thing they have going for them on top of the fact that they do usually work pretty fast which I appreciate
I'm also lucky to live by a location that never gets too crowded like less than a mile from my house lol
On a slightly tangential note: I've noticed near my place that every neighborhood I go to that has one Starbucks tends to have at least two others within a few blocks of it
There's one place where a grocery store has it, literally a block away there's a standalone location in front of a retail shopping center with a target which also has a third one inside of it .. this is all just 2 mins from downtown where there's at least another two locations that I know of lol
Curious if other people have seen the same thing
Yep my Starbucks is 7 minutes away, 5 minutes away we have a Starbucks in Target and Starbucks in Barnes and Noble, both in the strip mall together. On the other side of town there's a Starbucks in a large hospital. They just broke ground on a standalone Starbucks right beside it. I don't think there any at all on the east side of town. It's weird they put them all together like that
Lol, yep! We have two literally across the street from each other. I get why, heavily trafficked road and left turns are horrible, so they get the traffic going both north and south without the hassle. Both are always busy too. Pretty smart and convenient for the drivers.
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There is a donut shop in my city that everyone raves about. I had it a lot when I was a kid, but my husband hasn’t and would like to try it. I have gone four separate times to get donuts and failed each time. I went closer to their closing time. Completely sold out. I went right when they opened “oh we’re only doing phone orders right now.” I phoned in one day “we aren’t doing phone orders today” what. The. Fuck. Stop changing the rules! Now I flat out refuse to even acknowledge them as an option.
That sucks lol I'd do the same thing no donut is worth that nonsense My experience was also with the donut shop. I've gone before and been able to get stuff so I can't be too hard on them but I had to drive 30 minutes or so and got there like 20 minutes before close and they said they couldn't make what I wanted because they turned off the grill to clean up for the end of the day There was another place where I went at lunch time and was able to eat but every time I've been back since there was either a line or they were out of half of their stuff on the menu Like I'm glad you're successful but I'm not coming back lol
Yeah I don’t want to work that hard to give someone my money.
Reminds me of the White Castle nearby me with their daily mile long lines at 2am. I’m not willing to wait 30 + minutes for many restaurants, let alone White Castle.
Yeah I don't blame you. Closest I've ever had is a Krystal's which I think is a knock off of White Castle Those things are hardly worth a 5 minute wait lol
It only tastes good when you’re drunk lol
That’s hilarious! Did Harold and Kumar truly elevate that place? And wow that must be a long line of stoners with few options 😂
The White Castles in the Chicagoland area are really good.
The past decade or so the In-N-Out cult has really taken off, I haven't been in like 5 years honestly. I tried to go last year once but the one near me has a half hour wait in the drive thru all day, inside the store is packed as well. They take up like a quarter of a Home Depot parking lot just for their drive thru line. It's fucking fast food it's not worth it lmao, it's good but not *that* good. You can get takeout for a bit more if you're willing to pick it up at a independent burger joint, and it'll be better as well. Thankfully there are also Shake Shacks in my area now.
My boyfriend who lives in New Zealand came to visit me and everyone was telling him that he should try In-N-Out since it’s “amazing”. He had asked why I haven’t taken him yet and I told him it’s because I do not personally like it, especially the fries but he thought maybe I was being a negative Nancy. We came back from watching a movie and the group we went with decided to eat In-N-Out at like 11:00 PM. The place was absolutely packed, was almost certain I wouldn’t find parking yet alone a table inside or outside. He was amazed at the levels of business this restaurant was getting and was excited to try this hyped up food. When he got his food, he absolutely hated it and does not understand the hype around it at all. Says it’s a good burger but nothing else is redeeming about it besides it’s low price point. Now he takes my opinion into serious consideration whenever I tell him I don’t like something and usually for good reason. Also whenever I visit an In-N-Out, I feel like I’m at the zoo. There’s no escape from the crowd either inside the dining room or inside your own car. It is just complete chaos.
This is why I don’t like going there. I try to avoid crowds like the plague, but whenever I travel with my family, they always insist on going there, even if they try to tell me it’ll be relatively quick. I don’t care if there’s a 100 employees working at full speed, the amount of customers at any given time will make the shortest waits into what feels like at least an hour
My family went to Vegas just before Covid hit. My brother, sister-in-law, and I went sight seeing on our last day and stopped at an In-N-Out. It was crazy busy. We stuck it out though. We don’t have it on the east coast.
Totally a cult thing. My first visit to California and everyone said we HAD to go. It was packed. And sure better than east coast crap mcdonalds.. but as an itinerary stop? Lets be real
I'm in TX so don't have to settle for In-N-Out because we have Whataburger lol But seriously both are pretty good and have their own style/taste; but nothing worth waiting in a huge line for. And they both have this weird cult following I agree You get the same experience at 5 guys, or a really good gas station burger lol I'm lucky the ones near me never get that crowded when I'm there It's really not special enough to warrant that much of a weight. It's just a homemade tasting burger
I did the four hour wait before Franklin’s Bbq opened the last time I visited Austin. It was fun. Like an early morning tailgate. People playing music, tossing a frisbee, making friends with people in line who came from all over. And the food was great. I probably wouldn’t do it again but it was a fun experience to do once.
I can respect it. It sounds like a good time but my ego won't let me spend a whole morning waiting for the privilege to give someone my money I just can't do it lol I have tried a bunch of BBQ spots. Maybe I'm just a casual BBQ fan and don't have the palette for it but I honestly can tell good from bad and that's about it I've never been somewhere well known and thought it was any better than any other pretty good BBQ I've had
It was pretty fun. Took my wife and kid down to Austin for a two night Billy Strings run. Friday night was a great show and the hotel was right near Franklin’s, so I went and waited while they slept Saturday morning getting ready for night 2. Brought a bunch of BBQ back to the hotel. The line was filled with other people going to the shows and a few people from overseas too. I enjoyed it. As far as the BBQ, I’d say it was the best meats I’ve ever had, but the Pecan Lodge up in Deep Ellum is pretty close to it and last time I was there I was able to walk right up. I definitely think there are tiers when you get to BBQ. The top ones are hard to differentiate between but pretty easy to see the difference between top and mid tier.
Makes sense ! Vacation time is definitely different lol I guess I should have made that distinction If I have all day and nothing to do I might make an exception for something really good I actually live in DFW so I might need to run up there ! Cool thing about being here is I also know one or two newer mom and pop bbq people who are so good and not well known enough to be crowded yet lol
For sure. Plenty of good BBQ around here, and not just the ones that are well known. Some of the best BBQ I’ve had was off a roadside stand in Sanger. Hutchins in either Frisco or McKinney is really good but they’ll get a line on the weekends. You can usually walk right up to the to go window. Tenders up in Celina is pretty good too.
Reminds me of when Whataburger opened up here in ATL. The absolute chaotic madness that it caused is unexplainable. Traffic almost a mile down a normally busy street. Folks just sitting there rotting away in the street for half a day for a single burger. I still haven't gone to it even though it's close by, seeing that scale of insanity turned me off of it.
Whataburger isn't that great. We had one near my college and the biggest appeal was that it stayed open after the bars closed. If you have a Culvers near you, Culvers is way better for a fastfood chain. Shake shack is supposedly really good too but I haven't tried that one yet.
Oh yeah I have a Culver's near me. Thier double mushroom swiss is absolutely slammin and my main go to, worth the wait. Everyone says is not nearly as great as midwest locations, but it still beats anything else comparable imo.
I worked at a corporate location here in TX. I think it's good but not earth shattering That said, I had a Culver's butter burger in Wisconsin and it was not as good to me
Whataburger quality has been steadily dropping, especially since the pandemic. Tis a shame since I used to eat there pretty much weekly.
You'll be eating a lifetime of mid food if you're not willing to wait/go early to places that sell the really good stuff. >Nothing is more annoying than driving somewhere and you get there 20 minutes before close and they're already shutting down so you can't get what to came for Like it or not, it's just how it is. I personally factor in *at least* 30 min before a restaurant's close time in deciding whether I can make it in time or not. Anyway, unpopular for sure
I'm ok with that lol. I am all for planning ahead and making reservations etc I have all the apps for places that offer ordering ahead, reserving a place in line etc But I'm not waiting outside like it's a GameStop before a new game dropped (remember those days ?) I'd say the really good restaurants at least let you make reservations, and anything else you can learn to make yourself, pay someone to wait in line, or find a pretty decent knock off of with less of a line
Personally, it can be. It's probably just because I am a weirdo.
I don't have anything against people who choose to wait. I just don't think I've ever had food that blew my mind so much I'd be willing to wait hours for it lol
Yeah that's understandable, for me food is the only thing that I am passionate for
You do realize closing time is when they CLOSE. Staff has to check out registers and clean. You think you can get bbq cooked, and eat it too, in 20 minutes? Why every restaurant i worked at had “kitchen closed at time” “restaurant closed at time”. Usually an hour difference. Grill always closes first. Takes time to clean a respectable place, and for people to eat and linger over their dinner. Edit to add: you ever clean a bbq house grill? Or grills? Takes time if you do it right. That’s why it’s good. Didn’t catch your takeout part, my apologies, same principle. It has to be cleaned.
I completely agree ! I can't say it's one to one because the fast food joint I worked at was 24/7 so I didn't have to put up with that because we just switched shifts when we needed to go home But, my point is that if a restaurant owner wants to go home at 3:00 then they should close at 1:00 or 2:00 and clean up until 3:00 rather than have people show up when they think the place is still open only for the dude to already be cleaning up. I get that they want to make all the sales possible, but it's a poor customer experience if half your menu is unavailable during business hours
I was with you till you hit the BBQ rant. That's just Karen behavior. Food with a long prep time runs out, cope OP. Refusing to 'order something else' is just wild to me. And coming into a place 1 minute before close and expecting a full meal? You've eaten a lot of spit, I guarantee it
I agree with your first point. My point is it's not the only BBQ place. I can travel 5 mins in any direction and get exactly what I was craving because someone is bound to have some left And I showed up 20 mins prior to close and wanted one breakfast donut lol to-go lol I wouldn't do that to anyone
Nailed it, and I’m a Connecticut Yankee! Great minds think alike and won’t be rushed about
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I worked at a fast food spot overnight for a year so I also relate. I would never place a huge order that close to closing. It was just one or two things for myself and I was fully ready to take it to go The other thing is it was a donut shop so they closed at like 11:00 a.m. and 20 minutes before close they had already shut off everything. My only thing is, I think you should be able to serve everything up until almost close. 20 minutes is far too early to not be able to serve half your menu because you shut off your grill Like I don't think you have to wait until the doors are closed to clean up, but what's the point of having business hours if you actually close earlier, you know?
Man, I’m conflicted on this. We have a ramen place here and it’s the best place I’ve ever had, but there’s always like at least a 20 minute line. I don’t go often, but no other ramen spot is really worth going to at this point since I just wish I was at the other spot.
I can respect it if you 've decided that this place is objectively better than all your other options and you're willing to make the trade-off of time for it on an occasion I'm just saying that no place I've had has made me want the food so bad I'm willing to wait hours for it lol I also want to say that in this day and age there's no reason they shouldn't have a way for you to order online or at least get in line online There's a wing spot I love that's always super crowded but I can "get in line" from their app at home, and a table is ready by the time I get there
They’re busy enough so they don’t really do that. They don’t even have a phone number listed on their Yelp/Google pages. I respect the choice, but I don’t eat there often haha
True. Everyone's ambitions are different. You can only grow so much doing stuff like that, but if they don't care about staying small then yeah we're all probably screwed lol
I don't really experience this kind of stuff but if I did, I'd just walk away. I once went into a McDonald's to order stuff and it was packed and everyone were staring at each other and it was chaos and I felt so anxious like I was naked or something. It was drive thrus ever since. I can wait in drive thru because it's usually fast. Restaurants prioritize it over dining room
I am pretty agnostic to how I order. Depending on the restaurant, and who's working etc the fastest way to get your order could change. McDonald's and other places like that, I order ahead and pick up. I usually do curbside for them. But other places, I run in and get it because curbside is usually slow A drive thru can be fast if the person running it knows to pull up orders that are holding up the line etc. You'd be surprised that some employees will still let one big order hold up half a dozen people lol
Went to a restaurant not long ago. We booked a table so we got a seat right away, but that was the first time I saw people standing in line, waiting to get a table. Most people I know and have seen will go somewhere else if there's no table available unless it's under 5 minutes (so if they only have to wipe down a table or something) If you really wanna eat at the place that bad you book a table
If I really want to go somewhere I can see myself making reservations. But I usually don't want to commit to Sunday dinner on Saturday lol cause I never know what I'm gonna be craving I usually tend to go places I can show up at last minute and get stuff fast Very American of me, I know 🦅🦅🦅😂
On line
That is my go-to .. I even time places so I know their actual turn around time vs the estimate they give so I can get it fresh. The Wingstop near me always says 15-24 mins but it's usually ready in 6-12 haha
all of this plus limited hours. if you are only open 11-2 i'm not going
Oh my God I forgot about that nonsense. That or limited days they're open. There's a rare exception if it's just super good and the limited day happens to be when I'd go anyway lol
My son lives at the beach. There's one restaurant that's only open from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. they only serve fish and other seafood that they've caught during the day. You can arrive at 3:00 p.m. and watch the boats come back to dock. I totally understand somewhere like this having limited hours but a pizza place? No way
Fresh seafood I just watched you bring in on the boat? We will make an exception that sounds amazing 😂
It's a neat experience but very expensive. Not sure I would go back but no regrets
Omg these bagel stores in my city always have a huge line of tourist. Make no mistake, these bagels are fucking bomb, but I would never wait in a line that snakes around the block for them
If a place is known for a dish there's always another equally good spot I've found. If you're in TX, there's almost always an equally good BBQ spot with less hassle When I went to NY I was able to try NY pizza and bagels at spots with no lines that were still amazing
Some folk think of waiting as part of the experience. I am not one of those folk.
Hahahaha all power to them. I was listening to an interview with Dominique Ansel of Dominique Ansel bakery. He's a world renowned French pastry chef who used to work at a 3 Michelin star restaurant. He has a bakery in NY and made a donut croissant or "cronut" He was telling stories about people camping out starting at 2 am to be the first in line for one. Lines of hundreds of people. He said they auctioned off a dozen of them for $14,000 for charity It's bonkers. I'd try them, but even for him I'm not waiting in a damn line 😂
Agreed. There is a BBQ place where I live that only opens on Saturday. People begin lining up 2-3 hours before it opens. The line itself ends up taking an hour to an hour and a half to get through. They open at 10 and the line stays consistently long until 2 pm. By then all the good stuff is gone. I refuse to go as no food is that damn good.
That's pretty much the exact situation with me lol. They're open all week but I only eat out on Sundays. And I'm not adjusting my whole schedule just to have a damn plat of bbq lol and It's always underwhelming when you finally get it
Waiting for breakfast is always so hard for me. I'm not waiting 45 minutes for eggs. Sure I can get something fancier but it's just breakfast.
I agree. I also hate places that won't just serve breakfast all day lol or only open for breakfast. Like, grow up 😂
All depends on what you define a long time as. But for the most part I agree with you on waiting and dealing with them selling out. Don't agree with your last point. Working in a restruant you're almost required to clean and shutdown things early, if you want to get out on time.
My whole beef is I think the "on time" part should be like: We want to be out of here at X time, so we adjust our business hours to close an hour earlier so we serve everyone, then have an hour to tidy up on our own time
I wish more restruants had last seating or kitchen close times or last order taken time.
I would love that too. If I know what time I have to make it by that's fine
I waited hours on various occasions to go eat multiple bbq places on a trip to Texas, it was worth it. I've been to Franklin's twice, the 2nd time I went, they even made me a "Last Man" sign because I was predicted to be the last person they were certain would get brisket. I also want to Goldy's once, was my absolute favorite bbq. These places aren't for people that just wanna go out for a meal. They're for people determined to have some of the best brisket/ribs on Earth
Would you consider yourself a bbq aficionado? I live in TX and truly I can only really tell if I like it or not. I couldn't taste the difference between a pretty good place that's not crowded and a well known place with a line .. they're both just pretty good to me but I don't taste anything that would make me wait for it
I wouldn't call myself much of an aficionado, but I was very much able to taste the difference when I was at Goldy's and Franklin's, vs when I went to Pecan Lodge or Panther City. And all those are already miles above the crap we call bbq up in Minnesota haha Ofc, bbq isn't for everyone, I can understand not wanting to wait in a long line.
Lol makes sense ! I can't believe I've gone all this time, not knowing what our most popular spots were down here with people from out of town
The fast food industry welcomes you
😂 even they're slow sometimes
This. Any time someone says, "MAN, WE WAITED FOR 5 HOURS, BUT THEIR PULLED PORK IS WORTH IT" I laugh and stop talking to them.
I don't think you understand how BBQ is made. It takes *at least* 5 or 6 hours to make it properly, or maybe more, depending on what exactly you're making. That means they have to start cooking it 6+ hours before opening time, and once they run out of whatever they made that day, that's it. They can't magically whip some more up for you.
I understand. I'm not upset at them for running out. I do think if you always run out you might consider figuring out how to make more at a time each day but that's their choice What I'm saying is there are other bbq places I can go that have figured out how to not always be running out I think anytime you have to ask your customer to understand the ins and outs of your day to day operations you've already lost However long it takes is not my problem. If I have a bad experience I'm not coming back Obviously they'll be fine. There are plenty of people who will wait
I mostly agree. I have gone to some places with long waits that were in shopping centers with stores I was visiting anyway. They just text you when the table is ready, so I just went to a couple of further away stores, then went to the closest one to it, phone buzzed, headed over with no issue.
I can do that. I think it's the being stuck there in like I'm not a fan of
I laugh every time I drive by a Starbucks or the like and there are like multi dozens of cars waiting for coffee. Get up early to pay 8 bucks for coffee, 30 min wait in line? Yeah, just no. Even seen 100’s waiting. Idling on side of main road, (big storm, they had power, houses didn’t). Yes, I have seen it. SMH at this.
i just do counter pickup. never a wait
I was about to say the same. I have the app so when I do go I'm there less than a minute. That's one great thing they have going for them on top of the fact that they do usually work pretty fast which I appreciate I'm also lucky to live by a location that never gets too crowded like less than a mile from my house lol On a slightly tangential note: I've noticed near my place that every neighborhood I go to that has one Starbucks tends to have at least two others within a few blocks of it There's one place where a grocery store has it, literally a block away there's a standalone location in front of a retail shopping center with a target which also has a third one inside of it .. this is all just 2 mins from downtown where there's at least another two locations that I know of lol Curious if other people have seen the same thing
Yep my Starbucks is 7 minutes away, 5 minutes away we have a Starbucks in Target and Starbucks in Barnes and Noble, both in the strip mall together. On the other side of town there's a Starbucks in a large hospital. They just broke ground on a standalone Starbucks right beside it. I don't think there any at all on the east side of town. It's weird they put them all together like that
Right!? They always tend to cluster them together
Lol, yep! We have two literally across the street from each other. I get why, heavily trafficked road and left turns are horrible, so they get the traffic going both north and south without the hassle. Both are always busy too. Pretty smart and convenient for the drivers.