Candy For Idiots

There’s a [sic] popular restaurant in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN that’s getting quite a bit of local press due to the way one of their “General Partners” handled an email complaint he received from a customer. I wanted to post the email string for your amusement.

From: J, Craig
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:08 PM
To: mail@boathousechattanooga.com
Subject: Restaurant Experience

To whom it may concern.

I wanted to inform you an incredibly unsatisfactorily experience I had with your restaurant.  On Saturday June 20, I attempted to take my father to the Boathouse for a Father’s Day dinner along with my wife, my 3 year old and my 1 month old daughter.   My Father was in from out of state and I wanted to bring him to a dinner he would enjoy as he loves seafood.  In order to make the experience enjoyable for everyone, we stopped at McDonalds prior to arriving at the restaurant in order to get my daughter some food that she would be willing to eat.   My daughter can be a particularly picky eater at times and we wanted to make sure that she would be happy and there would be something she would be willing to eat.

When I arrived at the restaurant, it was noticeably not crowded yet I had to wait for almost 10 minutes while the multiple hostesses tried to determine where I could be seated.   Keep in mind that it was probably close to 100 degrees out and that I have a one month old child.    I finally was brought to my seat after this wait and was in the process of being seated, when a female employee whom I might assume was the manager came over to me and informed me that would could not bring me daughters food into the restaurant as it was against the “Health Code” for such to be done.  I attempted to explain the situation to her and was basically put on deaf ears and repeatedly told that it was a health code issue and that my only choice was to leave and go elsewhere.  I was never offered any sort of other alternative.   So therefore despite the fact that I went out of my way to go to your restaurant, I had to then load 2 kids back into the car in the 100 degree heat and drive to another restaurant.

After this experience, I contacted the State of Tennessee to see if this was in fact a violation and received the following email back:

> 6/21/2009 7:17 PM >>>
Can you tell me if you are allowed by the health code to bring food into another restaurant. For example, can I bring in McDonalds prepared food into another restaurant if it is still packaged or is it a health Violation?

Thank You
Craig J

—–Original Message—–
From: Lori LeMaster <Lori.LeMaster@tn.gov>
To:
Sent: Thu, Jun 25, 2009 11:38 am
Subject: Re: Question

Mr. J,
It is not a violation of the food service establishment rules & regulations to bring food into a restaurant from another restaurant. However, some restaurants choose to implement their own policies restricting foods from other establishments.

Thank you,

Lori LeMaster
Environmental Health Program Manager
Tn Department of Health
General Environmental Health
425 5th Avenue North , 3rd floor
Nashville , TN 37247
(615) 741-8531
(615) 741-8510 fax

As you can, See what I was told by your Employee was completely incorrect that it was an issue with the “Health Code”  and may have only been a policy of your restaurant.  If this is the case, it should have been explained to me as such, and I would think that any reasonable person would be willing to work with a customer in this regard.  I had thought that the Boathouse and it partner restaurants were family friendly type establishments and would understand how difficult it can be at times to have children, but apparently, I misunderstood and it is your desire not to have customers with children.

Based on this treatment, I have elected not to continue to eat at any of your establishments and will be sure to also relay my experience to others, especially those with children.  I also wanted to make sure that you understood  that you have employees that are using the health code to enforce rules of your establishment that are not part of the health code.

I would appreciate this if this could be shared with the Owners/Manager in Charge or your establishment so he is aware of this experience and hopefully no future customers are treated as poorly as I was.

Have a pleasant Day.

Craig J

Here’s the response he got from Lawton Haygood (lawton@boathousechattanooga.com), General Partner at The Boathouse.

From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:34 PM
To: J, Craig
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Mr. J,

You really should check with your Pediatrician, concerning a 3 year old having that much control over her nutritional program.

Lawton Haygood
General Partner
Boathouse

Craig’s Reponse:

From: J, Craig
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:41 PM
To: lawton Haygood
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Wow, Thanks for the caring response.  I am in awe that someone who is the General Partner of a restaurant would be that smart assed to a customer.  My daughter is not in control of her nutritional program by any means, I was just trying to let her have a treat and have something that she wanted to eat that evening and in turn let us have a pleasant night out as a family.   I apologize that my family is that much of a burden to you and your company..   I thought it would be important to get some feedback from a customer’s experience, but apparently, it is not something that you care too much about.

And Lawton’s (lawton@boathousechattanooga.com) response:

From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:52 PM
To: J, Craig
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

You go to McDonalds to get a happy meal, then to a restaurant, then back in a hot car and go to another restaurant, but the 3 year old is not in charge? You need to really think about that.

And finally, Craig’s response:

From: J, Craig
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:57 PM
To: ‘ lawton Haygood’
Subject: RE: Restaurant Experience

Thanks for the parenting advice.  You are unbelievable and I will be sure to share this level of caring that you display with as much people as possible. I quickly drove through a drive through while my baby slept and got my daughter some food.  It is pretty rude of you to insinuate that I was a bad parent for doing this, but based on the consistent response you and your co-workers care to display, I can see that it is more of a practice.  I wish that I was as perfect a parent as you must have been.  Perhaps if I only checked with you, prior to coming to the restaurant, I could have been better.

My Apologies.

This morning, after wide-spread circulation of this email chain occurred, Craig received this apology email from Lawton Haygood (lawton@boathousechattanooga.com):

From: lawton Haygood [mailto:lawton@boathousechattanooga.com]
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 8:55 AM
To: Williams, Melinda I
Subject: RE: Customers Not Valued at Boathouse, Canyon Grill or Sugar’s BBQ

Mr. J,

I want to apologize for my recent comments to you.

Let me first explain why I was upset with you and possibly you might partially see what surrounded my very poor thinking and insensitive statement. The staff took a few minutes to seat you and I know that upset you which I did not understand. Since your infant was in a car seat, the manager wanted to be certain you were seated at a table with seats safe and secure for the car seat and the 3 year old. Additionally, I felt like you should have respected our right to establish our policy on bringing foods from another restaurant, whatever our reasons were and at least called and asked. It was my understanding that the manager tried to explain there were reasons for the policy beyond the health code. I got upset that you continued your arguments four days later and made disparaging remarks about my managers, who I believed had made their best effort to provide menu recommendations for your child. They handle that sort of request several times each day. It appeared you would not settle for anything less than the McDonalds food you brought for your child. In my state of irritation with you and in moment of personal weakness, I made a very insulting comment which reflected on your parenting. I did not mean for it to come out that way but it did. I had no right to make any assumptions about how you perform your duties as a parent and for that unfortunate response, I sincerely apologize.

You are correct on the Tennessee health code and I am sure it irritated you to find what she had told you, about the code, was incorrect regarding the McDonalds food. However, I do not believe the manager would tell you something if she did not believe it to be true. She, like me and most senior managers in the country, have had the understanding it was a code violation in all states. Most states, including Georgia, have restrictions on all food products brought from unlicensed purveyors. The reason being, if there is a health issue at a restaurant, they want to be able to trace back all the possible sources of the illness.

Most independent restaurants have a policy against bringing food from other restaurants , which go well beyond the health code issue. For example, we cannot tell one customer his is food is ok to bring and the next is not. Hopefully, you will appreciate the possible discrimination problems that could be involved. Certainly, within reason, we work with people who have special needs… serious dietary problems and with infant’s baby food, to name a few. But, we believe we must continue our policy on restricting foods from other restaurants.

It bothers me a great deal that I let this happen and how it insulted you, regardless of my opinion at the time. Obviously, I should have given a more generous response to begin with instead of my very insulting remark. I have no defense for what I said to you, but would like to say, this is not my normal reaction to a customer complaint. I treasure my customers and work hard as I can to please them. Hopefully, our products reflect that attitude. I hope somehow you and your family will find it in your heart to forgive me for my terribly insulting comment.

Sincerely,

Lawton Haygood

What’s going to be the funniest thing about this whole thing is when The Boathouse files Chapter 11 because the entire city chooses not to dine at this establishment and Lawton’s rapid-fire emails gets him sued by his partners. I can’t wait to read that story.

Posted on June 29th, 2009 under Featured • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback