Oysters on the Half-Baked

Typically, I do not publish business names here, usually, the clues that I offer clearly identify the company written about on my blog.  In this case, however, I am going to identify the company and the shitty experience that I had as a customer.  I have every right as a customer to write a review about any experience that I have as a customer, be it good or be it bad.  The name will not be changed to protect the guilty! Excerpts from this blog will be published on Yelp! And Travelocity.

My son and I took a fishing trip to Gulf Shores Alabama, a cool little city (maybe a little touristy), that has a certain element of fun and decent beaches.  The fishing there both offshore and fresh water is usually pretty good, and the seafood restaurants are generally excellent.  The region where Gulf Shores is located is commonly referred to as “The Redneck Riviera”, a name that has endured throughout several generations, though not used as often in this PC society of ours.

Unfortunately, at the time of our visit, storms had ravaged the area and fishing was not particularly great.  However, there was a silver lining here, as our back-up plan included adult beverages, seafood, and the beach!  My motto is; “never let a crisis spoil your fun”.  While our trip had taken a different direction, my new goal turned to finding the best oysters on the half-shell.  I know what you are thinking, “yuck, how can you eat those things”, it’s an acquired taste, usually accomplished with the help of hot sauce and horseradish.  Oh, and lest I forget the “shooters”, an incredible shot glass of oyster, vodka, hot sauce, and heaven.

So, this left us with the chore of deciding where to go for the best oysters. It must be noted that we were close to Oyster Bay, Alabama, which is known for some of the best wild and farm-grown oysters anywhere.  So surely there are some places with good, fresh oysters on their menus.  After some research, we found several local restaurants that offered oysters on their menu.  However, during the search, I discovered that there was an Acme Oyster House in Gulf Shores.  I have been to the Acme Oyster restaurants in New Orleans and found them to have excellent oysters and service, you always go with a product/service that is a proven winner—right?

So, we used a ride service to go the 3 miles to the restaurant, as you should anytime that you are going to imbibe (drink alcohol).  When we arrived, we found that the establishment was busy, not unusual for a Friday night.  We went up to the host station and put our name in for a table and were told that it would probably be about a half hour till we would be seated.  No problem let’s check out the bar.  The bar was a fairly large, three rail, pub-style configuration with approximately 15-20 people seated at it and no available spots at that moment.  That changed kind of quickly as a couple was apparently notified of their table’s availability.  So, my son and I quickly snared the two available spots and sat for a much-anticipated cocktail.

I was surprised to find that there was only one bartender, an older lady (probably my age) and she was obviously over-stretched with the volume of business sitting there.  After several minutes, the bartender finally got to us and we made our drink selection.  We had noticed on the specials sign out front that they had grilled oysters listed.  I must admit I have never had grilled, baked or steamed oysters, I have only had them raw.  So, after several more minutes, the barkeep came back, and we ordered some of the grilled oysters and got her permission to eat dinner at the bar.  Flash forward 45 minutes (checked watch), not only had we not received the grilled oysters, but we had not been asked about another cocktail.

I had remained somewhat patient throughout this period as I was thoroughly enjoying the time I had to converse with my son, but I was starting to get a little impatient.  Finally, the bartender returned (at the 50-minute mark) and asked if we wanted another cocktail, I took the opportunity (not knowing when I might see her again) to inquire about the status of our grilled oysters.  You would have thought that I asked her for a kidney, she gave me this look of sheer anger as if this was the last straw.

Suddenly, this very frustrated individual went into a tirade and began lecturing me about how “I do not understand how busy the grill guy was” and that “they are doing their best to serve everyone”.  Ok, let me be very clear here, I asked her very politely, and in no way was ever indignant or rude.  Finally, after her three minutes of lecturing me ended, I look at her and said, “ma’am I haven’t seen you in almost an hour and have no way of understanding anything”.  She lost it and began yelling at me (to be fair, it was noisy in the place), I’m not really sure what it was she said to me at that point and quite frankly didn’t care.  She walked away and a few minutes later returned with the grilled oysters (which, by the way, were extremely salty, overcooked and drowned in butter and garlic).

After eating the oysters, I looked at my son, who was equally stunned and said to him “I am not spending any more money here, let’s leave”.  So, we settled our tab and left.  The bartender did not even thank us for our business.  We found another restaurant (local) and finished our dinner and our night (the food and service at this local location were awesome!).  I was completely dumbfounded by this incident, it would be a different story if I had been belligerent, rude or out of line with this bartender.  But the truth is, I was completely polite and let’s face it waiting an hour for your dinner would be bad, but we were just waiting on an appetizer and second round of drinks.

I have nothing but compassion for this bartender as she was completely overwhelmed without any sign of a manager of help.  She did, however, spend a disproportionate amount time on one side of the bar, especially with one couple and talked for long stretches of time.  A gentleman sitting next to us had complained that his “oyster shooter” (cocktail referred to earlier), had not arrived after 30 minutes.  On the other side of me, there were two ladies who also left in disgust with a similar complaint.  The restaurant had been somewhat busy but at the time of this incident, there were tables that were empty.  So, wasn’t there some workers available to help out in other places?

I mainly blame the restaurant manager for this unpleasant experience.  I get it that sometimes people don’t come in for work or are sick, but didn’t they have a plan B?  When I first went to the Acme Oyster House in New Orleans there were only two locations, now there are 6 of them so I guess they have become another corporate run restaurant complete with the unfriendly trimmings.  It is not unusual anymore for growth to reduce the quality of service, it usually gets lost in the mission statement.

Again, I feel bad for the bartender, I am her age and cannot imagine having to run around that bar like a mouse looking for the cheese in a maze.  But, at what point do you suck it up and tell the customer that you apologize for the wait and your food should be right out.  You never tell a paying customer that they don’t understand how tough things are and they need to get a grip.  Well, I guess you can, but your tip might reflect that attitude and let’s face it that’s where the money is in a restaurant job.

It is brutal in today’s job market as more baby-boomers take bartender and server jobs in order to eke out a living (never mind retirement).  Corporate owned establishments have little pity or consideration for those employees, couple that with low pay and you have the recipe for the frustration that sometimes bleeds through to the customers.  If I had been treated better or maybe if a manager had come over and offered an apology we might have stayed.  I used to go to this restaurant anytime I traveled to New Orleans (a city that I love) throughout the late 1980s to late 1990s, it was always a great experience, cocktails and ahhh—the oysters!   I guess the Acme Oyster House has become so popular that they can afford to treat customers poorly, that’s too bad, I used to love them.

Talk to Ya Later

The Grumpy Old Fart Customer@2019 All Rights Reserved