Toast should be Toast

The culinary world is a beast and extracts a high price to those who work in the field. It is full of long hard thankless hours pressed into service cooking to the masses. As a cook, you feel very much like Charlton Heston in Ben Hur, rowing on a galley ship awaiting the slave-master's lash or death. It is a feeling I am oh so familiar with thus, I am sympathetic to the plight of the line cook. Anyone who has worked in the hospitality field knows that there are three NEVERS:
1) You never know when your guests will show up
2) You never know what they will order
3) You never know how much they will eat.
Any good General Manger, Owner, Kitchen Manger, Chef or Line Cook will tell you that. These are some of the fundamentals which will help you plan for a successful dining experience and help you to have return customers.

I am glutton for punishment. There I admitted it; that is why I play the lottery hoping some day I will ensure my good fortune and never have to work again. I, however, am not a glutton for punishment when it comes to dining. This could either be from a hip new food truck to an old pedigreed established restaurant. If the food is poorly done I most likely won't be back. This bring us to my latest dining adventure. Being still new to Charlotte we have asked for tips on where to find good food and have found most everyone loves Toast Cafe http://www.toasthousecafe.com/

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This well loved family staple has been serving the Charlotte area for years. I am trying to understand why? Okay, I may be sounding like a soulless elitists from California picking on the the natives of Charlotte but, rest assured, friends this is not the case. My wife and I first tried Toast Cafe shortly after we first arrived here in Charlotte. We where pleasantly surprised by the quality of food and service from Toast Cafe. However on two other occasions our hopes have been dashed. Poor service and even poorer food was to be found in abundance when we took an out of town guess with us to Toast Cafe before the holidays on a busy Sunday morning.

Hoping that this was an "off day", we where willing to let things slide . Retuning today knowing on a slower day with fewer patrons amassing like a barbarian hordes we where sure that no mistakes would be possible. Right? Wrong!

How can you over cook toast and serve it cold with piping hot eggs and under cooked, cold hash browns? Or serve luke warm mushroom soup with an ice cold, semi-toasted meatloaf sandwich? This was after waiting 20 minutes for food that couldn't have had more than 8 minutes of prep on a slow day?

The General Manger did comp the meal so that was something I guess. Yes I maybe a glutton for punishment but, I am not stupid. Like Charlton Heston in Ben Hur, I will be watching the slave-master go down with his ship.