NOTCH8

Dear Joe,It never fails after an evening when my staff goes above and beyond that we end up with a keyboard warrior soothing his damaged ego after we ruthlessly under-cooked his cheeseburger. Couple bullet points to start, before I get to the crux of the matter:- “We’ve been to Notch8 before and liked it a lot.” Curious Joe, where are those positive reviews? 1st line of your review and it already tells us a lot about who we’re dealing with.- We only buy shrimp without tails.Anyway, looking at your 10 previous reviews, we see a pattern. 1) You have your “go-to” places until, God forbid, a mistake is made or something changes – then it’s time to warn the public. 2) You struggle with people who don’t speak English well. That’s kind of a shame.I was on the same patio that you were on last night – I was the sexy bald guy in a purple T-shirt and shorts – hard to miss. I watched your waitress, Mia, a high school student and athlete who works 30+ hours a week so she can earn money for college, hustle like I’ve never seen her hustle before. She was a champion. Abner, the runner who barely spoke English, is also a high school student working had to learn English and also working 30+ hours a week to help support his family. His co-worker called out so he handled the job of two people and also impressed me with his work ethic and poise in the face of some not so nice customers.1st Weekend on the patio since October – a patio that triples the size of our restaurant. It’s our 5th season doing this and I assure you, it’s not an easy task. Poor excuse for a man of your standards but in my past, I’ve led complex military and logistical operations, and I rate opening the Notch8 patio each year as one of most challenging things I’ve done in life.510 customers were served at Notch8 yesterday. The majority left very happy and went out of their way to tell me. We had a few hiccups. When we do, we do our best to make it right for our customers. We aren’t always perfect, yet there is always one guy who needs to open the laptop and try to discourage the public from supporting my small business. Last night it was you. Maybe I can frame it in another way for you to understand.Think about your job. You’re having a great year. 500+ customer interactions peddling your software. Killing it. Then, just a few days before your annual review you have a big meeting and your boss will be there too. That morning you woke up late because the power blinked and your alarm clock was off. You head downstairs and trip over the cat and twist your back. Not a great start. Then as you’re speeding down 684 some guy in a little rice burner with a loud muffler cuts you off and gives you a scare. You arrive at the meeting with sweat on your brow, frazzled, and have cat hair on the cuff of your trousers. Needless to say, you aren’t at your best, and the deal doesn’t get completed.The next morning you meet with your boss, and he disregards the 500+ meetings you had during the year and gives you a 1-star rating based on yesterday’s meeting. No raise, no bonus, and a reduced grant on your stock options. All because of one bad day.That’s what you did here, Joe Kline. 510 customers but the one customer who got a rare burger, fries instead of tots, and had to wait for a napkin tries to publicly define us in a negative light.So, me, Mia, Abner, and the team will keep on keeping on. We will do our best every day knowing that most will leave happy and hoping those we occasionally disappoint will realize we’re human and come back to enjoy our beautiful patio and delicious food another day. You, on the other hand, won’t be back for a long time, if ever, which is too bad since you’ve normally liked us a lot. Take care and I hope your cat is ok.TonyOwner