Huddle House Corporate Office –sent via Huddle House website-“Comments”. (Attempted to call the number listed to get a fax number, but no human being answers the phone on the numerous, irrelevant menus and sub-menus.)
5901 Peachtree-Dunwoody, Suite B450
Atlanta, GA 30328
Feb. 4, 2011
To any/all concerned Supervisory Personnel:
Place: Huddle House, 720 Broad St., Brooksville, FL 34604
Date: Feb. 4, 2011
Time: Aprx. 7:50-8:30 a.m. (as I waited for my car to be repaired at Good Year next door.)
Report: Food was good; service was excellent; however, I was appalled at the extremely discourteous, haughty, negative, sarcastic, abrupt, non-caring attitude shown by the cook, Ray, whom I was informed quietly (upon my inquiring of Meaghan) is also the Manager, toward the waitress, Meaghan, who told me she was only there about two weeks.
I sat at the counter and witnessed Ray’s sarcastic, abrupt remarks to her when she asked simple questions, and I got real tired of his slamming dishes and pans around while I was attempting to enjoy my meal. I could readily see Meaghan, the only waitress on duty at the time, was attempting to serve me and four other patrons to the best of her ability, but was also attempting to avoid the cook as much as possible.
This cook/manager, I noticed, made a quiet call, evidently attempting to call in another waitress, mumbling something on the phone that “she can’t handle it”, evidently (my guess) talking about Meaghan while she was out of earshot of the phone. However, I, being near the phone, close to the cashier’s locale, heard it. He slammed the phone down and returned to his cooking, unabashedly slamming his pans and dishes, and throwing the plates on his cooking counter, yelling out “Order ready” each time a meal was ready for the waitress to pick up.
This deplorable treatment of a young waitress would seemingly be intolerable to anyone. I asked Meaghan quietly, “Do you have to put up with this kind of behavior from him every morning?” She replied, “Usually.” I could readily see Meaghan was fearful of saying anything to him – probably in fear of losing her job (again, my guess, since I did not ask her.)
This Ray individual made himself scarce when he wasn’t cooking and stayed, for whatever reason, in the back room/office. When 2-3 more patrons walked in, Meaghan was the only one in sight. She took the customers’ orders and put them up on the cook’s slide/holder locale (over the cooking area) for him to see. When Ray decided to exit from the back room, he’d grab the order slips, look at them angrily, and slap them back up onto the slide. During the entire time I sat there (I was the only one at the counter), he never once greeted me or had anything to say to anybody.
By the time I left, he had another 4-6 orders to cook. It was not the time or place to give him my comments about his conduct toward a young waitress, especially in front of customers.
I have visited Huddle Houses many times in many places; however, I have never witnessed such an unabashed, degrading, public treatment of a waitress by any Huddle House employee at any time. Although I will return to Huddle House in Brooksville when the opportunity arises, I will make sure I will not return during breakfast hours when this Ray individual is on duty. I am also making a copy of this letter to post on the bulletin board of our Tri-County Club for all members, especially those in Hernando County (Brooksville-Spring Hill area) to see.
I would appreciate an acknowledgement of this letter (either USPS or e-mail) from any concerned personnel at the Corporate Office.
Sincerely,
Wm. J. Kearns
10566 E. Rabbit Ln., Floral City, FL 34436
E-mail: wjk43@earthlink.net
Self-note: Received an immediate response the next day via e-mail from the corporate office personnel apologizing and informing me the Brooksville-area Supervisor will be contacted about this episode. The supervisor did contact me via e-mail, apologized, and informed me “action will be taken.” My e-mail response was one of gratitude for the immediate replies from both him and the corporate office, assuring him that I would not post the letter on the Tri-county-club's bulletin board.
I returned to the same Huddle House approximately 3 weeks later. The same cook/manager was there. Meaghan was not; however, I suspected (probably from viewing the Security Camera re: the incident and recognizing my face) he knew it was I, the complainant 3 weeks previously. He was overly pleasant and friendly toward me – more than the other 2 customers who were also sitting at the counter – and very congenial toward the other 2 waitresses. (Did things change when I walked out? Who knows?)
