Cafe 54 Breakfast and Lunch — Restaurant in Ashland

I had high hopes for this place as historic Ashland could really use a decent cafe house. Unfortunately, that was not our experience. The atmosphere was fine for what I would expect and the staff was friendly. The disappointment was in the food. We ordered home fries, grits, a bagel and an Acaii bowl. The fries were dry and underseasoned, the bagel came untoasted, (we weren’t asked if we wanted it toasted or not, but as it was for breakfast we assumed it would be toasted) the Acaii bowl was frozen hard and had to give it time to soften to even resemble a sorbet consistency, the coffee was very very bitter. Lastly, there are two restrooms that are not labeled specifically for men or women so unfortunately men were using both bathrooms. Upon opening one restroom I was greeted with the seat up and urine everywhere. It was disgusting. I had to turn around and try the other restroom in which the seat was up in that room as well, but a little cleaner. Women don’t want to have to being putting men’s seats down. Make your restrooms separate places, please. Based on subpar food and filthy restrooms I’ll be hard pressed to recommend this place. I may try one more time in the future to see if there’s been any improvement? It’s hard to recover from a bad...

I really liked the space upon first look! The inside was bright and open, the outdoor space spacious! Upon walking in, we were passed by ~8 workers who didnt acknowledge us. We get it though they were busy. Then when they did they just said how many and we carried the rest. We ordered and anxiously awaited our açaí bowls and avocado toast.

The food arrived.. instant disappointment aesthetically. The $12 açaí bowls were small and frozen. Literally frozen we had to wait for them to thaw out. The avocado toast.. well. Not toast. It was on white bread, barely toasted, and the toast was maybe a half of avocado smushed into the bread. No seasoning, not even salt/pepper.

We also get home fries and OJ. The potatoes were the highlight but not crispy however well seasoned. And the OJ was concentrate. We didnt drink it.

I should have taken photos for receipts but we were so surprised by this experience since we seemed to be the only ones in the spot that were unsatisfied. It seems this exp is what the town has settled into and accepted. To the owners, I know you can really shine if you add some seasoning to your toast, train your team in hospitality, and pull your bowls out early to allow for a...

No complaints about the food but the service has much to be desired. When we arrived, we asked to sit outdoors. She had us sit inside and then forgot to tell us when the table was ready. While waiting inside, I heard a guest ask if they had to do something different to order because they hadn't seen a server. We finally asked if we could go sit at our table before someone else nabbed it and she apologized that she forgot about us. Then we never saw a waitress for a long time to take our order. She seemed surprised that nobody helped us but she was serving the tables all around us. The table next to us asked to have items taken off the bill that they never received. The table on the other side called out to her several times while she was walking past them. Our food was fine. And we too waited a long time to get our check. They have a great thing going here but definitely need to better train their staff. I know it is a very hard time to get and keep great help, but it's not an option to survive in this business....