Old 41 Restaurant — Restaurant in Bonita Springs

This is a lovely place with lovely staff and good food. So why the 2 stars? I went there to grab a quick breakfast this week. I ordered 1 egg scrambled, 3 slices of bacon and 2 sliced of bread toasted. The average cost of an egg this week is about $.50. That's based on a dozen eggs not the cost of bulk eggs purchased by restaurants. So realistically the cost was less than $.50. A couple slices of toast run about $.55 and the three slices of bacon would be about $1.85. The unsweetened tea I drank probably set them back about $.32. Total cost in food would be about $3.22 to the restaurant. Rounding up to be generous, lets call it $4.00. When I left I was handed a bill for $13 and change. I realize inflation is a thing and it costs money to employ servers and run an establishment. I'm trying to wrap my head around spending with a tip $18 for a tiny meal when for that same $18 I could have bought the whole dozen eggs, a loaf of bread a package of bacon and gallon of tea. I'm pretty sure my meal was lumped into a menu item that would normally come with multiple eggs, potatoes, bacon, toast, etc. I can't justify spending almost $20 on a meal that small. I hope things change in the future as I enjoyed this place.

Dear owner, In response to your condescending reply: TLDR. Once I realized you think that talking down to and being insulting to customers is somehow a good business model I gave up reading your rant but I caught the jist. I run a tourism business in SWFL that's been serving the area for over 20 years and entertains tens of thousands of clients each season. I have 20-30 employees depending on time of year, offices, and have overhead just like you. The fact that you decided to talk down to a customer that brought up the fact that a $14 bill for 1 egg 3 pieces of bacon and 2 slices of bread might be a bit excessive tells me more about you than your business. You have to admit, charging $6.95 for 1 egg when you can get an entire dozen from Publix for $3 might make a customer take pause. You have always made good food but lets be realistic you're not the Ritz. Maybe if you had kept it professional and used a civil tongue to simply explain the situation I would have been more understanding as a fellow business owner in SWFL. I may have even taken the review down. Instead here we are. Do not fear. I can promise neither I nor anyone I know will ever again set foot in your establishment and I will be sure to share the tale of this interaction anytime a client or anyone asks me to recommend a good diner. As you know, you can do a great job for customer a thousand times and no one will say a word. Treat them poorly once and they will tell everyone they know and many they...

My Wife and I arrived on Sunday morning at about 10:00 am excited to have brunch. We asked for a booth, we were informed it would be about 15 min. Well, we were famished so we decided to take a table top because of the long wait. We were seated immediately and moments later 2 booths opened up. I requested one of the booths, the manager stated, "its not our policy to switch tables." At that time our server approached with our drinks. I looked at my Wife's cup and noticed caked on debris on the side of the mug that was visible to me and stated to her there is schmutz on your cup. With not being permitted to enjoy more comfortable seating and the dirt on her mug we simply walked out. I might have been ok with getting another cup but, not willing to accommodate for two new customers? Nope, c'est la vie!

1/18/19 My response to the the managers reply. LIAR!!! Shame on you!!! Had the "hostess" stated that, we would have been ok. But, let's look at your response. (SMDH) You stated in your reply, "You sat for 15 minutes, got your drinks and when a booth came available wanted to switch." You really think we waited for 15 minutes to get a cup of coffee and two glasses of water at breakfast? You wouldn't have breakfast service if your staff took that long to get someones morning coffee.

Openly, the waitress approached us immediately as we were seated and asked us for our drink order, within two maybe three minutes at best we had our drinks. It was breakfast a totally different dynamic in service for most restaurants, I know my family owned a few in NYC.

Second part of your reply: "At this point we had people who were on the list for a booth before you had even arrived." Mr. or Ms. Owner, had that been true, she would have stated we have a waiting list for the booths or maybe should have offered us the option to be put on the waiting list. You stated, "It would be unfair to them to suddenly by pass the list and have you take a booth to essentially “short cut” the list." Frankly, it is unfair not to be offered this! This could be discrimination concern for you now.

Third part of your reply: "I do apologize for the lipstick on the cup, but we would have been happy to correct that had you given us the chance." I gave your establishment a chance by staying after I was informed of your discriminatory seating policy. This is not baseball you dont get 3 strikes.

Finally, SHAME on you for lying as well as being inequitable, prejudice and...

My waitress was harsh and got defensive when my order was incorrect, she became loud with me and drew attention to our table over toast. She was condescending and spoke loudly as if we were children. As an introverted person my party was embarrassed and I was out of sorts...ruined my experience and I made her take the food back. I unfortunately dropped a couple of curse words to the owner when I went to pay for the food that we didn't eat. He was emotionally ill equipped to deal with an angry customer, ranting on about evil people like me and something about Donald Trump (??). At first he asked me to leave and I thought he said it was on him. But when I went to walk out, he threatened to call the cops (??). So I gave him my card and he ran it, threw it back on the counter, continuing to rant about evil people like me (spent my entire adult life in education giving impoverished youth a fighting chance kind of evil I suppose). I was a butthead and eventually went back and apologized for my uncivil approach to having my morning ruined. The coffee was good, the one egg that I ate was perfect, but in the end I dropped $30 on mostly uneaten food, and had to deal with a ranting owner, who doesn't have the emotional maturity to deal with an angry customer (who admittedly was having a hard time with emotional maturity in the face of being treated unprofessionally in a place I chose to spend a morning with my mother). Mom lives right up the street. This restaurant is one we (friends and extended family) have patronized many many times without incident. It is our local breakfast nook, so to speak, a local place to take out of town guests. Despite this, and despite fully accepting my role in setting the owner off, I cannot go back there. If you don't have the social skills to cope with and deescalate angry, disappointed, or embarrassed customers with grace, then you are doomed to fail in a service oriented business. Terrible, terrible morning...lost time, lost...