Iris Book Cafe — Restaurant in Cincinnati

This place seems great! I went once about 10 years ago and really dug the vibe: cute space, good drinks. I bought a book. It was lovely. But today I went, not having been back in a long time, and no one could get the door open. There were two of us (strangers, but united in not being able to get into this darn cafe), and I peeped through the glass and waved for help to the front counter. No one came, so I called and a nice barista came opened the door for us. We’re in—no harm, no foul. Let us move on, right? No. One of the other baristas, who I assume is normally a nice person and was maybe in a bad mood, starts being weirdly hostile toward us because we couldn’t get inside. She barked that it was broken and it’s been broken for years—and apparently, we should just know that. I am not a regular, I told her, so I would not know that. There was some stuff after that, but I’m not a court transcriber so I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t like her tone, which I felt was really inappropriate for the low stakes of the situation, and said as much. We could have all just laughed this off! I would have appreciated an apology or just an acknowledgment that a) yes, the door is broken b) it’s no big deal and c) that she’s sorry for overreacting to a silly situation. But that didn’t happen, so I ordered my tea from the barista that had been nice and thanked her for her time. So to sum up: Highly recommend, overall, but with what I hope is a one-time caveat due to a difficult time to be alive. I know this pandemic sucks and we’re all losing our minds, but the least we can do is just be human...

We visited Cincinnati for a family vacation and stayed in an Airbnb nearby. We are vegans and we’re so happy to have found this delicious gem. Food was amazing however after our 3rd time eating there we were abruptly shocked to recieve very disrespectful service. The young woman behind the counter on Saturday morning seemed to be having a bad day and allowed that to affect her professionalism. She proceeded to use verbiage as if this was her store and ran the place, talking to us in a manner that was very uncomfortable. However, I still tried to interact with positive vibes, I even gave her a 20% tip! We got our food to go but sat down and opened up our food at the bookstore. This is when the young lady behind the counter proceeded to say “I don’t normally allow people to eat to go boxes in my restaurant”. I could understand if this was an actual restaurant where we had to pay for service, but this is not that type of place. At this point I’m feeling so uncomfortable I get up and leave. She says nothing as we left and so I’m writing this review in hopes that her or the actual business owner sees it and addresses it. This is unfortunate as we really enjoyed our previous experiences but now we will not be...

If I could rate this less than one star I certainly would. Worst customer service I have ever received and I mean ever. The barista was beyond rude, she basically ignored us, acted like we were inconveniencing her by asking about the menu and trying to order. We ask where napkins were, and another customer showed us where they were located and she yelled at the customer and told her that was her job and to mind her own business. A construction worker came in and ask for a glass of water she was extremely rude told him it would be a $1, he told her she was crazy to charge a $1 for a glass of water she then yelled at him to get the Fu** out of her cafe, right in front of my children. I literally was waiting for John Quinones to pop out and say we were on an episode of what would you do, but sadly that never happen. We called and left a message for the owner who never returned our call, so I called back several times until I got a hold of her and she did not seem the least bit interested or concerned that one of her staff would act so horrible to her customers, she did not even apologize. We will...