Bruster's Real Ice Cream — Restaurant in Concord Township

First I want to say I wrote this comment with all love. And if I sound like criticizing I’m still striving to be fair and inclusive.

I am a regular customer at this location for years. It was always a pleasant experience until today. So this was what happened:

I arrived at the location and there wasn’t a line. In behave of my 5 year old little one I asked for a Dino sundae and asked instead of the chocolate syrup and sprinkles can I have the dirt as topping. The lady served me, whose name appear on the attached receipt is MonicaB so I will call her Monica, asked if I want the gummy worm too. I said no. When Monica deliver the sundae she said it is 5.91. Then the conversation started:

Me: I thought the Dino sundae is 3 dollar something. Monica: the dirt sundae is 3.89 and the Dino cookie is 1.69 Me: I understand. But I thought I asked for the Dino sundae and asked to swap the chocolate syrup topping to the dirt. Monica: but you added the Dino cookie on the dirt sundae and the cookie cost 1.69. Do you want it or not? Me: I don’t consider I get the dirt sundae and add a cookie. What I asked for was the Dino sundae. Monica (irritated): do you want it or not? Me: yes but do you see we have a different understanding of how the price is calculated? Monica: do you want it or not?

This conversation was not going anywhere. I looked down at my kid. I don’t want to disappoint the little one. Plus we are heading to a group class so I didn’t have much time. I decided to stop this unpleasant conversation and paid for the ice cream.

On the way driving to the class, I continued to feel a thorn in the throat. Do I care about the 1 or 2 dollars? No. I have paid much more tips to this shop. If Monica explained to me that the topping is only available on the dirt sundae that’s why she had to charge me two items, or the dirt costs 1.69 if used as a substitute topping, I would have accepted that. I would understand that was how the price was calculated. But no. She was not listening to my concern, failed to give an explanation, asked me three times “do you want it or not?” so to push the interaction away. When it was not even a busy hour.

Is that how people suppose to be treated? Anything deeper under this? I understand people can be stressed out. Having things going on on their life. But be fair. Be real. When someone raise a question, it simply means they don’t understand. When someone says there is a difference in the understanding, that simply means they have a different point of view. It’s nothing personal. If you feel someone tries to make your life difficult, think again.

Bottom line, it is the humanity that was missing. I am disappointed at this interaction. But I hope everything goes well with Monica. If there were something on her mind that cause her acted defensively, hope she will get help. The fairness in trade rely on a mutual understanding of the cost of each item and how many items are delivered. It is a simple math problem doesn’t require a lot of emotion to deal with. Life is easy if you don’t try to make...

We visited here twice in our 3 month vacation from Australia. Icecream for all the family was on the slightly higher end in terms of cost compared to other places around Pennsylvania. In terms of quality you can’t fault it, every flavour we tried (probably about 15 flavours all up were great) Bargain was Thursday’s “Bring your own banana and get 50 % off of a banana split. So normally $8 and down to $4 and you get 3 x flavours, banana, and choice of toppings included. Kids below a certain height got a free baby cone icecream with a cute face, also a nice gesture. Customer service is great, all the young students working are friendly and we’re happy working too.

The only things stopping my review from hitting 5 stars is, it’s always packed and pumping all nights of summer, plenty of car spots all around the building, but 0 places to sit to eat your icecream. Not super enjoyable sitting in your car and eating it nor standing around the building where people are ordering waiting to order either. There’s a grassy area (small behind the carpark) where a few benches could go, or alternatively off to the side where there’s a small red barn they could ditch 2 car spots and stick some tables.

Second thing is the ordering system I found extremely silly. You place an order, the staff write it down on a notepad, they shut the window, and go back and forth to the notepad making one icecream at a time, open the window, hand off the icecream to each person, then continue on the next one. Why not have two people taking orders on either side of the building, using a pos, punch the order in, ask for the customers name, send the order through, get the other 4 workers making the orders and when they are done call out the order. There was 0 flow, and although it wasn’t a huge wait, would be easier to have a system in place for...

We arrived at 9:08 on the dot today, and waited in line.

At first, we were skeptical, but God’s grace came forth and put us in a line that would change our fate.

Tommy is who ended up serving us. He was absolutely amazing. I have never had a better ice cream-getting experience.

I knew we were in for a treat- literally, when I ordered the cotton candy explosion, and specified for it to come in a cone. Tommy went above and beyond and asked what type of cone I wanted it in. I knew i made the right choice when he nodded with a smile when I said “waffle cone”. Big T knew, without a string of doubt, that I had just formed an absolutely lethal ice cream combo; and let me tell you- it was.

Next, came my grandmother’s order. She hails from “up north”, and doesn’t get to experience the pleasure of brusters like we do. She ordered a simple but concise concoction, and T-dawg HOOKED HER UPPPPP. We were so absolutely blown away by the service, the quality, and the overall experience that Bruster’s- but more specifically Tommy provided.

Lastly, after we had paid, I told T-money that I was struggling with my college funds. Tommy- the selfless human he is, offered to donate his tip money to help fund my journey to higher education. I refused, but I was absolutely moved by the willingness and kindness of such an amazing human being.

Thank you Tommy

11/10...