James Oliver Corktown — Restaurant in Detroit

One: I ordered a bagel sliced, untoasted with plain cream cheese on the side. "Don't judge me." As I stand in view of the food prep area, which is clearly visible, I watch the young lady grab my bagel and play with it. She reads on the monitor what to do next with the said bagel. After placing the bagel in the slicer, she proceeds to slice the bagel again with a knife after the bagel has been sliced in the slicer. "My thoughts: why does she need to recut the bagel?" she next opens the bagel and figures out there is nothing else to do with it except place it in a bag. The young lady then goes underneath the counter and reaches into a milk crate to get a 2oz single-serve container to put the cream cheese in. After filling the container with cream cheese, "Again, My Thoughts: why don't they have prepacked cream cheese?" As she looked for a black Sharpie to write my name on the bag, "My thoughts: is this necessary?" she located a Sharpie on the floor underneath the counter or workstation and proceeded to write on the bag. Without changing her gloves, she grabs my bagel and places it in the bag. I immediately notified the staff of the incident and told them I did not want that bagel. I cannot unsee what I just saw! So, My germ conscientious (Germophobe) self took a month off from patronizing the location.

Two: As I ordered my bagel sliced, untoasted with plain cream cheese on the side, "I order this way so it's less handling by the staff, at this place, it doesn't matter," I watched a new young lady grab the bagel, and place the bagel in between both palms as if she is protecting it from the air as she reads the monitor what to do next. As she reads with the said bagel in both hands, she wipes her nose on top of her left wrist without putting down the bagel or changing her gloves. Two seconds later, she sneezed into her right elbow while still holding said bagel. She then proceeds to place the bagel in the bag. The young lady places the bag on the counter, and the cashier calls my name. I again immediately notified the staff of the incident and told them I did not want that bagel. I cannot unsee what I just saw! I asked the staff to slice a bagel in the slicer and place it in a bag without the germs from the nose and the cough in the elbow. I do not need the extra flavoring with my bagel, and I did not see snot and saliva on the menu for extra flavor. Is it even a cost for that? Yeah, It's called Covid-19.

Three, again, and I ordered my bagel sliced, untoasted with plain cream cheese on the side. After I ordered my bagel, I observed on the counter a white box (Probably a dozen bagels) with a large tub and a small container of what appeared to be cream cheese. Several minutes have passed, and the young man preparing the bagels grabs the large tub of plain cream cheese off the white box on the counter and takes the lid off of the container. He proceeds to grab the spreading knife from one of the cream cheese serving area and scrapes off the top layer of cream cheese from the tub that was on top of the white box. After scraping off a generous amount of cream cheese, he places the spreading knife with scrapped cream cheese back into the fresh cream cheese at his workstation. The young man then prepares to slice my bagel and re-slices the bagel with the knife. "again, I do not know why they do this?" He reached underneath the unsanitary counter into this milk create I spoke about earlier and grabbed a small container to place the cream cheese that was still stuck to the spreading knife into it. As I was the only person standing there, I knew this was for me, and I immediately notified the staff of the incident and told them I did not want that bagel. I cannot unsee what I just saw! As I explained to the staff, she tried to justify his actions, saying, "It was ok, and it was fresh." She tried to give me new cream cheese that I immediately tossed in the trash, and I ate a dry-ass bagel.

This happened in a span in about a year, I will never...

I was a regular here for years, but unfortunately, I don’t plan on returning. The food is excellent and most staff members are wonderful, but some are consistently rude and seem to resent all of the customers simply for being patrons of the business. I’ve worked in the service industry, so I understand that some customers can be a pain and put a bad taste in your mouth, but I’ve never been anything but kind and patient in my interactions with JO staff and have still been repeatedly met with annoyance for asking basic questions by a select few team members. It’s like they assume I’m going to be an “issue” before I even open my mouth. I don’t know if it’s because of a racial bias or what.

Today, I went to pick up an online order during a busy time. Usually I would wait in line and let the cashier know I was there for an online order but it was an extremely busy morning and it wouldn’t have made sense for me to stand in line behind like 15 people when I’d ordered ahead. With no signage for pickup, I politely asked a barista (I believe their name is Emily) what I should do. Before I could even finish, they cut me off, said “I have nothing to do with that, that’s their thing,” pointed toward the cashier, and waved me away. It was unnecessarily dismissive and embarrassing.

At the counter, I let the person bagging orders know I was there, and they said “okay” but gave no direction. When I stayed near the counter, they eventually told me, in a frustrated tone, to “wait over there” (near the barista) until my name was called, as if I’d ignored prior instructions.

This isn’t the first time I’ve felt dismissed here. Emily, in particular, has been consistently short and unkind during even the simplest interactions. This visit was just the breaking point. I don’t expect over the top friendliness or conversation from people trying to do their job during a rush, but basic respect shouldn’t be too much to ask. I shouldn’t feel guilty or like a nuisance for trying to pick...

This place is very cute, and I love their outdoor space when it is warmer. Their rosemary salt bagel and the garlic cream cheese is awesome and my partner likes some of the sweeter cream cheeses.

The feedback I have would be for the process of ordering and getting your food. The space to line up for the cashier is awkward and every time I’ve been there, I witness someone get cut in line due to what seems to be some combination of confusion, there being two cash registers that are spaced apart, and the case for the bagels requiring you to walk past the line to look and then you are right in front of the second register. Next, the last two times I’ve been, I’ve seen a handful of rosemary sea salt bagels in the case, been able to order them and told they had some, then 10-15 minutes later been called to service bar to be told they were out. I’m not sure what is going wrong in that process, but it is frustrating because if I knew from the beginning they were out (which is totally fine) I would likely not stay and order anything. But instead I get stuck deciding whether to go through the fuss of asking for a refund after waiting in line and then for my food or just settling for something I’m not really interested.

The speed of service does seem to have gotten quicker. Previously it was minimum of 15 minutes, even up to 30 minutes during one visit, to get my bagel and coffee. Today it was closer to 10 minutes and it seemed just as busy. Hopefully this...