Provisions South — Restaurant in Eugene

Staffing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Unfortunately had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth before I even touched the food as I was forced to listen to the less than pleasant and highly personal conversation of the cooks behind the bar. Then when the food came I still had my bottled 7up with the cap on. I asked an employee for a bottle opener, without saying another word or gesture she grabbed my drink and said I’ll be right back with that.. I’ll let you draw your own opinions on that. I didn’t even touch the 7up. The food is exactly what I’m seeing from the other less than par reviews. It is overpriced. It’s not even really the ingredients that are bad, it’s the preparation that could be better. By the end of my meal I was so fed up with the service I gave the shift leader (there was no manager on duty) the ultimatum to refund the meal or accept the review. I don’t usually do that unless given the option but I was pretty dissatisfied, especially considering how nice the atmosphere is (in terms of physical layout). The decor and products available are great, but it’s always disappointing when a restaurant with otherwise good atmosphere is hollowed out by less than good staff, and practices. In fact it makes it even worse. After I was declined the refund by the shift leader, Trevor, one of the cooks exclaimed “WEIRD” very loudly and with no one around (not that that would have made any difference), but it just adds insult to injury. From that, as well as some more chirping from the other cook I just had to get their names too. But then, the same cook who exclaimed “weird,” also declined to give me his name, and then declined to allow Trevor to give me his name. By this point it was pretty undeniable how badly I was being treated so Trevor did finally come around to doing the right thing in giving me my refund. In short, I was treated horribly by pretty much every employee in the establishment, and yes, it does...

I had been wanting to check this place out for awhile now after reading some great reviews and passing by it on several occasions. Today I finally got around to going and here is my pro’s and con’s list.

Pros: Posh atmosphere, large outdoor seating area (we need more of this in Eugene!), clean appearance, bus person was quite sweet.

Mixed: I ordered the special…a BLT with side salad. The bacon was limp and raw appearing but thankfully after showing it to the staff they cooked me up some crispy bacon to replace it which was yummy. The salad was made up of fresh greens but nothing else. The dressing was tasty.

Cons: I ordered a peanut butter cookie that looked delish but was quite disappointed after finding it to be very dry with little flavor. I only took a few bites of it before tossing it and the majority of my BLT. Seats are small so not very comfortable for us ladies with generous behinds.

But here’s the clincher….while eating my meal a staff member behind the counter let out a very big, loud, wet sounding sneeze and made NO effort to direct the sneeze into his elbow or hands to contain it. He also made no effort to clean up the counter top he had just spewed his bodily fluids all over. He continued working in that area without washing his hands. Even if we weren’t in a pandemic this is completely unacceptable behavior for a restaurant employee!! Another customer noticed it as well and looked at me shaking his head.

I’m hoping this was just a one off experience but it was off enough that I felt the need to leave a review. If I had time to speak to a manager I would have but I did not.

Please, please remind your employees about proper hygiene...

They have all the best things. The best southern mayo (Duke's). The best chili crisps (Kari Kari). Kimchi sesame navy beans -- didn't even know they existed but now we all know that we need to. Kewpie the famed/best international mayo à la japonaise. The best French butter? You don't have to make a blind decision because they offer four different kinds of butter from France including a butter from the Camargue -- in the south of France -- that is one of my favorites.

There are vanilla eclairs and raspberry Napoleons, and macaron in the sweet section. But the most delicious things were in the croissant section.

It was a toss up between the ham and Gruyère and the pain du fromage. Both would have been hearty and buttery and delicious, but the staff shared that the pain du fromage only happens on the weekends, so don't miss those. The almond croissant. The pain au chocolat. Seasonally fresh strawberries were used for the danish.

My brunch mate had an Americano and I had an iced coffee. Happily, they offered self-serve cinnamon sugar and chocolate powder as toppings for our drink drinks.

We sat at the tables outside which actually wrapped around the café as well, so there's plenty of outdoor seating. And there's a good parking...