Cold Stone Creamery — Restaurant in Florissant

This is in regards to store 21210 at 14013 New Halls Ferry Rd. in Florrissant, MO.

Cleaning chemical and used rag laying on the food prep surface. Dirty mixing bowl still full of a strawberry jam/syrup sitting out on the food prep surface. This syrup was old enough that it had skinned over. Server handling food directly without gloves Ice cream was not in it labelled location. Food allergy concern. Back room was cluttered, blocking the doorway to the serving line.

I'm not one to review places, however there are a few issues that I feel that the public should be aware of as I have a background in the food industry.

My family normally visits another store location, but this one was on my way home from work. My daughter was having a particularly difficult day, so I decided to stop on my way home from work to pick her up some ice cream.

When I walked into the store, I was greeted by a friendly server who was helping the only other customer in the store at that time. That customer was being particularly difficult, but the server maintained good spirit. Because of the difficult customer, I had time to observe the store.

The first thing I noticed was the cleaning products and rags laying out on the food prep surfaces. The cleaning product was in a clear spray bottle with no label identifying the chemical. The rag had plenty of grime that had accumulated in it as well. This was on the "front line" right next to the tubs of ice cream.

The second thing I noticed was the food prep surface against the back wall. There was a stainless mixing bowl filled with a strawberry jam of some sort. It was obvious to me that the product had been sitting there for some time as it had skinned over. It was certainly within the food temperature danger zone.

The third thing I noticed was the entrance to the back room, where they would store additional ingredients and make the ice cream. There was a rack that resembled a bakers rack that was in the doorway of the room. The server had to go back to get some more ingredients for the customer previously mentioned. He had to squeeze past the rack, like there was nowhere to put it. I could not see past it to confirm if the room was in fact cluttered. I would assume that it was, which is a leading indicator that it is not clean.

The fourth thing was when the server was preparing the "mix in" ingredients for the customer in front of me. They chose Reese's, which the server broke up into pieces with ungloved hands. At no point did I see him wash his hands, although I was not watching for it either.

The final issue, and by far the worst was when the server was preparing my order. My daughter is allergic to egg. As I said earlier, we usually visit another store, and many of the ice creams do not contain egg as an ingredient. Some of the ice creams do. I asked for sweet cream ice cream, which the tub did not have enough in it to finish my order. When the server pulled the tub out to replace it, the bottom of the tub was labelled as French Vanilla. French Vanilla is one of the ice creams that have egg as an ingredient.

We are not going to force our child to live under a rock and avoid things that may contain trace amounts of egg or things that are manufactured in a facility that also processes egg. Cold Stone has a legal document "allergen menu" which lists all items that contain egg as an ingredient. They do state in a disclaimer that cross contamination is a liability left up to the customer, which I accepted.

I could not walk away from their store without making my concerns public as some of what I observed could cause severe sickness and even death if...

A tall black guy was unsanitary and rude. He has a smart mouth. I ordered a gotta have it and the amount of toppings was not enough in hindsight sight. I asked him to take the fudge off because it was too Rich he acted like i said something stupid, giggled and repeated it loudly and looked at his co worker asking me how can chocolate be rich. I told him he’d have to google it. He grabbed a brownie with his glove and when i told him im not trying to be a B but he should be using a tong. He told me that he always put on fresh gloves on. I asked, prior to each order? He said yes. He started taking the gloves off then moments later asked is a smart tone, “you didn’t see me put gloves on?” I answered, apparently not. He then walks over to the other slab and dangles the gloves next to his head and jerks his head with an attitude. I told him it doesn’t matter he still needs to use the tongs (thinking, the other worker doesn’t use fresh gloves, she also touches the spades, i doubt he washed his hands before touching the gloves). He goes to the back and tells a female co worker who later comes up and says they will use it for a door dash, (as he was remaking my order) then she goes to the back. After he was done mixing my ice cream he had to grab more ice cream because it was under scooped. Once in the bowl the ice cream was flat and no higher than the rim and he was still about to put the lid on. I had to ask him for more ice cream. He did so and added it unmixed to the top. After leaving i immediately calmly came back a because i remembered he didn’t give me two scoops of pecans and and he didn’t do 2 figure 8’s (for gotta have it). He showed me that it is 1 scoop so i said ok but he didn’t do 2 figure 8’s on the Carmel but I’ll let it go. He says he did. I stated he made a zig zag one across, but I’m letting it go. As I am walking out the door he become confrontational and says, did I just come in here to start a problem? I respond you know why I just came in here, you are the one starting the problem and he should be quiet do his job. I have every right to get what I paid for without people...

I swear, the customer service over the years keeps me out of this business… it must be God trying to help me lose extra weight lbvs.

Sometimes I get weak and come back in for this Oreo overload. I ordered a “gotta have it” (the largest size). And I received 2 Oreos… the same amount of Oreos that come in the smaller 2 sizes. That’s hardly an “overload”. And one of the Oreos she gave me was only a broken half. So I really got 1 and a half Oreos. I asked her for another Oreo and instead of swapping the broken half for a full Oreo, she added another a single Oreo and charged me an extra $1.29 for a mix in. So basically I received an extra half of an Oreo and was charged for a full mix in.

I get to the register and attempt to use my $5 coupon (mind you this comes from being a rewards member) and the girl keeps saying the discounted price will populate and update. She kept telling me to pay, promising the coupon would load. And I did pay… full price. Then after I point out that the coupon in fact did not populate on the final receipt, she proceeds to tell me my coupon wasn’t valid. When I told her to refund it, the manager came and immediately found my coupon and reversed the charge to ring it properly. She said the girl was newer, however, the girl should’ve just said that instead of trying to “lie” me into paying more because you don’t want to ask for help. The manager was polite, professional, and knowledgeable.

My advice: Experience being new and learning vs trying to be perceived as knowing it all without actually knowing it all.

PS: I’m still pissed about that mix-in Oreo situation. And it’s not about the $1.29… it’s the...