Grounded Coffee Shop — Restaurant in Franconia

EDIT: In summary, they had a frame that hit hot coffee and it fell on me, they didn't seem to care much and accused us of pushing the frame and didn't once ask if we were okay, just rudely asked what it is we want, with no concern. Got a refund and instead of arguing with him, I wrote the review below. They responded and unfortunately for the establishment, they wrote their dishonest response to my review before they knew that I had recorded the interaction with the manager because I believed he would lie. I was right. (It is posted on NextDoor)

If they had responded apologetically, I would have either deleted my review or amended it to thank them for a kind response. Instead, they lied.

The HOT coffee could have easily spilled on my mother or another elderly person, and the fact that they responded by lying lets me know that they are okay with treating people that way. So, my review stands. Maybe people will be more cautious now.

RESPONSE TO OWNER: -In the audio provided, the manager accuses me of pushing the frame and having it fall. Here you say it requires blunt force to make it fall. Which is it? -In the audio provided, you can hear that I did not rudely demand to speak to a manager, and I did not ask Amandine for anything. I was speaking to a male barista. The person who brought me the packet was also a male. This is all a lie. -In the audio provided, I asked a male to bring the manager, and he brought the manager. This is a lie. -In the audio provided, the manager continuously interrupted me as I tried to talk to him. He did not mention 911. I did ask for a refund and received it, as I said in my original post. This is a lie. Lastly, I am not sure what you being a Latino woman has to do with anything. ORIGINAL REVIEW: Ordered a hot coffee and an iced coffee and a couple of pastries. Asked where the sugar was and we were pointed to it. Didn't even get to start putting our sugar on and BAM, a big heavy frame falls and tosses the HOT black coffee all over my left leg and on my mother's clothes. The pain on my leg but especially my (bare) foot was excruciating. The nice customers sitting at a table asked if I was okay and helped me sit down. I appreciate them. As for the establishment: An employee brought me a packet of burn cream. I asked for some paper towels as the hot coffee had gone into my shoes and everything. The person who came to clean the floor handed it to me. That was the extent of concern for anything that happened.

I went back to the counter and of course asked if there was a manager I could talk to. The conversation went as follows: (verbatim from the recording) Him: Hi, how are you? Me: Hi, we were just putting sugar in our coffee over there, and there was some picture or something that fell and splashed hot coffee all over me. Him: Uh-huh. So, what, you just pushed the frame and it fell over? My mum: We didn't push the frame. We... Him (interrupting): I'm just asking, you know. Me: We were... Him: (interrupting): What would you like me to do? Then he keeps interrupting with a snarky attitude as my mum is trying to talk. He says, "what do you need, tell me. How can I help you?" I say, "Well first, we would like a refund, I just thought that a manager would like to know that there was an incident... Him: (interrupting me) Yeah, yeah, thanks, no problem.

There was zero concern about the hot coffee on my foot, an accusation that we pushed the frame over, interrupting us as we tried to talk to him, completely politely with no raised voice, and a dismissal.

The callous and accusatory attitude, as if we inconvenienced him by getting injured and having our clothes destroyed based on his own establishments negligence, was absolutely ridiculous.

(For the record, this is not about the employees. They don't have to care. I expect a...

This is my first time at this coffee shop; I really only went because I was waiting for a friend, but it had good reviews, and who doesn't like pastry? Next time I'll wait in my car.

TLDR: It was dirty, the staff need better training, the food/drink was low quality, and the prices are OUTRAGEOUS.

The ordering/ receiving line is confusing. There's one area in front of the counter to order, but three to pick up what you ordered, so people are confused as to who's in line. They don't take your name or give you a number, they just shout out the order and expect patrons to figure it out. There's even a sign telling patrons to make sure they pick up the right order.

The cashier was friendly, but a bit clueless. I asked him what was in the completely unlabeled bear-shaped bottles in the drinks cooler, and he told me he thinks it's lemonade, but he has no idea what company. (Red flag on the product, btw.) He also handed me the wrong pastry, but was polite when I asked for the correct one. He spent some time catching up with his friend/ a regular, which is fine, but they were pretty loud. Later on, instead of cleaning anything, he was leaning on the table behind the counter playing on his phone.

Speaking of clean, every table I saw had crumbs, liquid, or both on them. The chairs and floors were equally neglected. The windows were filthy with finger prints on the inside and bird droppings on the outside. Some of this can't be helped, especially during service, but the staff seemed to have no interest in even trying.

As far as the food, WAY overpriced, especially for the "quality". The "smoothies" are slushies made of Sysco fruit syrup, and $6.50 each. There's no blended fruit. The six ounces of "french onion soup" was $12, and (because I got it to go, maybe?) didn't come with cheese... fine... but not as advertised, and definitely not worth TWELVE dollars. Also tasted odd, like someone poured in too much cooking sherry. I only had a few sips before determining my health wasn't worth the risk. The lemon tart was alright. Not worth whatever I paid for it, but I'm less angry about it than the other two items.

Supposedly the owner was going to refund the slushie, but I never got a receipt or anything in writing to show for it.

Oh, and that regular/ friend? He spent the entire time I was there (over an hour) loudly clearing his mucous-laden throat every minute or so. I finally had enough being startled and gagging, so I left. Clearly the staff didn't cause it, but the cashier could have told his buddy that he's disturbing people.

Judgement: Extremely disappointed. Do...

I really wanted to love this place based on the raving reviews and perfect atmosphere. Unfortunately, my experience was...mixed.

I called ahead before coming this morning to see if they had grilled cheese on the menu for my toddler. I was told it wasn't a problem at all and they could make that. For reference, various sandwiches are on the menu, many including cheese.

We arrived and I ordered a grilled cheese, a large iced mocha, and a bagel with lox. I requested no onion or tomato on the bagel. My son also got a juice box and a babybel cheese. They rung up the grilled cheese as a breakfast sandwich and wrote in "grilled cheese" in pen. The order was repeated correctly back to me and we paid.

It was almost $40 with a tip, incredibly expensive. We got it to-go. When we opened the food, the grilled cheese had eggs, and the bagel with lox had onions and almost no cream cheese. Some parts of the bagel had no cream cheese at all. The salmon was also very dry on the edges. I ended up taking a few bites and throwing it away.

The iced mocha was okay but separated quickly; the chocolate was not mixed in very well. I only drank half of it. The first sip was delicious though.

I expected them to at least get the order right, especially for the price. We ate for less money at First Watch yesterday, a sit-down restaurant, and had full meals.

I think I would give the coffee another try, and pastries looked good, but I would skip the hot and/or...