Hart & Soul Café — Restaurant in Hickory

I think it is funny that they played on the phrase of "Heart an Soul" considering they showed how heartless they can be when someone was needing help. The Friday before the 4th. My truck got a flat tire after I dropped my sister off at work. It was late around 11pm and I had to pull into their spot because I couldn't steer anywhere else. I tried the best I could to park as far away from the front door because I knew it was the weekend and probably a busy time for them. The truck was getting extremely hard to steer and I didn't want to mess up rim and cost more money. So I leave a shirt hanging out and plan on coming back the next day to fix the tire. I had another spare I thought was the same size. I get home and it wasn't. The bolts wouldn't of lined up so I would t of been able to put that one on. Luckily my sister found a tire Saturday evening but with no rim. Still great cause it was free. See I had a car accident back 2021, my sister got cancer in 2022, and my brother in law was in a really bad car accident in 2023. So bad he lost part of his skull and has to have a plate put in. That's why free is awesome because all of our money we had saved has went to hospital bills over the last 3 years. We get back Sunday evening around 6pm and in less then 48 hours they had our truck towed. Would have been earlier but I didn't want to disturb any customers with an extra vehicle and mechanical work going on in the parking lot. The plan was to take tire off so I could put the new one we lucked into on that rim. Also leaving a appology note explaining how sorry we are and to promise the truck would be gone by 10am if not earlier. Instead we find no truck and disappointment because now we have a tow bill to pay. That would of been fine and understandable if that was the end of it. Monday morning we start calling tow companies in Hickory but no one has our truck. We called them all 3 times just to make sure because we couldn't understand why no one had it. We message " Hart and Soul" on Facebook asking what company they used. No one replys because they are closed on Mondays. So we can't after 2 days of calling. Then we have family stuff to attend for the 4th. It's well over a week and we still can't find the truck and they never responded to us on Facebook. So we plan on calling the cops to tell them are truck got stolen. Knowing they probably wouldn't be able to help because of how long it has been. At almost 2 weeks we got a letter in the mail from a tow company in CLAREMONT!!!! Informing us that they have had our truck this whole time and the bill is over $1,200 which we don't have. Our truck is still in there and everyday the bill goes up because we just can't get enough money saved to pay them. The people at "Hart and Soul" finally responded to our message after almost 3 weeks. Then had the nerve to lie and say our truck was sitting in the parking lot for over 2 days before they had it towed and them not having that one parking spot was keeping customers away. Idk about their food but couldn't imagine it being any good. They didn't care about us so why would they...

Ordered a chicken sandwich no cheese (I’m allergic & said so) it came with cheese. The kind waitress asked if I could just take it off? I said no it was melted into the meat. I asked her to please ask the cooks not to just take it off…. She took it back to the grill & returned in 30 sec. I said if she was back so quickly they just tried to take it off. She said no they had some pre-cooked chicken they used. I put aioli on the chicken breast. Turned it over to add some to the other side. There was melted cheese on the chicken. Sigh. I took it off. Asked the waitress to take it back. The manager was AWFUL!!! She yelled as loud as possible about my allergy. The whole place could hear her. I could not trust them to get me fresh chicken with no cheese so I calmly asked the waitress to please get me a hamburger NO CHEESE. The manager now shouted loudly “well is she allergic to Thousand Island? Is she allergic to onions??” She was hateful and sarcastic. So unprofessional. I calmly told my waitress I could eat hamburger, onions and Thousand Island. I said nothing more because I was having lunch with a grieving friend. BUT this needs to be said. I am immunosuppressed with a dairy allergy. A place serving food should NEVER lie about or hide allergens!! It could kill some people! Me? It makes me have inflammatory symptoms and pain. I could not believe it when I read a review from last week that said the manager was shouting & yelling! Where is the owner & who thinks making fun of food allergies is OK?! Like the other review. There was no effort to say sorry or make it right. For the rest of my meal the manager checked on every other table in the cafe except mine. She never spoke to me. Only shouted by the open grill to make sure I (and everyone) heard her. Food was actually good. But I can’t risk my heath to go...

I am seriously torn...tell people about it...keep it as secret as possible...

The owners are from southwest Florida and present the best the area represents with a melange of unrestrained thinking and great food ideas. The specials are written on a blackboard and change constantly. They have adapted to the local version of the basic breakfast. They include liver mush and country ham but have so much more going for them. Crab and several different types of eggs Benedict, ya'll. Perfect poached eggs, house made Hollandaise. House made sausage, perfect soft scrambled eggs, beautiful omelettes. The occasional Huevos Rancheros, various breakfast enchiladas and burritos, etc. The chef shows a dedication to food hard to match locally at this price point.

The staff are exceptional, the place is homey. It should make all the other locals in the general area nervous. All that used to be good enough to get by isn't anymore. This place is a game changer and I hate to say it. I don't want to lose this place. I can always get a table right now. I am afraid that once word gets out that may no longer be true. But it is necessary to give credit where it is due. I love this place. You should too.

If you haven't noticed, I have only covered breakfast. More to...