The Parlour Restaurant & Creamery — Restaurant in Jackson

I emailed the following information to the owner and nicely pointed out the positives and my feelings of hope and encouragement regarding what he's trying to do since purchasing the business. I grew up in the 60's and 70's in Jackson and have very fond memories of this establishment. I truly want it to succeed. I've seen it go from great to bad and good to horrible. I've been following his posts on social media and have been nothing but supportive of his efforts. I initially chose to email him privately because as a person who also has a private business and having also worked as a professional in the public sector for decades, I wanted to reach out and express some concerns I had regarding a recent visit on 7/3/25. There were five of us. Our waitress, I told him, was phenomenal. She was attentive and apologetic and we did tip her generously despite some of the issues we encountered. I also mentioned that the new menu was enticing and appeared to have many appealing options. In my email, I carefully composed the wording as I did not want to be offensive. I pointed out the facts. I saw him working that night. We arrived shortly before 6:00 pm and there were only a couple tables/booths filled with people. A couple people sat on the stools around the bar area so we were happy to see it wasn't overly busy or crowded. We were there an hour and a half. I mentioned what each of us had ordered and that three of the five orders came out within 15 minutes. One order was the coney burger which was described as having mustard, onions and coney sauce. The dry burgers had a tablespoon of mustard, the same amount of diced onion and no sauce. Only a tablespoon of ground beef heart under the top patty. No seasoning in the meat or on the homemade chips. My burger was the same way. No seasoning and lacking flavor. My chips were also dry with no salt or seasoning. The egg on my burger was dry and unseasoned. It took another 1/2 hour for the other 2 orders to arrive (again, the waitress was very apologetic). They were both breakfasts (corned beef hash plate and stuffed omelet). Not sure why breakfast took so much longer than two burgers? I also mentioned ice cream listed on the menu we requested were not carried by the restaurant per our waitress. We each paid over 20.00 each and four of the meals presented issue (the corned beef hash platter just had a small scoop of hash and the omelet was missing gravy). I tried to explain I was letting him know to be constructive as I wanted to see his business succeed. His response was immature and unprofessional. He said: "I guess we can't make everyone happy all the time. It's a holiday weekend, and hard to get employees to work. Would you like a job cooking since you know so much? I'm tired of "constructive" criticism from people who have never run a business. I doubt I'll go out of business if you never return. I'm making the Parlour great again, and that's my focus. Bye." Thus, I am now publicizing my review. Sad to see this type of response from someone that services community. As a business owner I strive to work with my clients and treat them with respect. Given his response, I'm saddened to see his lack of regard to customers that express their support but wanted to share...

The Parlor was very clean and bright. Our waitress, Amanda was friendly, knowledgeable about the HUGE menu and checked in on us throughout our stay at The Parlor. We ordered coney dogs and ice cream, of course!! The coneys were GREAT!!! ACTUALLY, the FOOD and Amanda's service was 5 STARS!! The buns were soft and FRESH!! The hot dogs were grilled and stuffed in the buns with a generous portion of coney meat on top and onions garnishing the top. After our coneys we had ice cream. Hubby got a Turtle Sundae. I ordered a Hudsonville Strawberry Cheesecake "MALT" with more strawberries added. Again, I said ".MALT", and Amanda, our server repeated our order back to us, saying, one turtle sundae and one strawberry cheesecake MALTED with extra strawberries. Hubby got his Turtle Sundae and it was HUGE and correct. I got my MALTED about 7-10 minutes later. My order WAS NOT CORRECT!! The ice cream worker DID NOT add the 3 scoops of MALT as advertised in their menu!! I asked our server to ask him if he had made me a MALED or a SHAKE? He stated he added the MALT for a MALTED. FUNNY, MALT has a VERY DISTINCTIVE FLAVOR. There was NO INDICATION of ANY MALT FLAVORING being added to my ice cream, NONE!!! The ONLY thing I saw him add was MILK, NO MALT!! I think there NEEDS to be MORE TRAINING with the people who work the ice cream line!!! This was very DISAPPOINTING!! He was asked if he added the MALT and he LIED and said he did, LIED, LIED, LIED!!! HEY, KID ( MR. BUNN MAN) YOU ARE NOT A VERY.GOOD LIER!!! OWN up to your mistakes, do NOT lie to a customer. I personally, have worked in the food industry for over 26 years. I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!! Had YOU BEEN HONEST, the mistake COULD have been easily FORGIVEN, BUT YOU DECIDED TO LIE. SHAME ON YOU!! THANK YOU for the GREAT CONEY'S and the GREAT SERVICE from our waitress, AMANDA, who made our stay enjoyable. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, KEEP A WATCHFUL eye on your ICE CREAM order. MAKE SURE it is CREATED CORRECTLY as YOU ORDERED it!!!

Hey, "OWNER",

NUMBER 1. Unfortunately YOU had left!! YOU WERE NO WHERE TO BE SEEN or found. Had you been there, I would have discussed this SITUATION with you IN PERSON. PERHAPS,WE could HAVE DISCUSSED what I DID SEE & WHAT BUN MAN ACTUALLY DID NOT MAKE CORRECTLY. BUT NO!! Instead of attacking YOUR "POSSIBLE" FUTURE CUSTOMERS, SIMPLY CONSIDER SAYUNG something like, "I AM SORRY YOUR VISIT ended in DISSAPOINTMENT". Your inmature ranting is NOT VERY PROFFESSIOAL. LOOK AT THE MATTER PROFESSIONALLY and consider actually looking at the situation and saying, "I will keep a close eye on it". MORE TRAINING NEVER HURTS ANY BUSINESS!!!

NUMBER 2. We liked YOUR food & our servicer. AMANDA, was well mannered, professional and friendly.

NUMBER 3. There's a LOT MORE I COIULD SAY, BUT I WON'T!!! I'LL BE THE BETTER MAN/PERSON AND END...

We went here for Mother's Day & birthday for ice cream. There were 6 of us. It took a long time to place our order even though it wasn't very busy. The service was just about the worst I've had in my lifetime. It was sloooww. My husband and I ordered a banana split to share. We were told that it came with fresh strawberries (and had seen the table next to ours get theirs with strawberries). Ours had no strawberries, fresh or otherwise. In fact, it had no banana or whip cream, either!! When I pointed this out to our server, he said they are "out of whip cream". Instead of apologizing about anything, he told us there is a banana at the bottom. I said, "Well, I couldn't find it." He started digging in the bowl for it (who does this?), but I don't think he ever found it. They had also put gobs of peanut butter (yes, actual peanut butter not syrup) on top (who does this?) & marshmallow cream on it, which I didn't want in the first place. (I told the waiter when I ordered, but he was in a hurry & not listening at all.) I declined a replacement and told him it was "gross". Still no apology! Our friends ordered turtle sundaes. They arrived with no caramel!! On top of everything else that had gone wrong, the items were served in the wrong dishes (i.e., hot fudge sundae in a banana split dish, turtle sundae in a regular bowl) which isn't a big deal except the portions seemed wrong as a result. Speaking of portions, they were small! People had told me they were huge back in the day. Probaby the worse part, was that each person in our party received their orders separately. One person was done eating their sundae by the time anyone else got their order. Thereafter, each person was served 5 minutes apart. When my friend complained to the owner/manager, she was told that 4 people called in sick due to Mother's Day. Well, thanks for making our special day a bit less enjoyable & not once apologizing for what turned out to be a disaster! P.S. I used to wait tables & am normally patient as a result, but...