European Street Cafe — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I have worked at this location for the last 9 months. I loved it originally. I come in everyday early, I accomplish all of the daily detail and sidework cleaning tasks everyday before my support coworker arrives, I help coworkers with their tasks, I am polite and friendly and work very hard. My regular customers value their time with me and compliment me for doing a stellar job at my position, one I have 25 years experience doing. Most of my coworkers like me and I am constantly helping someone. I live to serve. However, recently one of the managers accused me of drinking on the job, which I did not do. I can see how they were perhaps jealous of my extensive knowledge of alcoholic beverages, given I've been collecting it for over 2 decades, but this person reported a lie instead of choosing to speak to me and work out whatever differences we may have had. Which we can all agree was very ugly of them to do.

So immediately following this incident the owner called me and I played along because I love working at the deli. I promised him there was nothing to worry about and I would never compromise a job I loved, and he opted not to fire me but subsequently removed the one boon of my job that makes all the extra hard work I provide worth it. I didn't deserve to be punished for something I did not do, correct? I forgot about this supposed 'condition' last night after a particularly hard few days at home and work, and now have been fired for it. Allow me to make something clear. I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE BEEN INTOXICATED AT MY JOB NOR HAVE I EVER STOLEN OR TRIED TO MANIPULATE MY COWORKERS IN ANY WAY. I LIVE BY THE GOLDEN RULE AND I WOULD NEVER DO TO ANYONE WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO ME AT THIS JOB. Unfortunately, however, there ARE employees whom break rules and steal and lie and do drugs on the property. It's not everyone, and I will not name anyone because I am not a snitch like those I worked with, but I have personally seen one manager go into the bathroom to do cocaine several times, I have witnessed multiple coworkers across the restaurant smoking weed on the property and vaping in the kitchen. I have seen coworkers come in right before clocking in to have a beer, and start drinking their shift beer hours before they are off. I have witnessed multiple people take food without paying, and steal glasses and salt and pepper among other things. I have seen coworkers leave the property while on the clock to walk to the store for whatever reason. I have heard them gossip about people who did nothing wrong, and I have seen someone steal right out of a customer's purse while she was in the bathroom. Others are late on a tri-weekly basis. That is to say three times a week. I have never in my life done any of these things. That statement I put against my family's grave when it comes to integrity, and in the last few years i have lost several family members to the grave. I do not say it lightly. I try to keep my nose to the grindstone and do my job and be kind to people and make sure that those I care for are taken care of, but this place and working there has shown me that no matter what I do or who I am, the service industry is morally bankrupt, as is this establishment and their employees. I wish them well, but if i am being honest with myself, they don't deserve it. Andrew Zarka, you have made a grave error by allowing office politics to deprive your restaurant of someone like me. Someone who always does a good job, helps others, is reliable, and never complains. Good luck with all of your cocaine addicts and drunks and thieves. I hope it works out. To those of you who may recognize that I served you and yours at the park street location, I hope you see this and start choosing to go to places that don't turn a blind eye to criminality and that don't destroy their coworkers for no reason and no gain. I know I will be missed, and I wish you all the best. Please take care and come find me at my next place of employment, where I will continue to give outstanding service with a smile and a kind word to...

Writing a review on my spam account for privacy reasons! I have gone to this location w/o my aid before a few times throughout the years. I don’t go here often and I see why. Lately I’ve been needing my mobility aid to get around. It was difficult to get in and out the door, it was heavy. No one could get around me when having to pay for my food. Had my mom go up to the counter and pay and put myself in a corner so people could walk to the bathroom/ candy store area. The music kept turning off and on. It was busy so I tried being patient but my mom ended up getting us menus. Multiple times trying to get any staff members attention. I tried ordering my food and a waitress left to go help another table before I could finish ordering. We were ignored and I was debating on leaving but then our food finally arrived. She took my plate away, specifically the one I was using to put any weird textured food into. I ended up not eating half my meal from feeling rushed and the food being weirdly textured. What we ordered: a Ruben, half sandwich & salad, carrot cake, and 3 rock candy sticks Totaled to almost $50 Will definitely not be coming back. Oh about parking too I had to get out of car and take out my mobility aid before my mom could park. Overall my mom and I had a great time catching up because we haven’t seen / talked in a minute. Next time we definitely will find someplace different though. People who sat down after we got there got served before us. Low key mad because another disabled person using the same mobility aid I do was taken care of as soon as that group sat down. The difference is a white 70+ y/o man vs a queer 20 y/o. It’s annoying and I wouldn’t have written a review but fellow disabled people need to know it’s not easy to navigate this place. Bonus points for having soap in the bathroom...

Filter to lowest reviews for back up... Terrible customer service.. one rude waitress here complaining that "I'm all over the place." Maybe it seems that way because its a small space. I wandered in on an online recommendation and I wanted to have a german bottled beer outside ($4.20). I looked around inside a bit looking at beer at their shop. Went outside to move my car to a closer spot and came back in. I bought a beer from the register and went outside to have a seat and I moved to a shared a table. They seemed to have an issue with that. Why? I'm not sure. I had an animal in the car and wanted to watch it due to it being unlocked with the air conditioning on. I read they had 200 beers and a good happy hour, but when I was given a beer menu, I saw there were are no flights, sizes, prices listed, nor advertise their happy hour. It also doesn't differentiate between draft or bottled. They have a small market inside by the register where you pay. They sell warm bottled beer and sweets. There is a substantial refrigerated case with beer, but nor 200, that is not self-serve, but you can buy and take with. The 1/4lb cookies looked good as well as other cakes and cheesecakes. Made at local bakery and brought in from outside. Overall the experience was less than exceptional and I decided not to order food because I wasn't hungry and came for the beer, but the one rude waitress seemed to have an issue with me even being there. The 1 single slider served as a lunch entree was tiny for a full meal as I saw food served at my table but decided not to stay to try it. They were...