C&C wood fire eats — Restaurant in Key Largo

I visited C & C because I read on their website about the $10 pizza and beer pitcher during happy hour. What's not to like? There's also a $15 with a carafe of wine version. But when arrived, I discovered there's more to the story. I liken their promotion to that of an internet service provider offering high speed internet for $20/mo only to find out any decent plan will cost you at least double when you know all the facts. That's annoying and a little bit of a bait and switch. I asked the bartender what beer options were available, but she didn't single out beers for that promotion. Funny thing is, she did show me which wines were available for the promotion. I said I was there for the promotion but later she said I never said that and that I didn't "ask the right questions". That's kind of your job, though, to explain the promotions, isn't it? I ended up being charged extra for the beer I selected. But this is the inherent problem -- the bartenders & servers don't want you to spend as little as possible and will encourage you to increase your bill. As we've learned the last few years throughout the pandemic, most people don't say anything and merely follow along. Most will not say anything when they receive a bill and get a $5 upcharge for the beer they thought was included in the promotion but I did because that's how I roll. And I try to do so politely, at least at first. But boy did this turn into an ugly argument with the guy next to me feeling the need to impolitely interject into my conversation with the bartender.

This is the deal -- if it's $10 for pizza and beer -- put an asterisk () next to pizza and somewhere write *cheese only, additional toppings extra. If it's only ONE type of beer, use two asterisks () and write somewhere * fizzy yellow boring Lager only. What this does is manage customer expectations and not tick them off when they arrive and feel like they're dealing with a slimy internet service provider and being upcharged for everything.

And your manager sucks. He should have immediately offered to remove the upcharge for the beer rather than the bartender and me bickering back and forth and then allowing another customer to chime in which escalated the situation even further. Again, your employees and customers have opposing goals — you have to keep that in mind and urge staff to be crystal clear when there's a happy hour or special promotion so as to avoid the $hit show this turned into.

And let me be clear, the pitcher was still half full when the bartender huffed and puffed and yanked it and the glass from the bar in front of me because she was so angry. This means I had about two beers at 5.1% ABV while eating 2/3 of the pizza. I'm 5'6" and about 145 lbs so I was not inebriated as any response may attempt to suggest.

By the way, after I was asked to leave, a man approached me at my vehicle who had left behind me. He was sitting at the end of the bar alone while I was inside. He didn't speak English well (but I speak Spanish) and told me "tenias razon" -- "you were right". He also said it was very confusing. He apologized and said they were wrong and they shouldn't have done that. So there, proof positive customers generally don't say anything but grumble to themselves afterwards and may or may not return as a result.

It wasn't a bad deal even with the upcharge, but I'm about principle and being forthright and a promotion where literally 1 out of 100 will be inclined to follow it to the letter is just an annoying ploy to drive business and potentially alienate customers.

Please credit me back the upcharge or I'll ask my credit card...

The service here was some of t he worse I've ever experienced. It was my birthday and I decided to come here because of the high ratings and the food did look good.

First of all, we arrived and were greeted by the hostess who informed us she had a table available, we would just have to wait a moment until the table was cleaned. Another lady approached us and asked if we minded if it was a 4 top with an extra seat. We were fine with it. We stood in the middle of the restaurant awaiting to be seated for about 10 minutes when finally my daughter asked again if the table was available. The hostess seated us without menus at a table in the corner.

We ordered 2 appetizers to start and drinks. After a few minutes the server came back to take dinner orders and we were told that they were out of an ingredient on one of their custom pizzas. We asked if that missing key ingredient, mushrooms on "mushroom truffle" pizza could be replaced with something else. He was firm on his no, so we told him to go ahead and get my kids pizza in and we would find an alternative choice. Several minutes later he brought out my kids pizza, so I questioned if the appetizers were coming out. His reply was, "one is coming out but with all the back and forth, I thought you wanted the one pizza out immediately". NO apologies at all on the misunderstanding. He should have gotten clarification and not acted like it was our fault. I clearly ordered the appetizers before I ordered anything else. The "back and forth" was because they were at fault for not having a key ingredient on one of their pizzas and not making it right by slightly discounting the price of that pizza or offering a replacement ingredient. The server as well as the manager was clearly unapologetic or sympathetic about anything. I had given him a cake we brought in for my birthday to put in the fridge for after, but because of his lack of customer service, we didn't even bother asking for it back and left.

We visit this area often and have friends who live in close proximity, but I'll be sure to advise them not to come here because of their strict ridiculous policies and...

We had really high hopes for our last evening in Key Largo. We had been fortunate to experience some amazing hospitality and were excited to try this place. Unfortunately Miss Manager had other plans for us.

We noticed that almost all the tables were enjoying pizza and pitchers during their popular happy hour. We decided to get some items from the wood grill so we had chicken thighs, artichokes and warmed olives. They were all very good and the aioli that came with the artichokes was incredible.

We ordered the pork belly special and even though it was too charred and tough for our taste, we were happy. Our server was well informed and super friendly. We were about to order another round of cocktails when Miss Manager intervened. She asked about the pork belly, we explained that it was tough but not a big deal. She wasn’t having it. She proceeded to tell us that she inspected our uneaten plate and determined that the pork was perfectly tender “after you bite through the crust”. Umm okay…I have been working in restaurant kitchens for over 30 years and know how pork belly should be but sure, whatever, we don’t want to make a fuss. Miss Manager then proceeded to loudly berate us in front of the entire room saying that basically we don’t know what we’re talking about - the pork belly is amazing!

At this point we just wanted to leave. I have never in my life been dressed down by someone for not enjoying my food. It was extremely embarrassing how she was so extra loud, adamant and wrong. She even came back as we were getting our check from the mortified server to tell us that she informed the chef of our concerns and they had a discussion as to the tenderness of the pork belly. Wow.

The purpose of this review is to shine a light on Miss Manager. I have never been treated like that at a restaurant before and I have been around. Either she is experiencing personal challenges and bringing them to work or she has been trained by her superiors to browbeat people who have food or service complaints. She seemed determined to ensure that we would never return or recommend this place to anyone ever. On that she...