Cafe 1912 — Restaurant in Memphis

4 Star for food 0 Star for service 0 Star for this occasion

Sunday October 27, 2013 I met my friend at the best breakfast location in town, Café 1912 right after church. I arrived 11:45 approx. and he came about 20 minutes later via bicycle. Hesitating to park and get towed I called Café 1912 inquiring about their parking. Settled in across the street and came into the restaurant which was about 35% capacity. Plenty of empty seats in the place. The wait staff was busy, so eventually the male waiter came to seat me. I said for two and requested a window seat (there were several), but I was told no window seats, but we do have a table in the back (it was near the grill and traffic of the staff). All the window seats were reserved. I wasn't sure if my friend would be comfortable with the accommodation so I advised the waiter I would wait until my guest arrive. Mind you I have been to Café 1912 now a total of 3 times. I sat out front and waited upon his arrival we went in and wanted to be seated. Same waiter now stated that there are no seats available but in the back, on patio or out front where you were seated. The time now is approx 12:10pm and not one additional soul has come into the restaurant since I arrived. So its the same 35% capacity. Plenty of seats in our face other than the window seats. I ask again to make sure I heard the waiter say there were no seats. Ah!! My guest is Scottish and I am African American when he arrived we greeted each other with a kiss and hug. Was this an in your face racism moment? A bad attitude from waiter? Or the true reflection of someone's personal agenda being directed toward us? LOL, its 2013 all wait staff should be blind to any such thoughts of classism, separatism, racism. It didn't phase me one iota. What the wait didn't realize is that all the patrons that were sitting in the restaurant who witnessed this act were just as applauded. I made sure I looked at the ones who were being served. Even the cooks were noticing how the waiter refused to seat us. We kindly said okay we 'll go someplace else and went to the Keltic Crossing, although I have thoroughly enjoyed Café 1912's food those cooks know how to burn. Even Barksdale's is great. What would you do in this case? How do you think management would respond to a 1930's action in 2013 at his place of business? LOL, money has legs and when service is terrible/refused it simply walks away from the establishment to make the next restaurant owner happy. I think I'll let faith and management deal with this. LOL, life's a bottle of champagne and...

This by far has been one of my most favorite restaurants since it opened, however, I will not go back. It is unfortunate, as the food is always consistently good. I have had two sad experiences lately, where the host (female w/ short hair and glass has been rude and not honest.) Made reservations for two which were earlier than the prime hour for a Saturday evening. We were seated at one of the two top tables in the window which are on top of each other. There were many open four top tables and another two top just in front of the kitchen within the same room. We requested if it were possible to moved to that table and she was very short. She stated that we must have made our reservations through Open Table. (Not sure what that had to do with it.) I told her no, we had called in. She instantly stated that that table was reserved...a two top at the opening to the kitchen...reserved?? Regardless, it was her poor attitude that set a tone and quickly changed this from one of my most favorite places to a place that I will most likely never go back to again. I would swallow this as a bad hair day for her, but this is the second encounter with HER over the same issue and the same poor unaccommodating attitude. The icing here is that the first time this happened, I stayed and had good food, cocktails and dessert only to see that no one was ever seated at that two top table that I had asked if we could be moved to for the couple of hours that we were there. The saddest part of all of this is that I tell everyone that Cafe 1912 is (was) one of my most favorite places in Memphis. I have now told this new story to twice as many people as I have told it was one of my favorites. Sorry that this happened, but have decided that there are too many places to spend $150 to $175 for two, to be treated with such poor attitude from the "face" (first impression) of the person that greets you and generally makes you feel thankful for choosing them instead of dozens of other restaurants...

Spending $250 on dinner for 4 is not including a bottle of rose and 3 drinks should not be this bad.

It all started good until the food started, then it slid off the scale. Stale bread with cheese plate appetizer, unforgiven. Bringing everyone's dinner minutes apart, one at a time, especially mine took a good 5 minutes after while everyone politely stared at theirs getting cold. Shouldn't happen, ever. My rack of lamb was undercooked, a lot of fat which if it was grilled or pan seared properly would have been divine, sadly chewy and gross. My friend had a veggie plate of spinach, mushrooms and collard greens. Mushrooms were chewy and spinach had no taste (he didn't eat either). The other 2 dinners were judge to be good by the ones at our table. I gave service a 3 because we were left with a table full of dishes between appetizers and dinner until they realized it right before food was to come out. There is no way we are the only persons that have had this experience. Very sad because I hoped we had found a fun, eclectic atmosphere place to go to, definitely not for the...