European Cafe — Restaurant in Montgomery

Im sure this is a great place to eat if you’re white.

Me (white, tattooed) my husband (Black) and son (biracial) quickly realized that we were not welcome in this establishment.

After finding the owner (pixie prissy) on social media, I see why. You can look for yourself.

At 12:20p on a Sunday afternoon, we were quickly told at the door, before even getting all the way in, “we close at 1.”

My husband and I have both worked in customer service before and we know what this means, “hurry up, we all want to go home soon.”

We asked the man seating us if we could order at the counter, and just sit outside at a table as to be more efficient and considerate of their closing time.

He agreed, told us to wait as he wiped down a table outside. We ordered at the counter, a couple croissants and coffees, and sat outside at a table.

The owner gave us about five minutes before she came out and condescendingly shamed us, loudly, in front of other customers for eating to-go food outside, from bags.

She said, and I quote “this isn’t the way we roll here” before offering up some baby talk to our son about how we were welcome to come back another time, and do things “the right way.”

If she wanted to be welcoming, she could’ve BROUGHT US PLATES. I realize now that she didn’t want us to feel welcome, she wanted us to leave because we were sitting outside, and as a biracial family that doesn’t look like the Montgomery type, maybe we would make the restaurant look bad, or draw in others that look like us.

We bagged up our items, moved about 100 feet away to sit at a public bench to finish up. The owner saw us sitting at the bench; you would think she would have welcomed us back, sought to clarify any misunderstandings… but no, they just sat an older white couple at the table we vacated and went on with their day.

Looking at other reviews, it is very clear the type of customer that the owner is interested in; the defensiveness and lack of accountability in her responses, speak volumes. I would recommend that the owner look up implicit bias, and look inward.

This day and age it’s not a compliment if your establishment is purely homogenous.

EDITING TO ADD MY RESPONSE.

Ah yes, continuing the pattern of placing the blame on the customer when they complain instead of looking inward, reflecting and taking accountability. We did not forge our way to a table. It was bussed for us; the waiter intentionally sat us there. To make it seem like we were acting out or something is just wild and shows your true colors. There are patterns in these negative reviews.

Montgomery Ohio is over 85% white and has an average household income considerably larger than the rest of the area. It is laughable that anybody would characterize this area as culturally diverse when it is the furthest thing from it and that is proven by data. How many people of color have you interviewed or hired to work at your establishment in the past five years considering you say it is a very culturally diverse area?

The facts of the situation or this: you quickly told us you were closing in 40 minutes before even greeting us. The waiter seated us at a table and cleaned it off specifically for us. We told him our intention was to make their load easier and to just order at the counter and sit outside. We were loudly, shamed and embarrassed in front of other customers into leaving. All because our food was in a bag! How ridiculous is that?!

Take accountability, or at the very least a class on business ownership and leadership.

And I’ll say it one more time - if you wanted us to feel welcome, and the intent was not to shame us into leaving you could have brought us...

I will never know if the food is good or not due to the poor service exhibited by the owner (or manager?) - I'm not sure what role he played in the restaurant since at no point did he explain himself or who he was when he approached me. However, how he handled a non-existent situation between a fantastic new employee and my family was uncalled for. I arrived to the restaurant 15 minutes prior to closing fully understanding that my family and I would not be able to dine-in. I was told immediately by the women on staff at the restaurant that the restaurant closes at 3 PM, which I was aware of. I was also told that the grill is shut down early so I won't be able to order anything that needs to be grilled. Of course, I appreciated having that information as I was looking through the menu. I ordered a cinnamon bun, cranberry pecan salad, and butter croissant. The women behind the counter made sure that there were croissants available, which was also helpful. And I asked if we could possibly still sit outside even though the restaurant was closing, to which they said yes. I cannot reiterate enough how helpful the women in the kitchen and out front were. I pulled out my credit card and proceeded to pay for my family's meal.

The man in question was sitting at a table in the restaurant. Until he approached me, I believed he was a customer. As I was paying for my order, he stepped right next to me uncomfortably to "explain" and "clarify" the questions that his staff had already answered. I wasn't sure who he was since he did not introduce himself and I felt unwelcomed and attacked for simply ordering food. I asked the women if I was being "rude" or disrespectful, especially since it wasn't my intent and I had just walked to the cafe from my home, which is about 5 minutes away. I was out of breath. They confidently said no.

He was patronizing and condescending to his cashier, who had been an amazing help, by saying she was 'new' and 'didn't know'. To be clear, any question I asked that she didn't have an answer to, she asked someone who did. She did her job exceptionally well and is appreciated.

I canceled my order and walked out. I've never felt more uncomfortable at an establishment in my life. Neither my niece, the staff, nor I...

The only issue we had with the place: we were leaving the next day and wanted to get more baked goods to bring back to the west coast and they were CLOSED FOR REPAIRS. We were soooo ticked, but if you live there, consider yourself lucky. Note: this is NOT like some pancake house with a million sugar-packed waffles to choose from. This is LITERALLY like what you see in Europe. For that, it is perfect.

Like a small place in London, very well lit, private and communal tables, limited but exquisite menu. First, the Belgian waffles... holy cow, they use pearl sugar that caramelizes in them just like in Belgium. I've never seen that in the States before (or maybe I need to go to NYC more). The almond croissants: perfect. Imagine the best baked croissants you can get at Whole foods, cut in half and then sandwiched in is the best homemade almond paste so that every bite is awesome almondy goodness. The breads... oy. The sandwich breads are awesome. I had a short rib cheese thing that was good, but the bread made it. Egg dishes were good, the menu is simple but everything is solid and well done. Took home some English muffins and coffee cinnamon cake that were outstanding. This is a hidden gem, just make sure your expectations are for a European style cafe and not The...