The Southern Grind Coffee House at the WHARF — Restaurant in Orange Beach

Question: is the word 'southern' referencing the coffee only or the food as well? Because for a restaurant that has 'Southern' in its name, this feels like a northerner's/non-southerner's unapologetic appropriation of southern cuisine!

I wish I'd either looked at pictures online beforehand or at least more closely at each of the surprisingly still full plates of food from other diners that had recently left. The best thing I had was a bite of bacon from my son's plate. The biscuits (questionable) and gravy (has to be from a just add water packet) tasted how it looked. Blech! Not to mention the unevenly cooked/nuked side of sausage patties which I'd guess is straight from a Cisco foods box!

Again, the disrespect being attached to 'southern' is very disappointing here. Not to mention, we also had two different flavors of seasonal latte's (cinnamon maple creme brulee & brown butter toffee. Neither tasted like what they were described as, nor anything distinct at all. Not sure if that's attributed more to the coffee or the sweeteners used. The Rouses Market brand Praline Pecan K-cup + a splash of Trader Joe's brand brown sugar oat creamer I had a couple hours prior was far more enjoyable.

Service is fine and I counted the food as nutrients/fuel for the day. Not much else to say here.

Note: As southerner (Georgia) my review is based solely upon my own experience. Plenty reviews and opinions will differ from this one. I'm not here to invalidate those, as they shouldn't invalidate this review either.

Edit: Of 600 reviews, most of which love this place, the owner decides to respond to me with a not-so-classy remark. I'm far from the only review holding opinions regarding the subpar coffee taste, coffee drink ratios and/or food quality. If they're satisfied and content with not hearing the voices of their customers with no desire to become even better, more...

Great gelato, terrible customer service! I’ve been here a few times and they were generally nice. However tonight we came in about 5:55 to get the best Cookie Monster gelato we’ve ever had. First, we were never greeted. We walked around the store for a few minutes looking at all the pretty things and when we approached the gelato station at 6 o clock on the dot they were taking the gelato out of the window. Instead of saying anything at all they continued to ignore us. My friend finally asked, are y’all closed? Which they replied “the kitchen is.” I asked if we could just order gelato and she said only the ones that are sitting on the counter behind her, which were 2 or 3 random flavors. Shocked by the rude behavior and unwillingness to help, we left. We went back about 5 minutes later to ask why on Friday we could get gelato 20 minutes before closing but on Sunday it’s picked up an hour before closing and were told cleaning the gelato station is time consuming so they pick it up at 6. One girl then offered to give us some gelato if we know what flavor we want. I requested 4 scoops of Cookie Monster and received roughly about 2-3 scoops because the other girl who scooped it was so angry that we came back to enjoy some ice cream before a three hour car ride. This was supposed to be the cherry on top of our little weekend getaway during a hard time in life and turned into a super upsetting experience. I never really write negative reviews but I have worked in the service industry for about 5 years now, and I want the owner to see and hopefully understand and express to their team how important customer interactions and experiences are for the success and longevity of a business, and such a cute business at that. I will be back however hoping for a better...

Update: changing my review to 4/5 stars as the owner was very responsive and refunded me my whole order, which I really didn’t expect. He was very apologetic and did address the situation with the barista. Some owners will say they are addressing but it’s obvious they have no intentions to do so, but Dan made it very clear it was addressed and the barista extended her apologies

My biscuit was great (would have been better if it hadn’t been cold) and so was my drink but the red head barista is rude. My girls ordered caramel Frappuccino’s and I was still at the counter paying when the cashier told the barista she had 4 fraps to make. She gave this cashier a look like, “are you serious?” She put out the 4 fraps, but not my iced latte. After a few minutes went by, I asked her about the other drink in my order and she said, “yeah, I just wanted to put the Frappuccinos out because they melt and get watered down and then you would want me to make them again” and turned away from me as she was still talking. I said no problem and continued to wait. After a good 10 minutes they are still knocking out other orders and calling names but mine never got called. I saw a drink HIDING behind a sign on the tall counter and they would just look at it and move on. Never called my name, the sticker wasn’t facing the front so I could easily see it, and it was definitely being hidden and this felt very intentional as if she was irritated that I said anything. Very frustrating as my sandwich got cold and I didn’t get to enjoy my drink with the 4 girls I brought with me. Manners is something you should teach to your staff and I won’t be back. Only giving 2 stars because the drink was good and the atmosphere is cute. At this point, I wish I hadn’t tipped 20% on...