Latitude 42° Brewing Company Kalamazoo (Oshtemo) — Restaurant in Oshtemo Charter Township

First, before ANYTHING else, I'd prefer to address a particular aspect of our visit. Being deeply educated/experienced in business/management/supervision, I was surprised by the manager that interacted with us! Witnessing them among others as well, they seemed insistent on being purely unprofessional. At least it was good to know, it was not only towards us. Our families have restaurants and the human which we encountered at Lat 42, was THE key reason I'd not return. She lacks in interpersonal skills, to address the patrons properly. Those of us who support the business and bring in necessary resources, she seemed content on attempting to abuse her position. Viewing/hearing her throughout the location, it was apparent that she sought to excise tyranny over anything else, as well. Over 20 years military, and where I've been requested personally to lead missions/operations/events, it was embarrassing to see her lack the capabilities in dealing with the GP...let alone her staff. Her inferred "abilities" are limited above shouting out orders and demands, as a brand representative. Even in an obvious atmosphere such as the military, I too could have ordered people without other considerations to THE PERSON, while supervising hundreds of professionals! But, I would never, where better options were at my fingertips. Disallowing ANY input from those who were part of our teams, was an obvious fracture to the success of unity. I would have never accepted interest from those I served as a leader, to seek my interaction if I lacked in the human side. Higher authority would have avoided me like a plague throughout the military, if I would have resorted to her lack of tools. Grateful I was educated better, and opened to humanity. Her power hungry intent, was deliriously poison to the atmosphere. It was hard to endure. From the moment we arrived, until the time we left, it was heavy in the air. Very disheartening. The food was more like a chain. Very little seemed prepared, and appeared more like it was pumped out. Basic foods, dressed in minimal fanfare, to give an appearance of quality. Improperly cooked for two of our meals, with minimal flavors on half of them. Thankfully, the staff was the highlight. With many polite and interactive folks who seemed interested to our visit. Their duties were above the standard fair of service, for related business. For them, I am thankful. The rest was more futile. To a casual experience, that could have presented better products, it was more ho hum than anything. Tho, I think the brand could offer more. Two thumbs down unfortunately. More concern should have been toward food, and less negativity to customers. At least the staff apologized for both of the negatives, of the 3 details that were discussed. Kudos to their efforts. We understand what you are dealing with. Hopefully staff will get a better leader, allowing them a better atmosphere to serve the clients supporting...

I needed a place to take my dad for his birthday and wanted it to be rather nice. So, Latitude it was then. I'd been going to Latitude since they opened on Portage many years ago and it's a pretty solid choice. A little must have been off today, as everything was good, but not quite.

First off, the service is always stellar and today was no exception. The coffee was fantastic (so is the beer, but wasn't feeling a noon beer today, so no beer for me).

I had a half of their Caesar which was good, could have used a tad more dressing, and the red peppers were an interesting, albeit not completely bad surprise. The size for the price wasn't bad either.

The Fig Jammin burger was pretty ok, although not much fig and the garlic sauce in the plastic cup (for the fig burger?) was a little different given their typically great plating. It didn't quite jive with the fig theme of the burger. The chips were a tad..."done" and maybe too done? "Burnt-ish" is the best way to describe them. Kinda meh. Very "meh."

Biggest disappointment was my father's Bleu Cheese burger which had no Bleu cheese. They were out. Not the waitresses fault, it was the kitchen, but given the inordinate of time we waited for them, they, in that time, could have come out (they were not busy for Latitude 42 standards) and explained that they were out of Bleu cheese. It was going to be 15 minutes for the kitchen to make more. (This was for the salad as well)

So, yeah kinda disappointed with that whole scenario. Mainly, the lack of communication BEFORE the meal arrived.

The onion ring appetizer was good and the size very good for the price, given the price for everything anymore, so good job there.

The outside landscaping needs attention and there is zero reason you cannot jack up that piece of concrete sidewalk instead of putting caution tape.

I want to say the greatest, most amazing things about Latitude 42 because I've loved them for years, but it's little things that count.

Will I go...

We finally made it out to the new location (we are big fans of the Portage location) and we were very disappointed. To begin, our server “didn’t know” we were seated for more than 10 minutes. Other servers walked by but didn’t seem to pay any notice to the fact that we had no drinks at our table and we were trying to make eye contact with a staff member to get service. I finally went up to the host stand to ask for a server. I sampled a beer and then ordered the one I sampled, but she gave me some other beer. She said she ordered me the wrong one, and grabbed me the correct one (I was later charged for that and we had to get it taken off). We received our food in a timely matter and it all came out great (other than the raw bacon on a burger, which was fixed). My husband and I split a pizza, but realized it wouldn’t be enough, so we ordered a side of fries. 40 minutes later (table was cleared and we had asked for our bills) the fries still hadn’t come out. At this point we flagged someone down and asked that they cancel our order (and we still needed our bills). The manager (Julie) came out and inquired about the fries. We said it had been now close to 50 minutes and her only response was that the kitchen was “busy”. We were not impressed with her tableside manner, she really didn’t seem like she cared at all. This entire experience we felt as if we were a burden or an inconvience to the waitstaff and manager. I would like to add that Cassidy at the host stand was a delight! She greeted us with a smile and was happy to help when we had to go up for assistance. We still like Latitude 42, but we will not be returning to this location. Any establishment that cannot get a basket of fries out within a 45 minute window is not a place I want to dine at (or waste my...