Grand Central Bakery - Hawthorne cafe — Restaurant in Portland

Customer is an inconvenience. Once went to this place weekly, when they baked in house. Life and another job has prevented me from lunching there. Once upon a time if they tagged an item with a price that was the price, no longer. Female register person rung me up, I noted the price difference. (6) roles at .60 she charged me (6) roles at .65. she says, "it's" just a nickel!" sadly it is MY nickel and basic math would note it is .30 given the number. Flippant and dismissive. even tried to con me by noting that I get a role with my soup so she would only charge me for the (6) that I was ordering. Intimating she is giving me a deal when in fact she is over charging me and giving me what I ordered. POOR customer service. so she goes for the soup and it take a bit (nothing wrong with that and frankly I have no issue with the short wait) she returns with the soup and goes for the rolls. So while she is attempting to use tongs to place the (6) rolls into a bag she drops (1) and says, "thats how I feed my dog, i just keep dropping them al day". So she had to literally nickel and dime me but deliberately drops things on the ground to steal later for her personal use. Customer Service fail. Big enough that I tried to reach the manager via phone after I left, no answer and no return call as of this moment an hour later. The value of the food is standard for our new age hipster portland. the service SUCKED!!!!!! I guess this too is the new hipster Portland, sadly most these folks are not even from Portland. So another Portland icon slipping into the same hole as the rest. another sad sight in the city that once amazed me for the friendliness and service found even at a bakery. I shall take this place off my list. frankly they don't even bake there anyway so what am I really missing. I can get the same thing at a local baker that is actually baking at the location. I suggest, go to New Seasons (they don't bake insight either) or find a local baker. Support a company that cares about you as a customer. that honors the advertised prices they put out. that employed reasonable people. that has a standard of conduct that does not include theft (as she noted how she feeds her dog on all the bread she drops). Let this place die a lonely death. I guarantee as soon as they are gone another big building can be put in with some generic businesses just like the rest of the city. I will show up when they move to eat popcorn and watch the city slide further into the transformation to a place no one likes to live. You know like LA, Chicago, New York. where a lot of these folks are moving from. They want this place to suck just as much as the place they left. or you might pick the Portlander that has decided apathy is key to living miserably. they do nothing but piss and moan, rather like I am doing here. big difference I won't keep going...

As an African American man, I personally don't like to shop at places where I feel discriminated against. After today, Grand Central Bakery checks that box.

To be fair, I'm not sure if it was blatant racism, sexism, or just incompetence on the employee's part, but when I pay for food I intend to actually recieve those items and be communicated with. Not have to hunt them down.

In this special case, I paid for my meal and that of my Caucasian partner. When the order was prepared the employee brought it to the register looked me up and down and then preceeded to look for my fairer skinned partner.

The employee couldn't see my partner at first, so she took a step back from the counter and looked around the building. While I stood in front of her waiting at the register.

At this point I assumed she was looking for another item to add to the bag or something. Nope. She was looking for the white woman I came in with. The one that didn't just pay. But the employee wouldn't know that because they walked away when I was paying and adding a cash tip to their jar. My mistake.

She continued to survey the room for my partner for about 30 awkward seconds or so despite me standing right in front of her, at the register.

Finally, she sees the woman I came in with adding creamer to the coffee I bought her -- but there is staff in between them. With people blocking the way and a line building up the employee considers handing me the food. I can see her thinking it over, but she doesnt. She decides to wait.

Another staff member asks if I've been served. I tell her I have and that I am waiting, pointing at the woman with my order in hand. Just then the staff thins out and the employee, no longer blocked in, makes her way to the coffee station with my order, ignoring me to hand it to my white partner instead.

She then makes her way back to the register where I'm standing, the place she was just waiting with my food, so that she can serve the people that were in line behind me. I'm apparently invisible.

Moral of the story...

Maybe she only serves women? Maybe she doesn't trust black people? Maybe Grand Central has some policy against handing paying customers their food at the register...or maybe it's just incompetence. I don't know, but I'll never give this place another dime.

No bread is that...

It's when I have to write a review like I've reached my limit. 25 MAY at about 330pm i ordered two cookies, 16oz latte and the Vegie Grinder.

Cookies: Good 16oz latte: served in a pint glass; about 2 inches from the top. I returned to the counter to ask if i received a 16oz that I had ordered. I was told "yes". I responded, "this is not 16oz. I would like that have what I ordered." The staff member told me they would remake it. Perfect...except I received the same product as before. Their standard is not any i'm familiar with. Every other location that serves lattes in the PDX area serves their 16oz close to the rim on the glass. Veggie Grinder: After the Latte I hoped that GCB would redeem themselves. The bread of the sandwich looked good, the contents were.....missing. Being a meatless alternative I "expected" it to have come form of substance in comparison to its meat version. I received some cut onion, Guac smear, not even a chunk to be seen, some sort of horseradish smear, 3 thin layers of cheese and lastly 3 leafs of lettuce. That's it! Absolutely a joke! I was so hungry I just ate it and left. I can't remember that last time I felt so insulted by a meal I paid for.

I will never go back to this...