Plant City — Restaurant in Providence

We were very excited to try the new(ish) "speakeasy" restaurant at Plant City called 32. It is located across the parking lot from the main building in a nondescript edifice with a 3x4" sign denoting it as "32".

We were seated by a waitress who did her job perfunctorily but without any extra effort indicating that she was interested in interacting with us.

The music being played was a very odd choice for the restaurant's atmosphere - pulsing detroit-style dance club music which the bartender turned up twice during our meal - to the point where conversation became challenging. Also speaking towards the ambience it is simply too dark in the restaurant. Fine for cocktails only, too dark for food service. I had to turn on my cell phone camera to read the menu, read the bill and sign the check and I'm only 52. Also the bartender turned the lights down further during our meal, inspiring my daughter to exclaim "now that's simply ridiculous, I can't even see the food we are eating. ( she is 21 and a JWU honors student)

ok.... on to the food. The menu is great. very creative and fits the space delightfully. We ordered :1. buffalo mac and cheese balls 2. falafel balls 3. meatballs 4. hummus and naan. 5. patatas bravas

We asked the waitress to "course" the menu for us so we could enjoy it bit by bit.I assumed the hummus and naan would arrive first - an obvious choice. Nope, it was the last thing to arrive at our table. Total fail --- completely uninterested in eating an app after four hot dishes had been served. The dish itself was also a pretty big fail - a huge bowl of hummus topped with beets (a VERY generous, approximately 10 oz portion) accompanied with a piece of naan roughly 5 inches in diameter. Total laugh out loud moment. A minimum of four pieces of naan that size would have been needed to consume that much hummus. either adjust the size of your hummus portion or provide more naan to balance food costs.

back to the start : dish #1 was the falafel balls. tastewise, quite decent. Consistency wise, your fry cook needs to learn that falafel is finished cooking before the outside is lacquer-hard. The tzatziki sauce was super tasty, and rescued the dish --but the one ounce provided on the ramekin was insufficient for the amount of falafel balls provided with the dish. Maybe tweak it to one less falafel ball and twice as much sauce to keep your costing even? As we were served it, this dish got about a five out of 10. with the few tweaks I suggested would have easily been a nine or ten out of 10.

dish #2 the meatballs, aka "the star of the meal" They are divine. really great consistency, flavorful and complex, super tasty red sauce. The macadamia ricotta and pistachio pesto were absolutely a perfect pairing. 5 stars, ten out of ten on this dish. practically perfect! Although..... 100% needs a serving spoon delivered with the dish Why no serving spoon was provided seems like a weird fail for the kitchen staff or the server.

dish #3 the buffalo mac and cheese balls. Another very generous portion with a tasty side sauce of blue cheese aioli. Well formed, well cooked and with a degree of spice that you would expect. Yet again, too little dipping sauce was provided on the ramekin. You can't serve customers five racquetball sized finger foods with only enough sauce for 2.5 of them.

dish #4. Patatas Bravas. Well done, well seasoned; I personally would have liked to see the dish presented with the potatoes skin cracked / partially smashed, presenting the tender insides as a visually appealing aspect of the dish. However, once again the portion size was generous and the bravas sauce was tasty and a satisfying accompaniment.

food-wise, I would have rated higher had it not been for the coursing and dipping sauce failures. Without the annoying music, the lighting changes by the bartender and the satisfactory, yet "zero extra mile" performance by the waitress, I would have easily rated the "overall experience" ...

I recognize this sounds extreme, but I have never been more disgusted at the behavior of someone in a professional setting as I was tonight at your server and manager. I used to be a really big fan of Plant City and now I will never set foot in there again.

Shortly after we received our food, the fire alarm went off. There was a young woman sitting alone at the table next to us, waiting for her family to join us. When the alarm sounded, she quickly dropped under the table, holding her ears and rocking back and forth. Because I am a licensed professional counselor and a university counseling instructor, I quickly recognized what was going on and ran over to help her using my professional skills for this type of situation. A nurse joined and I explained what was happening. A server asked what was happening and I explained that the young woman is neurodivergent and is having a panic attack and to please let me continue to help her so we can get her out of here safely. She responds with “oh I’ve had lots of panic attacks so I can handle this” when she very clearly does not have the skills or training for this particular situation. I don’t argue with her because the priority is getting the young woman safely out of the restaurant but she continues to try to insert herself in an unhelpful way. The young woman gets outside and I stay until she is reunited with her family.

When we go back inside our food is quite cold because it has been over 20 minutes. We are not acknowledged by our previous server for quite some time. When she appears, she says “how are we doing over here? Do you need some boxes?” I point out that we had just gotten the food when the alarm went off and we didn’t get to eat much and it is now cold. There was no plan for them to acknowledge this. I ask for the manager because I want to address what happened with the young woman and the other server.

When the manager comes, I explain how the server responded and how unsafe this is. She tells me that since the server doesn’t know I really am who I say I am, so it was better for her to handle it, indicating I could be lying about my credentials (as if anyone would lie for the opportunity to help someone having a panic attack potentially during a fire under a dirty restaurant table). Should I have stopped and pulled out my counseling credentials to a 20 year old server during an emergency before she allowed me to assist someone who could not evacuate without this kind of assistance?

I also pointed out that we were never even offered new food or to have ours reheated and she stated “this affected everyone in the restaurant the same exact way” (which was clearly not true since they were all shocked that people had left instead of returning to pay their bill). They did remake the food, but put it in take out containers and brought the bill without even asking us what we wanted.

This is clearly a major hole in the employee training, but instead of acknowledging that, your manager chose to make accusations against a customer assisting another customer in what could have been a very serious emergency. Not only will I never come back here, I will let anyone I know that is neurodivergent know that they are not safe here. This behavior is beyond unprofessional and unacceptable. It is ableist and unsafe. You are extremely lucky this...

Just for perspective, I'm a retired luxury hotel/resort executive and have had many restaurants and convention centers under my watch. That said, I share this as constructive and educational. I entered anticipating having a meal at the downstairs bar. It was approximately 4:45 and it appeared there may be a shift change happening, prompting me to ask a young woman setting tables if the bar was open for meal service. She said yes and walked off. I then sat at the bar. There was a couple dining at the window side of the bar. Two servers were setting tables. As I sat at the bar for 3 minutes, the servers did not greet me. They clearly noticed me as I made eye contact with both. A minute later one server walks behind the bar from the side access, I believe to grab a roll-up. She then turns and walks by me again, without even a simple hello. That's 2 strikes. This server then leaves the floor. The 2nd young woman, enters the bar from the same side and walks by me like I'm invisible. That's strike 3 for the downstairs bar and team. I decide to try my luck at the upstairs bar.

The hostess confirms the upstairs bar is serving. The upstairs bar is empty. I sit down at the bar facing the dining room. A server using the POS opposite me smiles warmly. The bartender notices me from the floor and comes over to greet me with a smile. She is welcoming and promptly takes my drink order and serves water. She is busy with side duties and helping the servers on the floor. She handles my process accordingly and always with a pleasant smile. At this point I'm very happy. I enjoyed my IPA and the Chile relleno came out quickly. The presentation was nice and the young man running food, pleasant.

-Food: The food looked better than it tasted. I understand it is a vegan version and was not expecting an authentic rellano but I was expecting tasty and the proper serving temperature. The filling had very little seasoning or flavor and was barely room temperature. You may want to offer a proper hot sauce, as well. I also ordered a nitro cold brew to go. The drink was delivered appropriately at the end of my meal. I unfortunately was pressed for time and departed shortly after the nitro cold brew was delivered. I was parked just outside the door. I put the drink in my cup holder and didn't inspect it before leaving. When I got home I noticed it was just an ice coffee. I normally would notice that type of detail but I was running late. That said, I was still disappointed my order was wrong. I was charged $6 leading me to believe the bar tender got the order correct. If I'm correct, that means your barrista and the food/drink runner got it wrong even though the drink runner asked if I ordered a nitro cold brew. So much for checks and balances.

As a last observation, it didn't appear you were short staffed just short on basic training.

Please note: The low service score is not a reflection on the upstairs bartender. Her service was a strong 4.

I will end my observations and experience there as I'm sure my dissapointments are...