Ernie's — Restaurant in Roanoke

I am not a person that typically leaves reviews, but this experience made me so uncomfortable that I could not say nothing. My family is new to Roanoke and have been so far excited by everything we've done in downtown. The inclusivity in this area has been beautiful and it's part of what makes Roanoke a city that we love. We were excited to try this restaurant as we love a good brunch place. But from the moment we walked in, we were not greeted and had no idea what to do nobody told us to sit or to wait to be seated we had to figure it out on our own. The menus and signs to not let your kids mess with the condiments are all over the table and you're meant to just "figure it out". It took a very long time for a server to come over to us and I don't think she smiled a single time while we were there. It was not personable at all and had an attitude of just getting us out the door. Including giving me a to-go cup when other patrons were allowed to drink out of glasses. It was just so obvious she wanted us out the door from the moment we walked in. Any questions I had about the menu were answered very rudely as well as comments made about how little food we ordered, it was just my husband myself and our two-year-old who had already eaten before we left the house. The food was subpar, similar to what you'd expect from a hospital cafeteria, which I probably could have overlooked if the atmosphere had been what we've come to expect for Roanoke. But perhaps the worst part was the way that we watched people of color be treated as we sat here, three men ignored an entirely when trying to order and a man and what appeared to be his teenage child run off from just simply sitting at the outside seating. We watched our waitress as she ran from taking our order to wave them away like animals, it's possible they could have been homeless but my husband and I could not tell for sure and there's no way this woman could and even so no human being deserves to be treated that way. She actually stopped me mid sentence with her exclamation of "oh hell no" to run them off. My husband and I were both shook. They have their political beliefs stated all throughout which ultimately explains the kind of people that they are, and the kind of people they consider unwelcome. We felt unwelcome here, we watched other people feel unwelcome, and that just doesn't feel like Roanoke to me. We will not be back and you shouldn't waste your time or money, not when you could support a business that supports...

Sunday, November 10th, I came downtown to treat myself to breakfast at Ernie's - a place our family used to frequent every Sunday after church when my now 31 year old son was about 7 or 8. Back then, the food was delicious, our family of four could eat for a very reasonable amount, and the staff was always out of this world friendly... to the point that my little boy would launch himself into the arms of his favorite server for a bear hug, exclaiming his name for her in sheer excitement.

*Today was the first time I've been back since Ernie's reopened with new ownership. There were a few people standing on the sidewalk outside. I walked in and went to the bar to ask if they did to go orders, at which point the woman behind the bar leaned over the bar towards me, and barked at me that I needed to get "back outside because there are other people in line in front of [me] that are waiting out there." Taken aback would not be too strong a descriptor; I was actually pretty shocked. I advised her in the same tone she used on me that I was coming to the bar to ask if they do to go... her demeanor changed somewhat, but she still just slung a menu across the bar, said yes, and turned around and walked away.

This is NOT the Ernie's of old.

It was actually pretty d@mned disappointing.

I left and drove all the way over to Vinton to have breakfast at famous Anthony's instead. Totally worth it, very nice people with one exception at the cash register, and the food was delicious, well-priced, and ample.

Heading to their Google review to give them...

EDIT: Unfortunately, we came back to Ernie's several months later during another trip and our experience was not nearly as good. It took our waitress a very long time to actually stop by to take our order. We considered leaving because she walked by us ten times before she actually talked to us. I had ordered oatmeal last time, but didn't see it in the menu so I asked her if they still offered this and she said no. I asked about a side of fruit which is offered by pretty much every breakfast restaurant in existence, and they also they also no longer offer that. They completely stripped down their menu so they have like 5-6 options and few sides, and that's it.

We were seated right away. The food was great, we ordered omelettes and oatmeal. Everything was very good quality so we will be back next time we visit Roanoke.

Once we got our food, and we noticed they forgot my wife's bacon so we had to ask another waitress to bring it out. I then asked our waitress if I could order a chicken salad sandwich and before I could even finish speaking she said "we don't serve lunch on Sundays" and then walked away. Ok, then why did you give us a menu with both breakfast and lunch on it?

Once we were nearly done eating we remembered that my wife's meal also came with toast which was not brought out to us. Overall, it was just awful service. The food was fine, but we will not come back especially since there's plenty of other places to get breakfast within a thousand feet of...