ACME Cafe — Restaurant in Salem

So I take no joy in making this post but I can no longer accept the clearly racist fueled attacks from the owner of this business tom voegtle. Now I have dined here and the food and service were terrible but where the true tragedy begins is the day I moved in next to Tom. I am a black man with a white partner and mixed children, I own my own business and work extremely hard to provide every opportunity for my family and since we moved in next to Tom we have been harassed and discriminated against. Day one Tom came over and immediately made a complaint about my work van being parked on the street in-between both of our houses because he "didnt want to look at a plumbing van" it escalated from there. He reached out to my businesses lawyers and made false accusations about how long my van had been sitting on the street and threatened to have my van towed because he believed that I was parked on his property when I was parked on the street. I often work 12-14 hour days and am barely home enough to eat dinner with my kids and partner and sleep a few hours before leaving for work once again. Some days he would wait until I was coming down the street and intentionally pull out and block the street parking double parking his truck on the curb and forcing me to work in my driveway. He has garage parking two parking spaces on his driveway and an empty rv pad next to his house. One day he pulled up and blocked our driveway and threatened to call the city to have my van towed which he aggressively yelled at us on our own property. On multiple occasions he's failed to control his dog and it even chased my daughter down the street one day. He went as far as contacting the CCR in our neighborhood and claiming that my van was a commercial vehicle which by definition it does not fall under that category and forced me to have to work it at a friend's house each day until we resolved the issue proving that for as long as we know there has been multiple labeled work vans and trucks in the neighborhood that caused no issue and this was only brought up after we moved in. His wife has made posts about her hatred for renters which we are one of if not teh only renters in the neighborhood. I have tried taking the high road and being calm and quiet but we have delta with this for over a year and half of living there. Tom has tried to fence off the public right of way so our dogs can not potty in the grass like many others dogs in the neighborhood do daily. We had to call city enforcement to prove that Tom's property like stopped at the sidewalk due to his accusation that it extended to teh street and he even roped in members of the CCR board to back him up and prevent us from being able to park om the street and if it weren't for the fact we have surveillance on our house he would have gotten away with much more. Most recently I finally was able to get myself a new and very nice car after suffering a terrible car wreck in my last vehicle and Tom has now gone back to purposely parking on the street to make it difficult for me to park there because he believes that I should park in my driveway because that's what he wants. I can no longer stay quote and endure this blatant discrimination against myself and my family when I've worked just as hard if not harder than everyone else to provide a comfortable life for my family and live in a "safe" neighborhood near good schools. When i left to drop my kids off at school today Tom was parked in his driveway and when I returned he parked where my car was previously parked, he goes as far as taking his wifes car leaving her at hoek all day with no vehicle so that he can park his truck on the street which he used to drive daily. It's clear the vehicle was the never the issue but teh black man who drives the vehicles and he feels does not deserve to be in the same neighborhood as him. I would encourage anyone that goes to acme Cafe or knows people that do to stop going stand up for our minority communities. he has ample parking in his driveway, these are all hate...

UPDATE 2/25/2024 See original review below the update

In response to the owner's response -

How dare you call me, a long-time patron of your business, a liar! No sir or maam, my assessment of the B&G was NOT an "exaggeration".  The biscuits were insultingly small and frankly, dry as a bone, even with the extra gravy I asked for on top of the pitance of gravy that came with it.  Instead of apologizing and trying to find a way to rectify the issue, you all get bent out of shape and attack your patron's honest assessment of the food we got that day with whines and cries.  There are no honorable business owners anymore.  I feel like they are all run now by the snobby, bratty children of owners who used to know how to treat a customer when they had a complaint or concern.  I couldn't have cared less for the bacon (Which was burnt to a crisp, btw but my greatest concern was to focus solely on the B&G part which is all I wanted to begin with) and if I feel like eggs, I will ask for them ala cart as I have always done.  You got some gumption calling me a liar.  You will never have our business again and I will be sure to let our friends know how poorly you treat your patrons who leave honest reviews as well.  That was the most unprofessional response I have ever seen from a business owner in my life. Absolutely gobsmacked!

Original review -

My wife and I have been coming here for years. For the last 3 years, we've been coming here for my birthday so I can get my biscuits and gravy which has always been a huge, generous portion with tons of gravy. This last time however, when I got my biscuits and gravy I was stunned speachless at what was before me on my plate. I don't know if it was a sick joke, or someone thought I ordered a kiddie plate but, and I kid you NOT, the biscuits were no bigger than the size of an Eisenhower dollar (for those old enough to know what I am talking about) no more than 1-1/2 inches wide! To add insult to it, there was barely enough gravy to cover the biscuits at all. I had to ask for a side of gravy!! To add salt to that wound, the price went up like $2 bucks from the last time I had it! So I got kiddie sized biscuits that cost absurdly more! I was LIVID to say the least and I wanted to call over our waitress to talk to a manager about it but, because my spouse is HF autistic and doesn't like confrontations, she begged me not to say anything and just eat it. Needless to say, we will never be going here again for my birthday breakfast. Shame on y'all, got greedy! Will be getting my...

It has taken me a couple of weeks to write this review. My partner and I used to eat here all the time. Generally at least once a week sometimes more often. Neither my partner or I eat meat. My partner does not eat meat due to a severe physical reaction. She gets extremely sick when eating meat. Every time we have come here my partner has ordered biscuits and the white gravy. She had asked several times to make sure the white gravy was vegetarian. She was told that it was. For months her health was suffering but we could not figure out why. A couple weeks ago we go in to have breakfast and she orders the same way she always has. “Can I get the biscuits and gravy. The white gravy that is vegetarian.” We had a brand new waitress who informs us they do not have vegetarian gravy. Long story short cook comes out and informs us that the white gravy is made with bacon fat. We realize quickly this is why my partner had been having such severe flare ups with her illness which lead to the loss of employment at one point. My partner was visibly distraught but did not want to make a scene. We asked to speak with the owner as we know he is often there. He wasn’t there but they said he would be right back. We waited outside for him. Once he got back we nicely asked to speak to him and told him the situation. He got verbally aggressive and began yelling at us and told my partner “that she doesn’t look sick.” Which is an insane thing to say to someone battling severe health conditions. He screamed in our faces “what do you want.” All we wanted was an apology and assurance they would never do this to another customer. I filmed the entire interaction in the parking lot. I left my name and number as I was told by a friend that his son is more level headed and waited for a response but got none. It was an unbelievably horrible experience all...