The Buttery — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

Ordered a very small special occasion cake a few weeks ago. Showed a picture of a simple naked cake design - basically decorated with a couple plant leaves and pine cones. The woman who took my order in person INSISTED that I had to provide the material as they “do not provide decorations for cakes”, ok not a problem, but that they WOULD decorate the cake with the items. Ordered the twig of leaves and pine cones.

Today I called to pick up and said I’d bring in what I ordered for them to decorate with. The call was met with refusal and that I was given “misinformation”. They “don’t decorate because they aren’t liable if we didn’t like it” and “you should have paid for a decoration fee.”

Umm, I don’t work there and came in person for the primary reason of eliminating confusion! If staff can’t provide accurate info to customers then what are we supposed to do? Oh, and the “decorators” leave at 2pm. If you don’t decorate why would we pay a decoration fee?

So I beg the questions, why was I told a 4pm pickup was “perfect” and “we can add your decorations to the cake when you pick up,” if said decorators leave at 2 and, again, the business doesn’t decorate?

Basically my point here is, get EVERYTHING in writing, call the day before you pick up to confirm. Trust no one that takes your money first and says what you want to hear. Once paid they (like many companies) can go back on what they said simply by stating the employee was “misinformed”.

I believe in supporting small business, especially in a town I love, but I won’t drive over the hill again to place an order here.

The sad part is, it won’t even matter to the bottom line. We sure hope the cake is...

• NOT THE BUTTERY ANYMORE *

RIP The Buttery. As many others have noted in their reviews, it’s not the same place. The founder, Janet, unfortunately sold the business and it was purchased by non-Local investors. Unfortunately, the quality and attention to detail has declined drastically ever since. Ingredients are poor quality and prices increased. The local Cafe ambiance is completely gone, it looks like a cheap assembly-line bakery now. Clearly the investors planned to juice the strong name and reputation of our beloved local bakery for as much cash as possible. They also purchased Golden Sheaf Bread in Watsonville and enacted the same cost-cutting / profit-raising measures and are driving that business to the ground.

None of the original staff is around any longer, not sure if they quit or were driven out. On my recent (and last ever) visit, the workers looked demotivated and I witnessed a young manager scolding a teenaged worker, who clearly looked distressed. The food from that order was so-so, not nearly what I had come to expect of this former Santa Cruz gem.

Luckily we still have Gayle’s, which is 100% worth the extra 10 minutes of driving. MUCH tastier and better managed. It won’t be long before “The Buttery” goes the way of Emily’s Good Things to Eat bakery, and it will be good riddance IMHO.

Please don’t support this business, you’ll be enabling its investors to eat up other beloved Santa Cruz businesses for the sole...

I visited on vacation from Seattle. I had brunch there and bought several bakery items for our flight home. The food we had was great and completely deserves five stars. My lowered rating has to do with the experience. First, this place is packed (see comment about delicious food) and there is a line on the right for coffee and food, a line on the left for the bakery. It took us a few minutes to figure that out since it's so busy. By the time you can reach a menu you're nearly at the register as people are walking to and from the bathroom shoving you while you try to see the offerings. Second, the coffee was not very good at all. I ordered an Americano, they were rude about the drinks handing them out when we asked it one was ours since the receipt got wet and even they couldn't read it to tell us what it was. There were two containers of cream and both of them were empty and the coffee counter in general was very dirty. I get that they were busy but it should be staffed appropriately to ensure cleanliness. Finally the bakery, you're supposed to grab a number and order your food but there isn't really time to look at what you want to order. The girls on the bakery side were much more friendly but I still felt very rushed in ordering which took under five minutes. Overall the food was great but the experience was very stressful. If I was in town I'd get coffee elsewhere and come again for food but only during...