CRAFT.19 — Restaurant in Sumner

With Craft19 opening back up as of recently, I thought it was the best time to inform the public of the truth behind this business and what it stands for. The owner will reply to this and say that someone is just being salty, and deny everything, but I am relaying facts, because I think it’s important that we make informed decisions about where we eat and who we support financially. I have absolutely nothing to gain by saying this.

The owner is a despicable and selfish man. When we worked there, he would refer to girls as “skinny”, if he found them to be, and not their real name. He fired our entire loyal team, and when asked about unemployment details, he laughed and said I have no idea, but I’m going to Paris. He lies and acts like no profit is made from this business, and managers had to FIGHT for raises, all while going on lavish vacations, pretending he didn’t have the money for raises while we could see all of the stats on the computer, and did the orders ourselves (and then somehow could suddenly afford giving those raises when said managers said they would find work elsewhere in a respectful manner). He fired the entire team, and then began hiring new managers at $4 below what former managers were making. Before opening, he paid new managers minimum wage, even though they were already training and doing managerial duties.

He lets young adults and teens run his business for him, and if he shows up to a problem, he shrugs his shoulders and leaves. He trains new employees incorrectly, and has no respect for people he employs.

He acted like the crash was some crazy huge thing, but it really wasn’t. He wanted to take advantage of a way to fire his staff and to remodel, when we were stuck with broken appliances. You guys could see with your own eyes that it was just a couple bricks moved, and a water leak. That doesn’t take six months to repair. It did not “almost completely destroy the mural” like he says. You could also see that with your own eyes.

He led us on for months thinking we had a job to come back to, and then surprise, told us we had nothing to come back to. He gave away our belongings inside, and treated us like we did nothing for the business.

This owner makes kkk jokes, fatphobic jokes, and has no empathy. I’d recommend looking up his malpractice suits too, because apparently he can’t be a doctor very well either. He’s going to try and save his butt by replying to this, but I do not care. He is full of lies and is just like any other shady businessman that cares about money more than people. You don’t want to know the nasty ways we had to prepare food either, why do you think it took so long to get a re approval from the health department after getting denied and having to take almost everything off the menu for a while? We had to work with nasty broken vent build up that the repair man said was dangerous to be breathing in and could start a fire, no produce sink, no workspace, no replacements when things were broken. Our managers were amazing and TRIED to get the owner to see logic, but he would not. We tried to make it a happy place to work, but he hated to see our joy. The people made the place, because we basically ran it ourselves. He is a strange and sad man and tries to cover up his wrongdoings with the word of “god”. News flash, Jesus wouldn’t abandon his employees, and make shady business decisions.

I could go on and on, but this review is long enough already. If he finds a way to take this down, I will post it on multiple accounts and he will never silence my voice. People should know the truth. I would take my business elsewhere if I...

I’ve been meeting to write this review for a while, but I wanted to self reflect for a bit until I did.

I used to be an employee at Craft19 and I quit in January. As someone who got to see it personally, the negative reviews are 100% valid and correct. The majority of the employees here are Mean Girls, especially the manager and the shift leads. They openly talk extremely negative about customers even though they can hear them, and about the other employees.

Doc (owner) and the manager admitted to hiring “pretty teenage girls because they bring in more money”. When I was hired, I was asked if I could “squeeze into a size small” for uniform- I’m a healthy weight 5’9 woman that’s a medium-large.

Manager made many sexual remarks about me and another coworker who I knew outside of work- but me and him kept it always 100% professional at work, and the manager making comments about us made us both extremely uncomfortable.

Most employees are careless with the crepes and coffees. They don’t make them hot enough, never use gloves (touch things with bare hands) and rarely wash hands. One time an employee flipped over a crepe to hide the wrong ingredients she put on. Honestly the health inspectors should come in again.

Employees would flat out lie and would often say we ran out of gluten free batter to not make gluten free crepes. Yes, it took longer to make but that doesn’t mean a customer should be refused a crepe that they expect to be able to order.

One of the employees has a name that’s hard to pronounce correctly at first and one of the managers kept asking her “where are you from? Like, really? Where are you from? What’s your accent from?” Extremely racist to the only girl that wasn’t white and she doesn’t even have an accent. I had to stand up for her and say “she’s American just like me”.

Food is extremely overpriced for a snack that you can get better down the street. If you pay for a fancy coffee here and expect latte art, don’t. Most employees can’t or just refuse because they’d rather sit on their phone.

If you want to support a local business, don’t go here, go anywhere else. I could say so much more, but I think anyone that reads this can understand that this isn’t a business anyone should support. It’s a poor company with an owner who wants “pretty teenage girls” managed by girls who peaked in high school and are still mean bullies. Hour and a half wait for crepes is ridiculous.

If my review gets deleted, I will...

This place is incredible!! Allow me to explain why that is and what makes it such an inviting place. First of all the entire space is so very clean and organized. It has a modern look and a classy feel all at the same time. There was a lot of thought put into designing it. I think that it adds a wonderful new taste to Main St that will fit in well. What most people probably don't realize or notice is the amount of symbolism within this business. If you look at the name- Craft.19 there are a couple things to notice. One is that this name has been chosen because the baristas use 19 grams of coffee grounds for their shots. Another important item to notice is the logo which depicts a goat within the C of the name. This is because the effects of the coffee bean were originally discovered when a goat herder observed his goats full of energy after eating the bean. This leads to another innovative part of this cafe which is their specialty coffee, known as the Ibex blend. For all of those unaware, the Ibex is a type of goat that is generally found in mountainous areas. This blend is produced by the Dillanos Coffee Roasters factory in Sumner. These are all pieces that I have put together after a few visits. As is mentioned in other posts, during the busy times at this cafe the wait is longer than most are expecting (especially for the crepes). I understand that people want their order out within a reasonable about of time, as do I. But people have to realize that this place is brand new and their production process is in its' embryonic stage. They will continue to refine that process and the ticket times will gradually come down, just like any new business. Remember: this is not Starbucks! This is a whole different arena where each product is intended to attain the highest standards. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone! The staff is extremely kind and inviting as they do their best to meet their customer's needs. Show them the patience you would want to receive if you were in their...