45th Parallel Cafe — Restaurant in Suttons Bay Township

You know, these days, there are a ton of good places to eat in Leelanau County - Mama Lu's, Jolly Pumpkin. That wasn't neccessarily the case 10 years ago when 45th Parallel Cafe was one of the only breakfast joints in the area, but it's time for a wake up call. The food was decent - not great, nothing special - but decent. Now let's talk about why this place gets one star: We get there at 11:10 AM for brunch today, a Thursday. We were told 10-15 minute wait for a table. Cool. We hung out in the candy shop. We got a table in about 10 minutes. That's where the wheels came off. We waited almost 10 minutes to be greeted by our server, a male who has worked there a long time and was obviously overwhelmed. He took our drink orders and after another 10 minutes, a young kid brought our drinks. 15-20 minutes in. The server unapologetically came and said 'What are we eating..." to which I regretably replied with our order. 48 MINUTES LATER we got our food. He did tell us 15 minutes before that about how the kitchen is behind, and I get that. Sometimes the kitchen gets behind. But it's all about how you handle it (with a visit by a manager). The food was decent, but I'm not really even sure. 1:22 after walking through the door I think I could have eaten anything. Not that it would have mattered - Our server never asked how the food tasted. We were geniunely curious as to whether we would receive a full bill, a discounted bill, or no bill as we waited way too long for the check. I'll admit, at this point, I was just pissed off and noticing more things that suck about the service here. He dropped off the check with no apology whatsoever and when he went to pick up payment I said, "Hey, I'm just curious - are you doing anything to take care of us after a 48 minute kitchen ticket?" Here is the response verbatim: "No, it just kind of is what it is... you know, it's a pretty busy cafe." "Really?" I said, "In my day if we couldn't handle the table we just went on a wait." "Well, then people get mad that they're waiting." "Okay, I suppose that's what yelp is for." He laughed but I don't think he got the joke. And that...

Just stopped in before we were heading home. As expected on a Sunday morning it was quite busy so we knew there would be a wait. As a party of 3 we had about 5 names ahead of us on the list when we went and waited in the candy shop. Let me first say this is not a review of the candy shop. The fudge there was amazing and the woman working was delightful. 50 mins later of seeing groups of all Sizes get seated in front of us, We walked up to check the list. At least 6-7 groups were Seated ahead of us that were down the list from us and just as I was up there the INCREDIBLY RUDE host called The name of a group of 4 that came in at least 20 mins after us. When I questioned why we hadn’t been seated the gentleman was snippy, short, and said he couldn’t make people eat faster. I am in the service industry and the way he was seating and treating people was unacceptable. I am truly sad that we didn’t get to eat there, because the food looked great and I am sure he is not a reflection of the rest of the staff. I generally try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he was rude to the group sitting with us, as well. Just know if you go it’s going to be a wait and they seat people with no rhyme or reason, and who was there first makes...

Disappointing on our first visit. Maybe they have a new cook or perhaps the cook just doesn't care about putting out good food - it's got to be one or the other because the French toast was bland and absent of any flavor whatsoever and my corned beef hash & eggs did not arrive as ordered. When the server asked me how I'd like my eggs, i replied "scrambled with swiss" however, the plate arrived with swiss melted atop the hash. When I informed the server the swiss was supposed to be in my eggs, she had the biggest look of shock and dismay on her face. She offered to take it back and get it corrected and returned only a minute later with the same plate of food, where someone literally peeled the melted cheese off the hash and plopped it on the eggs. Who would EVER think this is okay!??? I again shared my disappointment with the server and I'm quite surprised a Manager didn't visit the table, but perhaps the manager was not aware of the issue. This place is a bit pricey but I get that it is a vacation area. Nonetheless, if I were an owner or manager of such an establishment, I would definitely want to hear/know about incidents such as this, especially when charging premium prices because we did not get...