Lake Life Café — Restaurant in Town of Ellery

I am an organizational consultant. I write reviews as a service to communities. I want merchants to be successful. My reviews are never complaints but rather free advice to bring you to the level of excellence that you desire, are capable of, and that I and any patron would expect.

The cafe is beautifully designed and spacious. The food and drink choices are excellent.

Staff friendliness needs work.

The take-out staff person on Sunday, June 8 at 11am was unnecessarily flustered. It was very busy, but staff should be trained for that level of service. I never received my bear claw. I went to ask for it and the take out person was thoroughly unhelpful. She looked in her orders device to confirm location. Then she brusquely went to retrieve and handed it to me without a smile or any courtesy. As soon as I touched the bear claw I realized all the pastries are kept in a refrigerated case. This is completely unappealing and unnecessary if you serve fresh pastries every day.

The cappuccino was the right weight but no foam whatsoever. The plain bagel was very good. I threw out the cappuccino and the cold bear claw.

I am absolutely convinced that you can do better. The place was packed and the line moved very slowly. I recommend you review the entire ordering of food process through to delivery to customer. It felt chaotic to me and apparently to your staff as well.

This could be a charming place but right now it is not. The peak season has not yet started. You have time to raise your game. I know that you can train staff to be very cool under pressure and high demand. I have witnessed similar staff in cafes and general stores exercise calm with all customers and levels...

We came through here for an afternoon coffee. The barista was making the order for the customer ahead of us. She was slamming all of the things around, tossing cups into the sink and loudly sighing like she was extremely aggravated. When their order was ready, she just shouted “Here!” And shoved it toward them. I thought maybe they just frustrated her. She looked at us and said “What do you want?” With an eye roll. I had never been there so asked about an item on the menu, she just repeated the name of it and said in a condescending way what it was, but as though I should have known. I ordered and gave her more than a 20% tip in cash, hoping that would help her day a bit, since I understand food service is tough some days. She just grabbed it and shoved it into her cup with a loud sigh and then turned around to make the coffee. Again slamming everything around looking annoyed the whole time. When she finished, she put them onto the counter in front of me saying “Here!” and then went over to the next customer, starting again with the “what do you want?”. Maybe she was having a bad day, but to treat every customer like that is unacceptable. The coffee wasn’t even the one I ordered but I wasn’t going to say anything at that point. I just left and plan to...

It was my first time in Lake Chautauqua and this cafe is a perfect breakfast spot nearby. We ended up coming here twice in our short weekend trip because we loved it so much. They have indoor and outdoor sitting areas. It gets crowded during weekends of course. A lot of items for breakfast and lunch menu. We only came for their breakfast due to time restrictions. I got to try their Sausage, egg, cheese breakfast sandwich on a Asiago bagel, wow the size was amazing and delicious! It can definitely be shared. For my coffee each time I had two different types and can’t recall what they were but both were very good! The prices are very reasonable for the amount of food. They have a decent size staff who is pretty helpful in taking your order and recommendations. They have some parking in the street however it’s public so you might have to park further if you come when it’s busy. They’re located in a very popular area where a lot of other restaurants, hotels, ice cream shops are nearby so it’s really great to plan a day of it. They have two restrooms, and they sell some local merch and other items. We can’t wait to visit again and come...