Frontager's Pizza Company — Restaurant in Washington

Our daughter was taken here for dinner by her new boss a few weeks ago. This is where she suggested we have lunch we visited her yesterday. She was right, OH MAN, was she right. The place is small was crowded when we entered (all inside and outside tables were occupied) so we agreed to sit in four stools at the bar. We were lucky enough to have Karista as our server. She immediately put us at ease, and won points with my wife by pointing out that instead of having her coat on her lap, there was a convenient hook under the bar where the coat could be hung. Next to the coat hook were USB outlets for plugging in or charging devices.

The restaurant has an Italian style pizza oven, but it's gas-fired, not wood or coal. But the pizzas that emerge from it are phenomenal. But I'll get to them later. We started off with Panzanella salad, which I'm sorry I didn't get a photo of. Some other dinner kindly posted one, and you can read about it in the menu.. It was one of the most delicious salads I've ever had; my wife and I shared and loved it. Our daughter and her friend chose the Cast Iron Crab Flatbread as their appetizer. Apparently there was Karista thought we decided not to order it; by the time we got it sorted out the flatbread was served when we were close to finishing our meal. To make up for it, when she handed me our bill she had given us a 10% employee discount off the dish. That further endeared her to us.

Seeing as how busy the place was, the wait to give our orders to Karista and to receive our orders was not bad. My wife and I chose the Truffle Bianca with pepperoni added ( I loves me my pepperoni). It was one of the most extraordinary pizzas I've ever had, and my wife loved it too. The mushroom flavor burst in your mouth, the cheeses stretchy and salty. The crust smelled and tasted like it was infused with garlic oil and butter (like the croutons in the Panzanella salad). It was glorious. I got to taste a slice of the Frontagers Supreme pizza my daughter ordered (you can see it on the online menu) and it was also deelish--loved the sliced red onions. but I enjoyed our pizza more. For drinks, my wife and I enjoyed a tasty Copa Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington. My one complaint is that the pour in a stemless wine glass was fairly light (it might have been 4 ounces) for $11. Light pours are all too common in restaurants these days as the owners maximize profits on wine. Our daughter and her friend enjoyed D's Wicked Cider which, as advertised, tasted like drinking apple pie. It was amazing.

So, overall this is one of the best and fun pizza places we've been to, and we will be coming back to explore the menu further. But to maximize my alcoholic beverage enjoyment, I'll choose one of the microbrewery beers next time to drink...

We came to Seabrook as our annual family vacation selection and while we were as charmed as ever about the town and people Frontagers pizza really broke a lot of that feeling.

Our experience summary:

First time - call to see if need reservations. Advised don't take them and to just come in, but not to come because they want to close early at 8pm. It was 7pm. Second time - called back same night, minutes later, for take out instead of dine in to help in the "we want to close early" and simply told no. Third time - called next day around 2pm for timeslot pick up of 6pm. Told no longer doing timeslots. This option was picked based off their website saying best way to order from them (please update website 😊) Told to call back in an hour Fourth time - dropped by in-person 2hrs later (430pm) and directed to truck. Truck advised not taking orders. Putting people on wait list to place orders. Daughters advised couldn't get anyone at truck to take their info...people just standing around.

This was when I decided to go in and see if they could help us out, given all the times we'd tried and were basically being told no and come back later. We'd have been happy to wait hours and hours the second day because we'd planned for it that way, but we just couldn't get an order into anyone's hands

Gentlemen at front (host) was kind and told us (finally) that the kitchen had broken on them and they were operating out of the trucks. Told him I felt bad for them and hoped that with our time flexibility we could still get an order in and they could call us when ready. Explained to him we were very flexible on time, but had just had terrible luck getting anyway to kust take our order. He said he would talk with manager and see what they could do...again I'm just trying to get our order into someone's hands with total flexibility on time to actually obtain.

The manager walk in my direction, stayed behind counter, and appeared ready to fight. I tried to break the tension by say "help me be a customer, haha" but didnt work. She was unkind, didn't listen and cut me off to explain how hard things were on them today. I'd already been told, but still wanted to empathize and did, but after that was still told to go to truck and explained truck not taking orders. There was a bit of back and forth (my situation, her deflecting and no empathy towards me and my family....ever)

After realizing she could care less and even felt like she was annoyed with just talking to me I said "you know what, forget it, I'm a trying to be a customer and telling you how hard it's been to do that and asking for help and I feel like you don't care so I'm just going to go now" and her response was "OK...

So I called at 11am sharp on the day I wanted to make my to go order because that is what their website says to do. I spoke to Stephanie, who started to take my order for 7pm that night and she stopped halfway through, listened to someone else on the other end of the line, came back and said that we should call closer to the time we wanted to pick up to make our order because they couldn’t take the order that far in advance (even though their website directly tells you to do this???) - so I called back a full TWO HOURS before I wanted my order, only to be told that they stopped taking to go orders because they were too busy. I told them (nicely!) that Stephanie had said to call with plenty of time and it shouldn’t be an issue. They replied, “sorry to hear that, she didn’t tell you our policy.” And when I replied that she did and that I verified I’d be able to make an order at that time and she said yes, he said, “sorry to hear that.” AND HUNG UP ON ME. We have eaten here once before and it was so busy (which we didn’t mind!) but the food was amazing so it was worth it. This time, we did everything in our power to help mitigate that wait and these people just don’t care. Sorry you “only have one pizza oven” but when people follow the posted suggestions of the establishment and then the establishment changes what they’ll do based on who you’re speaking to, it’s just disappointing. The food has amazing reviews and we wanted to be repeat customers, but after this we feel so let down by how rude and unwilling to help us people were, we will never attempt to eat here again. If I could give zero stars for customer service, I would. So disappointing from a...