maman — Restaurant in Washington

As a Georgetown resident, I have been coming to Maman several times a week since the week it opened. I like going to Maman because it is clean and has an airy atmosphere. (The food and beverages are overpriced and not very special, so they don’t attract me.) What I don’t like is how I’ve been treated by staff when it comes to Maman’s inconsistent laptop policy.

Yesterday (4/17/2023) I was sitting in the central part of Maman at one of the small round tables. I had been sitting there with my laptop since about 10:45 a.m. and at 3 p.m. a worker came over and told me that laptops were not allowed in the section where I was sitting. He also told the woman at the table next to me to move because she was using a laptop. He told us that laptops were only allowed in the small “The Study” section at the front of the establishment, where there is one table and a few high-chair seats. This confused me because I’d been there for several hours with my laptop and no one said anything. I have also sat in this section and other non-“The Study” sections for weeks with my laptop and no one informed me of this policy. I asked the worker whether laptops were allowed in the far back area and he told me that laptops were not allowed back there either. I then went to the far back to take a look and there were about a dozen people comfortably using laptops. (Photos attached.) It was laughable! There was also another person on the back patio using a laptop and having a full-blown Zoom meeting.

When I asked the worker why he was suddenly telling me I couldn’t sit there with a laptop, he said more people who were getting food were coming in and would need seats. This confused me because it was far less busy than it had been from 12-2 pm. Also, am I not a paying customer who is also eating and drinking each time I come in but I just happen to be on a laptop?

This wasn’t the first time a Maman employee has asked me to move from an area for having a laptop. Some weeks ago, another worker, a man whom I assumed to be some kind of manager, tried to enforce the rule by kicking out about three customers from the back area. The way he went about it was a bit rude — he expected us to already somehow know that the policy existed and brusquely rushed us out. I respected it because they had only recently opened and I assumed they were only just starting the new policy. (He told me laptops were allowed anywhere before the large pastry counter, which contradicts what the worker told me yesterday.) But when I went back a few days after that incident, I was shocked that people were using their laptops everywhere, especially in the far back area. I asked a few workers what happened to the “no laptops” rule and they told me that they weren’t even aware of such a policy. So from then on I thought they decided to do away with it until I got approached about my laptop use yesterday.

Point of advice: Stop wasting people’s time. If there is in fact a laptop policy, please display it prominently so that people can be aware of it before they choose to settle down. Please stop providing conflicting info about where laptops are allowed. Please also enforce the policy at all times — and for everyone. When you enforce the policy with only a few people, it feels discriminatory. Lastly, please decide what kind of establishment you want to be. Do you want to be the large space in a college neighborhood on busy Wisconsin Ave. that doesn’t allow laptops? The manager told me that “no laptops” is how they do it in New York. This isn’t New York! Please...

What I wrote to the company : I’m writing to share a very disappointing and upsetting experience I had at your Georgetown location (1353 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007).

I was visiting my sister in Georgetown from NYC, where I came to meet her newborn baby. During my stay, I visited your café twice. The first time was the day before this incident. I was so impressed with the coffee that I couldn’t stop telling my sister and her husband how excited I was to finally find a great coffee spot near their home.

Unfortunately, my second visit was completely different. I walked in with my 14-year-old daughter and my sister’s 2-week-old baby. Not only was I not greeted in a warm or friendly manner, but I was told to step aside and wait for my daughter’s cappuccino. After waiting for several minutes, we asked about the status of the drink, only to be told (for the first time) that we needed to go down to the barista section.

When I approached the barista station, I noticed a few drinks already made, so I politely asked the barista on duty, Hernan, if one of them was my daughter’s cappuccino. Instead of simply answering, he responded with an incredibly rude and sarcastic, “Does it look like a cappuccino?” I was so shocked I asked him to repeat himself, and again he said, “Does it look like a cappuccino?”

This level of rudeness and disrespect especially directed toward a customer, and in front of my child was appalling. Whether or not the cup had a label, no one deserves to be spoken to in that way. I have never experienced such unprofessional behavior at any café, especially one where I had happily spent money just the day before. Even other customers nearby were visibly surprised and uncomfortable by his attitude.

I genuinely regret not following my sister’s recommendation to try Tatte’s instead, as this experience was not only upsetting but completely unacceptable. I hope you take this matter seriously, as no customer especially in front of children should be treated with such disrespect.

I would appreciate a prompt response and I wanted to give you the courtesy of hearing from me directly before I consider leaving a public review.

The response I got was this ( 3 days later) Hi Anita, hope you are well! Sorry for the late reply but we are super busy on weekends.

Sorry to hear that your experience at Maman was not the best one. It is definitely not the way we wanted our customers to be treated.

I assure you that we will take proper action with all staff involved with your experience. Thank you for letting me know.

If you ever come back, please let me know and I will personally take care of you.

Hope you have a nice...

The coffee (an Americano) was the best one i drank in months in DC.

The pastries: i am not sure if the bakery has a French chef or if the owners are French. I was born French and raised in France from the age of 6 and left France for the US in 1995. I do return to visit family regularly. I did not taste the usual croissants or chocolatines, and maybe i will do that next time to really compare apples to apples. I had a cookie that appealed to me because it claimed to have a hintbof rose, so i assumed rosewater was one of the ingredients, but if it was, it was buried under the raspberry. It was way too sweet for me and for anyone French.

I also tasted a small cake made with olive oil, with pistachios. In Southwest France and in Provence, we use olive oil for cooking things like Fougasse and even some brioches. Now, this was still a bit too sweet, but it was divine. The dough was amazing. I will certainly get that one again.

The look of the place was fine, i liked the cup for my to-go Americano, it was elegant recyclable cardboard.

I had tried to go there yesterday (Sunday) but it was a zoo and overcrowded. This morning at 10am, it was fine, but still on the crowded side. The crowds are good for business, I am sure, but it conflicts with the decor and what i perceive as a desire to reflect exclusive serenity to lure the person to truly enjoy their coffee and pastry, or their breakfast (some people were having items that looked like the usual American brunch fare, not to be found in real France). Maybe when the hype about the novelty disappears will the place -exquisitely decorated, to the extent that a little girl of no more than 5 or 6 exclaimed: "this is the most beautiful coffee house!"- finely be serene and will i want to stay to eat or drink rather than get...