Don't Eat At The Cheesecake Factory

This is the next installment of what for me now seems to be a steady series of bad experiences at restaurants.

This happened Saturday night at the Cheesecake Factory in the northern Virginia.

My Beautiful and Talented Wife (The BTW) and I, along with my brother's family, were celebrating my mother's 85th birthday.  There were 7 of us in all; the wide range in ages and tastes made the large menu at the Cheesecake factory a good choice.  In fact, the food was not the problem; of all things it was the cheesecake.

The BTW called the restaurant several days in advance to arrange for a cheesecake to be brought to our table with candles, etc. We were told no problem; just call 24 hours in advance and all will be well.  She then called 24 hours in advance and was again told no problem; just go to the bakery section when we arrive at the restaurant and the cake of our choice will be set aside for us.  We arrived at the restaurant at 515 pm and while I went to put our name on the list for a table, The BTW went to the bakery, ordered a low carb cheese cake, and thought everything was arranged.

Dinner went fine until it came time for the cake at about 7 pm.  First our waiter couldn't find the cake we had asked the bakery set aside.  Twenty minutes later a manager showed up at the table to say that it would take another hour or so for the cake we had selected to defrost and be edible.  He could not or would not explain why we hadn't been told that the cake we selected was frozen and that defrosting would take about 3 hours.

I then selected another from the list of cakes the manager said was available immediately.  Except that it wasn't.  Twenty minutes after I made that selection, another manager came to the table (the first one apparently was unwilling or afraid to come back a second time) to say that the second cake was also frozen and inedible.  Now, with enough steam coming out of my ears that I probably could have instantly defrosted the cakes myself, I selected a third cake that was eventually delivered to the table.

The restaurant did the right thing by not charging for the cake we eventually received and I'm grateful for that.  But...

1.  This whole incident could have been avoided if The BTW had been told the correct information when she called.  When I pointed this out to the second manager, he agreed that the person answering the phone had "lied."

2.  This whole incident could also have been avoided if the person at the Cheesecake Factory bakery had told us that the cake we wanted would not defrost in time for us to eat it.  Instead, she didn't say a word and smiled while taking the order.

3.  In fact, we never knew that any (or it is every?) cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory is frozen.  Maybe I'm being naive, but it seems to me that a restaurant that thinks cheesecake is so important that it's part of its name shouldn't be selling the frozen variety and deserves to be called out for it.

4.  While it might not have allowed the incident to be avoided, it certainly would have made it much more pleasant had the first manager gotten his facts straights and told me which cakes actually were already defrosted.  He didn't lie; he just made up an answer without checking the facts.  That's as bad as a lie.

5.  Finally, the waiter and both managers made a huge mistake by announcing to everyone at the table the problems with the cheesecakes.  I'm sure my mother wasn't really surprised that we had arranged a cake to celebrate her birthday.  But whatever surprise that might have been was completely destroyed by the staff's lack of tact, subtlety, and professionalism.  This was not a case of them not knowing who was leading the party; this was a willful decision to communicate improperly and unprofessionally to a customer.  The appropriate way would have been to pull me aside, privately tell me what was happening, and give me a chance to make a decision that my mother and guests didn't hear.  I can only wonder what the Cheesecake Factory does with a rejected credit card.

Thanks.  I feel much better now.