Stand Out

Last week I had the opportunity to try two new restaurants.  Well, one of them is a new restaurant and the other is only new to me.  In this blog I am going to tell you the story of the first and later next week I'll post up the 2nd experience.

Dana's Cafe (spelled with a fancy squiggle over the "e" of Cafe) opened in Liberty this past week.  It is a hamburger / sandwich place on Commerce St in this small town.  The location may turn out to be one of those cursed sites I talked about in February because this spot been several different restaurants over the past five years.  I guess time will answer that question soon enough.

I went in with my family the night prior to their grand opening with the intention of ordering some to-go dinners.  A waitress (might have been the Dana) came over and took our order.  She was very friendly and helpful.  There were several tables of people around the small cafe and I was glad to see a local business being supported.  It didn't take long before several bags of food were brought to our table and, after paying, we headed home with our dinner.

This is where the story starts to get disappointing.  The meals were as we ordered, a few hamburgers, some chicken nuggets, and a BLT sandwich.  The french fries were warm but needed a lot of added salt.  They tasted like the frozen crinkle cut fries you would pick up at Wal-Mart.  Not great.   My BLT sandwich was a mess.  All the required pieces were there for it to be called a BLT but it looked like a blind person put it together.

I take that back.  That's kind of rude.  I am certain that a blind person could have put together a nicer sandwich.  A better way to describe the way my sandwich looked is to say that it was put together by someone that didn't care.  Most of the ingredients were falling outside of the bread.  Once I had rebuilt the sandwich it tasted alright.  Not the greatest sandwich ever.  It tasted like something that was put together in a hurry.  With very little effort I would have made my own BLT turn out much better than this.

The kids liked their meals but Cari agreed with me as she ate her burger.  By this time I had already made the decision that we would not be going back to Dana's anytime soon.  It's disappointing because I would love to see a local person open a successful shop / restaurant in town.  One that I could support.   I think most people in this small town would love to support a new business owner.  

I just feel if you are going to open a restaurant of this type you really have to do something to make your food stand out.   Do something a little different or pay extra close attention to the details.  It doesn't require putting a lot more money into each meal,  just have your staff put some care into the food they are making. Standing out is what would have brought my family back to Dana's but unfortunately fell short.