The Great Ganesha

Having only just moved to the the Bay Area a few months ago, one can safely call me a newcomer. But something that I notice here in San Francisco, and that I did not see in New York, is a more laid back and relaxed attitude. In general, people are nicer and treat you a little better than they would back east. So I was surprised and disappointed by the behavior of the host at Citizen Cake – a fairly famous dessert place on the corner of Gough and Grove Streets.

It was last Thursday, past dinnertime (around 8.45 or so). I had been there once before, had enjoyed the dessert and was looking forward to it again. There were four of us, and the restaurant was empty. Only two or three out of around twelve tables were occupied. Yet, we were told by the host – a short, bald, stocky, white man with a goatee – that the tables were only for dinner and not for dessert. He suggested for us to sit at the bar where there were only three seats available, and that one of us should stand. He literally told us to eat that way. It’s not so much that we were told to stand and eat that bothered me, it was his attitude. He had a smirk on his face and his “suggestion” was more like an order to us common-folk. When I said something about the restaurant being empty, he smirked again, and gave me a look that basically said, “Sit at the bar, or get out.” Well, we got out!

At first, I thought this treatment stemmed from the fact that we were a group of four Indians. In which case a “Dogs and Indians Not Allowed [link]” sign at the door would have sufficed. However, a careful look through the user reviews at a few places online (see here, here, and here) reveals that everyone is treated this way. Well, that’s sort of like the T-Shirt that says, “End Racism: Kill Everyone.” You got to admit, at least, that it will end racism!

Two things don’t make sense to me: First of all, the owner is supposedly a pretty famous chef (at least from the Press on their website). Obviously, she is not as good a manager as she is a chef. Some of the user reviews I saw have been around for quite a while, and clearly nothing has been done about them. Since the culture of a place trickles down from its leadership, it even makes me wonder what kind of a person she is. Secondly, if the restaurant is empty and no one is having dinner, why the [bleep] can’t you allow us to have dessert there? With that kind of business model, you’ll be attracting a whole lot of customers like us who plan to never set foot in that place again.

It is surprising and disappointing that, in this day and age of management-speak, a place like that should have such apalling customer service. It is more surprising that it is in San Francisco. Citizen Cake just lost four customers and everyone else who is repulsed enough not to visit there after reading this.

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