I just want to say thanks for the replies so far....as for there being a line out the door the other night, I imagine you all came to dinner this past Thursday evening...lol! That so far has been the single busiest night we have had at Naples since maybe last March...no kidding! I think I may have posted this thread Thursday afternoon in fact, and trust me when I tell you that none of us were ready for the swarm of people that lined the sidewalks Thursday evening....business really has been "Awful" for the past 6 mos.
I'm glad to hear several replies of great food and service...myself and all the other servers here at Naples really take pride in our restaurant and work our buns off to make sure you have a great dinner and positive experience. Please know that sometimes it isn't possible to get food out of the kitchen as fast as we'd like it....if you saw the size of the kitchen in back you'd seriously wonder how the cooks have even learned to manage at all, the cooka are the ones who are many times the magicians here at Naples. They can cook at a dazzling speed...sometimes too fast if any of you have ever had your dinner arrive piping hot before you've eaten half your appetizer's or your salad!! please remember to compliment the kitchen if you've had a particularly good meal...they really do take their jobs seriously and love positive feedback!
Here are a few of the problems that have caused some of the "customer issues" since the change of hands....just so you all know what I'm speaking about.....
1) and this appears to be the one that is under most contention...we no longer give out unlimited bread to our tables. Yes i know we always did before, and trust me, my new boss really isn't trying to nickle and dime those who have supported our restaurant for years and years...here's the scoop...over the past year, a sack of flourrose from a measley $9.00 and change, to over $30.00 a bag. That's extreme in the food industry. the second part of the problem was that we really were taking alot of bread out to tables that ended up getting wasted and thrown back in the garbage..etc...No it's not anyone's fault, but many times our customers order additional bread that they realize they just can't eat by the time it comes back out to the table...LOL You all know how big our portions are right??
well some customers have really taken this personally, the charge for additional bread. Everyone still gets a free breadstick (and yes they are delicious!!) but extra's are adding a small bit to the check.
We aren't a huge corporate chain that can acquire food at bulk savings, and many chain restaraunts have a major corporation backing them to absorb the costs during slow times...or when the economy sucks...like now!! So please don't judge my boss for trying to make enough to keep the restaraunt open "and" successful!
2) other upcharges - we have also added a few other small upcharges for things like extra dressing, extra sauce, extra cheese, etc... some people have been upset because they feel they are getting nickle & dimed for the extra niceties that are usually included at no charge at extra restaurants. I can completely commiserate with the customers and I know it may seem like we're trying to charge extra for everything, but what my boss has tried to do was "instead" of increasing ALL the prices for the meals to include the extra costs, he's only passing off the costs to the customers who wish the extra items. This way your meal won't cost you more so that you can pay for another table who's ordering extra sauce & cheese to their plates for free. Obviously, if your spaghetti looks a bit dry...we will take it back to the kitchen and have them add extra without the charge. The other night someone asked me for extra sauce and I charged them to bring it to their table. I failed to ask them (or even to look...we were busy Thursday evening.....lol) the reason they needed the extra sauce. Their side of eggplant really was too dry, and I should have scooped the dish up and taken it back to the kitchen to have them solve the issue. This was my fault, and they payed the charge. I explained that I shouldn't have charged them and I promised them that I would bring them extra sauce next time to compensate....
One of the things that I would also like to mention is that my boss really has since taking over Naples spent a considerable amount of money re-vamping the kitchen and other areas of the restaurant. He unfortunately bought the restaurant in May right as the economy began to turn real sour, and of course our wonderful SnowBird customers had flown the coop so to speak. He has done his best to keep the food as high of a quality as you all remember it, although some things, like the price of veal for instance, has sky-rocketed and our veal parm dinner is quite a bit higher than most of you might remember. Even at the new higher price he tells me he really isn't making money off the dish, but veal parm is a favorite and he doesn't want to price it so high that no one can afford it at all. Also, we STILL have REAL butter....which is VERY expensive, and he has resisted the urge to switch to a cheap butter imitation spread, which many other restaurants of our caliber give to their customers.
One of the things that our new boss has also done for the staff as well as the customers was to spend (I think over $30,000) on new A/C units to keep the restaurant cool. Anyone who can remember how sickenly hot it could get while they ate dinner here will appreciate the new units! I know the staff worships the ground he walks on for doing this for us! Our old owner, bless his heart, spent a fortune fixing the old ones but couldn't bring himself to shell out the cash to keep us all comfortable.
Wow... this has really turned into a bible epic here...lol, but I really wanted to explian some of the changes we've made so that 1) our returning snowbird customers won't be negatively surprised, and 2) so that any customers reading this that may have been upset may decide to give us another chance to keep you happy....Naples has always been one of Leesburg's best kept secret's! I've always been amazed at how busy we can get throughout season, and how much customers love our food and service so much that they'll literally wait outside for hours...yes... hours, to eat with us! I've even seen customers who've brought their own chairs and small tables to the sidewalk here during season...play cards and have a few drinks while they are waiting for a table. I think last year some one had something similar to a tailgating party in the parking lot while they waited!
So you see...it would be sad if our little place closed down because of the economy (as I'm sure you all have noticed many places have closed) or because of higher prices or upcharges, which although they may feel unfair, really aren't designed to be. No one likes change...even us at Naples, but I hope to see lots of familiar faces again this year, and you know many of us who have been here for YEARS will do our utmost to insure you have a good experience again in the future.
Bye for now, and remember to say hello when you visit...I look forward to it!
Dee
