Havana's Don Now at Waterfront's Amelia

[Golf-Tinker]

Don -- known to those who frequented the Havana Country Club during past years -- is now the Restaurant Manager at Amelia's Restaurant in the Waterfront Hotel. Stop by and say hi. He'd love to welcome all his past friends to what will soon become the "in" spot to enjoy good food, friends, drinks and entertainment.

[golf2140]

Don -- known to those who frequented the Havana Country Club during past years -- is now the Restaurant Manager at Amelia's Restaurant in the Waterfront Hotel. Stop by and say hi. He'd love to welcome all his past friends to what will soon become the "in" spot to enjoy good food, friends, drinks and entertainment.

Thanks for the info. I hope he is doing well.

[l2ridehd]

Having quit Havana because of the quality of the food being so poor, and the service just OK, how is this good for the Waterfront Inn?

[Talk Host]

Has Don thought about advertising on Talk of The Villages?

[F16 1UB]

Havana's parking lot in the evenings is full. I was returning from the dog park around 6:15 pm and noticed. This seems to be the norm lousy food-service or not. Go figure.

[Shirleevee]

Havana's parking lot in the evenings is full. I was returning from the dog park around 6:15 pm and noticed. This seems to be the norm lousy food-service or not. Go figure.

Lousy food aside.....a few weeks ago we stopped in for a drink and the barware overhead was not only dusty, but dirty. We stopped eating there long ago.....go figure

[SunnyDaze]

This is great news! Great great news! :BigApplause::BigApplause:For those of you who don't know Don, he's really just a great guy, a fantastic manager of people, and I think will be a wonderful addition at The Waterfront. Having been a frequent guest at Amelia's over the past almost year, I welcome his vitality and creativity. After Norm and his wife left, there was a void. Food remained delicious, service remained wonderful, but something was missing. Donald Slage is perfect here. Amelia's is wonderful, I think. The food is very very good. And the service in the evenings is superb. We always ask for Matt to be our server, or Pete if Matt's not available. And the view of the lake is just superb. I welcome Don, and hope others do as well.

Full disclosure...although I am NOT a fan of Havana...I was always a fan of Donald's while he was at Havana.

Now I am a fan of Donald at Amelia's.

[LI SNOWBIRD]

:( :22yikes::cus:

[l2ridehd]

Sunnydaze I have to ask the obvious question. I believe that in every business that management owns 100% of all problems. It's never the employees or the customers, it is always the management. Change management and and you will change the business. Could be good or bad but the results will be a direct reflection of the management. So the question is, if he was a great people manager, had vitality and creativity, why was Havana so bad? If it was my business I would have fired every manager there a very long time ago. If you believe that all the different CC in the villages have any other difference then management, I would like to know what they are. Same customers, same base to hire from, the decor is a little different at each, but they all have the same opportunity to succeed or fail. And if you took a poll and ranked all the CC in TV for overall dining quality, the same few would be at the top and the same few at the bottom. I wish him the best at the Waterfront Inn, but if he brings the same management practices he used at Havana there, it will follow the same path down.

[Russ_Boston]

L2 - the only difference could be with the food budget. Havana's price range is less than Lopez for instance.

But other than that I agree that a restaruant is only as good as the manager. I'll give Waterfront a try though to judge for myself.

[SunnyDaze]

Dear 12ridehard...

Don left Havana when he was unable to manage his employees without being undermined by the owner and the owners children. Have you, in your ivory tower, ever been working in a situation where you found your hands tied, and left unable to properly do your job? Don did, and he left. It's unfortunate. But it's true. Do you realize that all the good servers and cooks left Havana months ago? With the last few leaving just after Don? His employees were loyal to Don, not Havana. Instead of snarking on an internet forum...If you should trot yourself on into The Waterfront, say hello to Don, and ask him for yourself about his decision to leave Havana, I'm sure you'll get not only the answer you seek, but also a bit more background from which you may make additional remarks. I chose to obtain my info from from the horses mouth, so to speak, and I encourage you to do the same.

All this being said...are we really going to shoot Don in the knees now, because he worked at Havana then? Really?

[l2ridehd]

Ivory Tower, snarking on the internet? Why are you resorting to personal attacks? Because it's an anonymous forum? I asked you a question that you chose not to answer. In your original post, you indicated he was the manager at Havana, now it seems he was an employee. Time will answer the question for all of us anyway. As I said in an earlier post, I wish him the best.

[Donna]

Don is a great guy...I am sure where ever he goes, will do well....

[graciegirl]

Dear 12ridehard...

Don left Havana when he was unable to manage his employees without being undermined by the owner and the owners children. Have you, in your ivory tower, ever been working in a situation where you found your hands tied, and left unable to properly do your job? Don did, and he left. It's unfortunate. But it's true. Do you realize that all the good servers and cooks left Havana months ago? With the last few leaving just after Don? His employees were loyal to Don, not Havana. Instead of snarking on an internet forum...If you should trot yourself on into The Waterfront, say hello to Don, and ask him for yourself about his decision to leave Havana, I'm sure you'll get not only the answer you seek, but also a bit more background from which you may make additional remarks. I chose to obtain my info from from the horses mouth, so to speak, and I encourage you to do the same.

All this being said...are we really going to shoot Don in the knees now, because he worked at Havana then? Really?

Alrighty then.

Boy Howdy.

Sunny, few of us knew Don, I didn't, and I wouldn't go looking to ask him why he left. The bottom line is that he will add to the Amelia restaurant which folks seem to think will happen.

Take deep breaths. And reread the posts.

What does snarky mean?

[Bill-n-Brillo]

..............What does snarky mean?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/snarky

Bill

[graciegirl]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/snarky

Bill

Oh.

(Doing a self evaluation and not coming up innocent.):grumpy:

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Oh.

(Doing a self evaluation and not coming up innocent.):grumpy:

:1rotfl: Me too!!

A bit of introspection is good for all of us now and then.

Bill :)

[SunnyDaze]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

If one cannot laugh at themselves...they end up bitter and gristley like 12ridehard!

Kidding! Just having fun!

[KathieI]

Sunny, I do think you owe L2 an apology. If you knew him, you would know he is definitely not ANY of the attacking words you used for him. I, too, am a fan of Don's, goodness knows, I know his entire family, but as L2 says, if I may interpret for him,,,, this is his chance to shine and show his stuff. Let's hope that he will, I'm on his side and will do all I can to help him, as I did when he was at Havana. Sunny, based on what I remember about your posts, you haven't fulfilled your TOTV "moniker".... not so sure you are Sunny!!!

[Russ_Boston]

this is his chance to shine and show his stuff. Let's hope that he will

That's my thinking as well. Fail once - you might have some outside issues, fail twice and you might have to look into the mirror for the reason. I have some very good friends who I love dearly but truth be told they are not very good at their jobs.

[katezbox]

That's my thinking as well. Fail once - you might have some outside issues, fail twice and you might have to look into the mirror for the reason. I have some very good friends who I love dearly but truth be told they are not very good at their jobs.

Russ and Kathie -

:BigApplause:

Hoping it works out for him...time to try Amelia's...