Sawgrass Grove Market - Nothing but the FACTS
 

Our first visit was Sunday 9/11 - arrived 12:05 p.m. About 50 people milling around - 20 surrounding the bar area - 4 tables were occupied.

Chose Frenchy's for a wood-fired pizza - 4 employees working the pizza production.

"I'd like a medium pepperoni and sausage pizza".

"We only make one size and it's 12 inches. You can't order a pepperoni and sausage pizza. You can only order a pizza as described on our menu - but we can add and subtract toppings."

Their menu details 5 or 6 pizza combinations (each selectable pizza has several toppings on it). One of their selections includes sausage plus other toppings and another of their selections features pepperoni plus other toppings.

We chose their "sausage" pizza - deleted the onions - deleted the roasted green peppers...and added pepperoni.

The sausage combo pizza is priced at $15.00. No monetary deduction for eliminating the onions or peppers. There was an upcharge of $3.00 for the pepperoni. Total including a tax of $1.36 was $19.36.

I handed over $20 in cash. The receipt showed Total Due 19.36 / pymt cash 20.00 / Change Due .64. The cash register knows change is due - but Frenchy's policy is - they don't give coin change. They have a sign that says no coin provided but it is not located near the register.

Our pizza order was placed at 12:13pm (per the receipt). Our boxed pizza was presented to us at 12:48pm. Paper plates were not offered - but were provided upon request. The paper plates were....more paper then anything else. Very flimsy and couldn't support the weight of a small slice of pizza with just two toppings on it.

Frenchy's uses a wood-fired oven. The bottom of the crust was not crispy and was absent any degree of visible leoparding.

Darlin's Sweet Shoppe will not accept cash - only cards.

At least one other establishment (possibly 2) have signs posted indicating they will not provide any coin type change.

The majority of seating in the market area consists of flat steel or solid wood seat bottoms.

Them the facts and nothing but the facts...

And to think we once had legal tender.

Guess they think they are doing you a favor even making your pizza.

What is the world coming too?
Back in my youth, you could even get the staff to eat the pizza for you if you were in a hurry!:D

Just got back from Canada and they have eliminated the use of pennies. Agree that is a good idea. Article discussed no cash/change. Looks like business owner does not trust own employees. Next thing biz will want us to use phone to pay bills. Not a good idea especially in TV.

After reading the facts, I'll go out on a limb, and conclude that the OP was not exactly delighted with Sawgrass Grove.

That would be my guess.

So, statistically, if you process 50 cash transactions, you will make an extra 25 dollars by keeping the coin change. That assumes that the customers do not use any coins either.

Call Morgan and Morgan. They enjoy class action suits. The more people not given change the better.

Change
 

Please don't tell me they also had a tip jar.

"Darlin's Sweet Shoppe will not accept cash - only cards."

"This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" ($1 bill, U.S. currency)

I haven't used cash or coins in years. Using a card and paying it in full each month is much easier, cleaner and profitable with perks.

Probably a very big one at that

At Palmers Country Club, it will cost you an extra 3.75 percent to use a credit card. Probably not profitable there.

i did make it over there last week, & i hate to admit it, but was disappointed in the businesses inside & design. the place appears to still be under construction-the stage isn't even set up, or seats installed. the food/drink offerings were limited @ best. i will return again soon, some months from now & give a second look. it's early on, & i'm sure will get better :thumbup:

Yeah, we feel the same way.

We have been at Sawgrass a few times and were not impressed. Even Goldwingnut, in his recent video, commented how noisy it was, and that was when there was no singer inside.

It did not seem to be a place where we would like to stop and have a drink or a snack after riding our bikes.

Anyway, we will keep on enjoying our life in TV and see if Sawgrass improves. If not, we know a lot of other places that we enjoy.

Kinda sad, Kinda funny.

Tragi-comedy. An apt description.

The pizzas must be pre-made, frozen. They can pick the onions off for you, but they still had to buy them, so you still gotta pay for them.

To the OP, was the pizza tasty? How was the crust, other than not being crispy? I'm pretty fussy about my pies, and I don't think I'd bother ordering one there, based upon your review.

Personally....yes, I was disappointed. Based on many many small reasons (the facts I provided along with observations I didn't detail) - that when combined it generated a significant letdown. But that's just me.

They did not at Frenchy's....and I don't recall seeing any at the other retailers - but I wasn't looking that closely.

Excellent point. My visit was... eye-opening.

We stopped on Wednesday, at 6:30 more employees than patrons. Very quiet, with lack of people. Ordered a burger, because it’s a smash burger it only has one temp. That’s sad for us since we are rare to mid. Bun was a brioche held up well, bacon was crispy, cheddar cheese. We split and they asked if we wanted it cut in half. Came on a heavy cardboard tray with our condiments. For a well done burger, it had a nice flavor, not dry. Not a bad burger, just not great, for us due to well done. People sitting next to us had the pizza, commenting that for wood fire crust was not done to their liking.
Got a cookie at Darlings, it’s a large thick cookie, maybe 4-5oz. Not close to Gideon’s, $6 cookie, or homemade, but for those who don’t bake it’s a ok cookie for $4

Based on what the OP wrote think the pizza was third rate at best. Apparently they have not figured out the heating of the wood fired oven

I'm going to go out on a limb - because I don't have a factual answer - but based on the taste and texture of the pizza I'm leaning towards it not being a pre-made frozen concoction.

Pizza review - here it is, my opinion. This was my first wood-fired pizza (and I've had lots from lots of different places) that had a soft bottom and the dough is more on the thin side then thick side. Same with leoparding - never had a wood-fired that didn't have a beautiful pattern of leoparding. It's very possible they pulled the pizza off the stone before it was done.

The very top of the crust had a few burn marks...way less then normal for a wood-fired pizza.

There was plenty of cheese and it seemed fresh - I base that on the string factor when separating and pulling slices out. If it strings then its fresh cheese - at least that's my belief. The cheese had a slight after taste that I've never experienced from any other pizza place. It wasn't distasteful - just odd.

The sauce had a very slight bite (as in spicy) to it. I was ok with that. Beyond that, nothing spectacular.

Cup and char pepperoni (C&C). My experience is whenever a restaurant offers C&C they also offer traditional pepperoni. I thought I heard on one of the marketing vids for sawgrass that Frenchy's was using C&C. When I ordered I asked if they have C&C. The Frenchy employee taking my order didn't know what cup and char pepperoni was.

The peps on my pizza were C&C. However, they were the thinnest thicknesses of C&C I've ever seen and they had next to no taste...possible due to their tissue paper thinness.

The sausage was mediocre....at best.

Our pizza was piping hot and cheesy and I was starving. I was satisfied with it - but there will be no Frenchy's in my future.

If I find myself in the southern area and wanted pizza - I'd go to Piesanos in Lake Deaton (10 minute car drive from sawgrass). As a qualifier - I haven't had a Piesanos pizza in over a year so I don't know the current quality.

Thanks
 

Thanks for "THE FACTS", OP.
We too visited recently, not crowded but we asked dining patrons "How's the food?". Got all negative responses, so we did not order the outrageously priced meals, like the little Lobster Rolls and frozen Pizzas. Even the beers were $7 each.
Cash only and not giving change is outrageous. Even the environment was noisy in there.
I'm glad we have this forum sharing our experiences about businesses in The Villages ripping off customers.
We won't go back and glad we didn't spend a dime there.

Skip

Well, you know what they say about pizza.

A pizza is like sex. Even if it's bad, it's still pretty good.

barf

No and No.

Well, I learned something today. I had never heard of "cup and char" pepperoni. I've been eating pepperoni pizzas for 60+ years, and I'd noticed that sometimes the pepperoni "cups" up, and "chars" on the edges, but I didn't know that it was by design, or that it had a name.
More embarrassing for me is to have lived in Western NY for 40+ years, and that it's credited as a Buffalo NY creation.
Now I know.

If you have had the privilege of eating good pizza you would not even think this.

I won't go to any place that up charges me for using modern payment methods.

Once they finish building and opening the entertainment square (once they get past whatever issue has stopped them from proceeding installing the rest of the awnings), Sawgrass Grove will transform into a happening place. Until then, I'm sure the businesses inside are losing a fortune.

We got a sausage pizza. Worst pizza ever. Mostly just a cheese pizza with just one tiny piece of sausage on each slice. Bad after taste. Just plain nasty.

Will stick with Piesano's. They have fantastic pizza and it is beyond loaded all the time.

There are MANY doing this now.
We've seen it in at least a half dozen recently.
The big problem is that it's a surprise additon on the bottom of the bill. No warning!
See the thread in Restaurant Discussions called Credit Card fee.
Skip

Never said "I hate The Villages". I don't like underhanded practices like this. I think most reading here feel the same way.
Skip

We live in St Cats. Ordered a take out pizza. By the time we got home (5 min golf cart ride), the pizza had welded itself to the box. No waxed paper to prevent that.
The pizza we scraped off wasnt very good. Piesanos is no better.
The best pizza we have found in the Villages is frozen California Pizza Crust pizza i reheat myself. A sad commentary on pizza quality here.
Flippers is OK, not make a special trip for though.

Thanks for the reviews on Sawgrass just another place to avoid in The Villages on our return.

Serious answer.
Skip has been around a long time on TOTV. I have never seen a post of his that implied he hated The Villages.

We think Piesanos is pretty good, so is Sammy's and Napolinos for pizza.

Not as good as we used to get in NYC but still pretty good

We are one and done with Sawgrass. Hamburgers served wrapped in paper and not on plates, lobster roll has mayonaise and celery which is lobster salad, pizza unappetizing and drinks served in plastic cups. We purchased 1 item at Villges Grown which can be purchased at Fresh Market or Publix. See no reason to return.

I think it's the wave of the future. More and more retailers are getting fed up with the increasing transaction costs associated with accepting credit cards, which keep escalating because the card companies keep offering bigger rewards to the purchaser for using their particular card.
I think it's totally appropriate for the retailer to charge less to someone who purchases with a tender that does not come with a transaction fee.

I ran into it a few weeks ago at a restaurant in NY near where I live. Two days ago I went to a winery and handed cash, and the teller gave me a withering look. I said, "I'd be happy to use my card", and he said "that would be great". There was no uncharge for using the card. He was selling wine so fast that to slow down to make change would have cost him money I guess.

We drive to Sammy’s for pizza, so far it’s better than any other place we have tried. But than again pizza is a regional taste