Jen
Ok you took the time to write this so I shall respond. I will start by saying I find it hard pressed that you are acting in sincere regard for the restaurant for which you work, since you are taking such a defensive stand and have pretty much dismissed all area’s of concern for our less than spectacular experience at the establishment under your management. All except for the egregious offense of smoking in the parking lot while playing on your cell phone like a high schooler outside a local mall. Rather I think this is a foolish and half hearted attempt to bring some attention to the restaurant or “advertising” by bumping this up, if so I’ll be glad to humor you.
Thank you so much for your feedback. By the way I was the Manager, My name is Jennifer. I agree personal breaks including eating or smoking should be out of sight of guests.
Not sure if you realize this, but our experience was over 9 months ago, I barely remember many of the details of our experience, however you remember you were the manager on duty that night? Ok if you say so.
However I have to laugh upon not taking the time to read the menu, we are at fault.
laugh away
In addition the chef at Russell and Bette’s made the move from Woody’s last month. I think it’s so interesting that you would compare at all as the concept and menu are from two completely different restaurant’s. You know like apples and oranges.
_Again, my comments were 9 mos ago, so unless you are claiming i’m psychic I had no way of knowing the Chef from Woody’s made the move to Russell and Bette’s. I also fail to see where in any of my comments I compared Russell and Bette’s with Woody’s. In completely unrelated comments, I suggested The Pour House and Woody’s to @Metsfan86 who was looking for somewhere to go for reasonable steak. Never drawing a comparison to Russel and Bette’s, sorry for your confusion, more like apples to nuts. _
Have you ever cut a steak to order?
I can assure you I have cut more steaks than you have taken public smoke breaks
Quite frankly it is a sad that you don’t fully understand how special and unique WYB was. It can’t be duplicated or whipped up like a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cook Book.
Well perhaps you should tell this to your own boss, who on April 14, 2016 had the following to say to the Asbury Park Press
Longtime diners at What’s Your Beef have been worrying for months, since word began to spread that their beloved Rumson restaurant had been sold.
But there is no need for concern: The steakhouse is in good hands.
That is why, Schlossbach said, she and her team are dedicated to keeping the feel of the restaurant much like it has been for the past four decades. “There’s a lot of people who have been coming there a really long time,” she said, “so I think that we owe it to the memory of it. I see the same faces over and over again there, so people are very consistently supportive.”
“I don’t think you find many places like that, restaurants and watering holes combined, that kind of have an energy when you walk in that feels very rooted,” she said. “We’re trying to protect that.”
What’s new?
The menu at What’s Your Beef offers something different for Schlossbach, whose other restaurants serve “vacation-inspired” dishes born of the chef’s travels. Longtime customers of the Rumson restaurant favor the salad bar ,which remains, and the desserts, for which Schlossbach was given the recipes; she will tweak them with her own roster of sweets.
And she has added some new dishes, nods to the food served at her other restaurants. These include appetizers of fried olives with lemon basil aioli, coconut shrimp with chili lime sauce, and crab cake over arugula and tomato salad, a brisket and flat iron steak burger with port wine cheddar sauce, and entrees of pan-seared scallops with brown butter, and grilled vegetable risotto.
“We’re trying to keep people happy the best we can,” Schlossbach said. “We’re making a commitment to look at what is there and who the people are that support it, what it means to them.”
Quite frankly it is sad that either your owner didn’t fully understand how special and unique WYB was, or completely overestimated her ability to continue to run it in the manner she represented when she purchased it. Don’t preach to me about not understanding when NOTHING your owner said above was true upon my visit to your restaurant. The salad bar was gone, the menu COMPLETELY changed and there was 1 actual steak on “steakhouses” the menu.
Do you realize that most of the staff stayed on and although you feedback is I’m sure well thought out, have you considered how it affects the pockets of the servers with whom you affect by the comments made. For instance Gita who has been a server there for 50 years and is all she knows?
Do you realize I sat in your restaurant for just under 2 hours and you had 1 table in your dining room, and you are trying to shame me for your servers problems? That is laughable. Perhaps if they had a manager who took time to listen to customers concerns and critiques more people would come in to dine and tip.
_In a_ddition your facts about portion size of the salad are incorrect.
I can’t even find where I said anything about portions size, no idea what you are talking about
You contradict yourself, Boeuf Bourguignon is generally not served with Spaetzle however that was acceptable where the chefs interpretation of a wedge left you dissatisfied because admittedly you didn’t take a moment to read the description as a first time guest. In addition this was an item he had as a special a Woody’s.
I really can’t believe I’m about to have this conversation but here it goes. A wedge salad is served with (generally) a 1/4 head of ICEBERG lettuce. (get ready for this one Jen, you might want to have a seat when you hear this) thus creating a WEDGE on the plate!!! It’s LITERALLY a WEDGE OF LETTUCE/SALAD on your plate!!! It is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve this geometric shape with romaine lettuce. You can have hearts of roman, leaves of romain, chopped romain To use your comparison on the Boeuf Bourguignon, if I receive that and it’s made with chicken, or pork, or turkey then it’s not a chef’s interpretation it’s a different dish! I never said the salad was bad, it just wasn’t a wedge salad. Also you make the Woody’s reference again, this was apparently 8 mos prior to your new chef joining so I guess that’s like comparing apples to oranges. "
Best wishes Jen
I wish I could share the same sentiment to you Jen, but honestly I don’t wish you the best, espeically based on your response here. Instead of taking this opportunity to prove yourself concered about a customers experience you use the forum to try and justify the shortcomings of my experience. Heck, even with your own smoking in the parking lot you say: strong text "I agree personal breaks including eating or smoking should be out of sight of guests. _You know what you didn’t say? I"m sorry" As a manager of a restaurant or any business you have to be able to admit your mistakes and if need be, apologize. ESPECIALLY if your behavior might have given a customer reason not to return to the establishment under your management (Sorry for you Gita, I truly am) . . _
Sorry Jen, I don’t think you did yourself or Russell and Bette’s any favors by responding.
