Trudy’s North Star; is it Falling?

Birthday groups are never any fun to contend with because it is often hard to accommodate them on a busy weekend, but they can be a great source of revenue, good tips (if the guests act accordingly) and great for word of mouth business (social media, etc..).

I was at the North Star Location on Burnet road on January 10th at about 8:00 p.m.. Our party of nine had to wait until 9, a full hour.  That is likely par for the course on a Saturday night. The bar staff was very attentive and got our drink orders filled quickly. Here’s where the fun begins.  First of all, don’t send service staff through the bar area. The workflow was terrible. Servers had to zip through the crowd with large beverage trays and they simply could not easily traverse the crowd. They were obviously not happy about it because the “Excuse Me’s” were curt, desperate, and frequent. I’ve worked in the service industry and I know there are always challenges, but they had major workflow issues.

Secondly don’t be a smart-ass. At 40 minutes, one of the guests walked up to the hostess station and inquired about our table wait time. “40 minutes ago, I told you it would be an hour.” Wow, really?  Hardly amazing customer service. We were seated at a little over an hour.

Lastly, don’t put baby in a corner. They seated the party gang at three tables in the bar area; two adult sized tabled and one shorter bistro table. It was as if they thought young children were with us. When asked to exchange the table, the request was denied. Taking things into our own hands, we moved a table and made a quick switch. The host did submit and assist with the switch, but was quite chagrin about it.

I must commend our server “Kolos,” as he was incredibly quick, engaged, and precise. All of our food came out together, hot, and everyone was happy with selections/presentation. What turned everyone off was the lack of thanks for the business from other staff. The food is great, bar staff attentive, however hosting and service staff left something to be desired.  I’d say find a place that takes reservations or is a little less popular if planning a night out for a large group.

When you have patrons coming in to a restaurant to spend their money, a great experience is what is expected.  There are plenty of other places to dine in this city.

Dan Parkenson, General Manager
Kory Mozingo, Assistant general Manager