Monday, June 9, 2014

Rude trumps convenient every time. Green Fig in Brooklyn loses my business

I love when a place goes out of its way to cater to us vegans.  Very much appreciated.  So the first time I ate here I got some grilled veggie sandwich with Balsamic vinegar and vegan cheese.  I casually inquired about the cheese and was shown a package of Rice Cheese.  I guess they finally made rice cheese vegan but as I checked the package there it was, first ingredient, casein.

Now this normally pisses me off but reigning in my ire I showed the chef the offending ingredient and then showed the manager.  Both vowed that the cheese was vegan and needed a bit of education to convince them.  Then they told me they got a different cheese in the order and weren't aware it wasn't vegan.  OOOOOkkkkkkkay.

The sandwich was delicious, crusty bread with a moist crumb, perfect.  The grilled veggies were, well, grilled veggies.  The sandwiches were a bit burnt but what's a little char amongst friends.  It was still good.



While I'm waiting there the owner calls back and profusely apologizes for the error...because not only might someone be ethically opposed to eating cow secretions but it might be a medical issues.  OK, he tells me there is going to be a correction.  I tell him about Daiya, he seems to write it down.  I tell him it's available in food size packages.  He seems to be writing it all down.  Again he apologizes.

The second time I went there was during lunch and when I asked the young lady behind the counter to put the Balsamic Vinegar on the sandwich she said it couldn't be done.  Weeeeeeell, I don't like the word "can't" and after some back and forth I suppose we settled on a "side" of BV.  Still no vegan cheese.

The sandwich was once again pretty good.  The BV made the flavor pop, as it's designed to do because otherwise we get the standard "grilled veggies for the vegans" food.  This isn't 10 years ago.
Still, two visits and two hassles.  I expect this from Joe's (what's a vegan?) Diner but not a place that has 10 vegan sandwiches listed.

Today is about 2 or 3 weeks after my initial "cheese" incident.  I called and asked if the vegan cheese was in and was told it hadn't come in yet.  (Huh?!)  OK, now I'm pissed because either you lied to me once or twice but when I asked why someone couldn't just run down to Whole Foods and pick up some Daiya I was pretty much blown off.  "Look, you guys are going to lose a customer here because I could be ordering 3 or 4 times a week," was met with, "OK."

Nice attitude guys.  Don't do me any favors.  I'd rather eat bodega fruit for lunch.  I just hope you're not selling non vegan cheese to vegans because that would really suck.