I have truly never written a bad review for anything in my entire life until now, but I've decided that in this case it is warranted. I live an hour away, but I've enthusiastically followed this coffee shop (and Old Factory before it) on Facebook for years. Every fiber of my being wants to like this place. In theory, it seems like an oasis in Northwest Iowa. But five out of the last six times I've made the hour-long journey to be a customer in the last four years, my experience has been unpleasant and sometimes even degrading. I have never been to Town Square during the week, but the weekend staff has been consistently unprofessional and rude every time. I know you're probably thinking that this is a "me problem", but I've spent most of my adult life living in major cities and frequenting coffee shops, and this is the only place where I have ever had a bad experience--and I've had one literally every time I go.
I gave this establishment the benefit of the doubt the first five visits, but this is the experience that ultimately drove me to write this review: I called 1.5 hours ahead of time to inquire about their menu and ask if they offered vegan options for my friend who would be accompanying me that evening. The woman I spoke with over the phone confirmed that they offered vegan wraps. I further inquired if this is something that is served only at certain times, and she responded that it was served at any time every day. So, we decided to make the hour-long drive to Town Square. Upon arriving, we waited in a short line about 10-15 minutes. When we got up to the counter, we ordered a glass of wine, a beer, chicken tacos for myself, and a vegan wrap for my friend, at which point the woman at the counter said that they weren't serving vegan wraps this evening because they were serving tacos. I explained what the woman had told me over the phone about 90 minutes earlier. The woman at the counter just responded again that they were not serving vegan wraps, and asked who I talked to (but I didn't know her name). Then she told us to wait and walked away. After a few minutes, another woman came up to the counter and said they weren't serving vegan wraps. I explained that we had just driven an hour, and asked if they could make an exception and perhaps make my friend a plain bean burrito or any sort of food without meat or dairy so he could have something to eat with his drink; they said no. My friend politely said he'd just have the beer. The woman at the counter suddenly put her hand up and told us to "wait a minute" and began helping other customers behind us without ever finishing our order. We waited for a while and a different woman came up to the counter to take our order. We explained that part of our order had already been written down. She checked the paper and began to ring us up when she also walked away and returned to tell me that they no longer had chicken tacos, and that only beef tacos were left. I guess we were abandoned so many times at the counter that they ran out before anyone ever finished taking our order. At this point, I gave up and asked her to cancel our order and we left.
I understand a restaurant being unable to accommodate my friend, and I totally understand that mistakes happen, but once they learned that we had just wasted a two-hour round trip to visit their coffee shop, it would have been beneficial to exercise at least the smallest shred of diplomacy. Instead, we were met with blank stares and total indifference. So much indifference that they couldn't even be troubled to finish taking my order in time. No one ever bothered to apologize or take any sort of responsibility for anything that happened that evening. After so many unrelated negative experiences, I can’t blame this on coincidence anymore. I’m sure that your coffee shop is great during the week, but your weekend staff needs better training and some manners and a little bit of compassion.