Thank you for filling us in on the new ownership situation, as my wife and I were horrible disappointed the last time that we went to the Brick Oven in Layton. For years, anytime that we were in Provo,(other than game days) we have always love going to the Brick Oven, as it is my wife's favorite restaurant. I have a severe form of an auto-immune disease that affects my G.I. tract, along with gastroparesis, and so it is truly a risk going out to eat. That being said, I was always willing to make the necessary preparations so that we could also enjoy the rest of the day afterwards, and to enjoy a meal with my wife at her favorite place, since she sacrifices so much for me and it is one of the only small things that she ever requests.
When a Brick Oven was opened up North, in Layton; we were elated, and my wife went a few times after it opened, without any issues. Due to the progression of my disease and Gastroparesis(stomach stopped working entirely) leading to a feeding tube and several surgeries, we took a break from eating out much. If we did go out, I typically would order something to drink or soup, but could rarely take anything in orally, besides a few sips; but we still tried to have a social life. It had been about 1 1/2 years or so since we had been there, but we decided to go there to celebrate the fact that I had just had my NJ feeding tube removed after 4 1/2 years. For the first time in years, I could finally go on a date with my wife, and had doctor's approval to order anything, to try and see how I could handle it. You can only imagine how excited that I was, even though I knew that my stomach had shrunk and I needed to be cautious.
Well, saying that my first attempt at a normal dinner was a disaster, would have been like calling a house fire a little bit of bad night. It was borderline humorous, and was like something out of a National Lampoon movie. It was so bad, that not only did that get both of our orders wrong 4 times each,(I really wanted my food, and tried to let them correct things patiently) but the cheese bread was probably reheated from 8 hours earlier. Our entrees were so cold, that when they brought it to us, the sauces and cheese had a solid film on top of them like you find in the fridge. The pasta, all 8 bowls that were incorrectly brought out; were like rubber and would not have even stuck to the wall if I threw it. I am sure that it was coming straight out of the fridge in back, after being cooked the night before. I have had leftovers that I reheated 4-5 days later, that looked more appealing than this "freshly cooked" food. To top it off, when I called the server over, to ask her for fresh cheese bread and the correct sauce with the correct type of pasta; after 3 times of bring out the wrong corrected order for both of us, she admitted that she did not know the difference between the different types of pasta and sauces.(She was guessing) She tried to tell me that a white sauce was a meat sauce, and that our entrees wre just fine. Since we were the only ones there, we could not just walk up and choose our pasta and sauce, as they had put it all back in the kitchen; and so we were stuck with her.
Ultimately, I did something that I rarely do, and got the manager involved.(I never try to piss of my cooks or doctors.) He said that they would take 1/2 off of our order, because my wife had eaten part of hers. She tried to take a bite of our appetizer of stuffed mushrooms(our tradition), but could not even finish one bite due to the mushrooms being like rubber, the filling so slimy that it was a watered, soggy bread that was more a paste, and the top mozzarella burned to the point that it came off of the entire order when we tried to spoon the first mushroom onto a plate.I stopped her, as I used to be a cook, and was afraid that she was going to get some type of food poisoning. The manager acted as if he had given us this huge comp by covering 1/2 of the food, and reminded me that I should be thanking him,and that ethically we were obligated to still tip off of the original total, because that covered the wages of our incompetent waitress, the cooks, and those that were going to now have to clean up a several plates instead of just the 2 original plates. At that point, we were also told how our server/waitress was a college student and single mom, and would only be paid her base wage of $2.50(something like that) since we were her only customers that came into her section.I never talk about my disease to people, since it is usually invisible other than when I had the NJ tube coming out of my nose or a surgery. After hearing their sob story, I looked the manager in the eyes and told him that I had waited 4 1/2 years to eat there, that I am legally disabled and my wife's is a nurse whom works incredibly hard for her paycheck. I told them that she sacrificed everything while I had my stupid feeding tube, without a single word of complaint, and that she had waited 4 1/2 years to be able to eat a meal with her spouse, in which we both could eat. I told them that they could either do just let us go now, or I would simply be calling my credit card company to dispute the bill. I hate using my disease or situation for anything, but we were allowed to We were allowed to finally leave, and my celebration meal ended up being an order of stuffed french toast at IHOP. I had hoped that it was only that location, but it sounds like it is a company thing. Thanks for the heads up, since we were going to go there the next game with my in-laws(we have season tickets).