Gelato Grotto Doesn’t Live Up to Expectations

While visiting friends this past weekend in the West Palm Beach area I visited the Gelato Grotto in Legacy Place. This is apparently a newer outdoor shopping and eatery facility, with some stores still vacant. If everyone else’s service was like mine it will not be much longer before there is one more vacant window front.

My friends actually recommended this gelato store because of their excellent “lunch special.” When we arrived, we were informed that the special was no longer available. In case you were wondering the special had previously been a panini with chips and a small gelato for dessert. At this point I was thrilled even though the special was no longer available because I love gelato. The gentleman who took our order was very friendly, and never mentioned the problem that we were going to face with ordering water. The next person that we encountered was another gentleman that we asked to prepare our drinks so that we could continue to our table that was outside to wait for our food. Three of the four people in our party had ordered a glass of water with their meal. When we asked for our cups of water, the first person to order got a standard sized cardboard cup. The other two, including myself, went to get our cups of water also and were greeted with an extremely disgusted look. The gentleman then snapped at us and told us that the only cup of water that we could have was an espresso cup. If you aren’t familiar with this cup, it is similar in size to a shot glass. So here we are with a fairly large sandwich, chips and a shot of water.

By this time, I am furious to the point of making fun of our experience. We likened the employee to the “soup nazi” from one episode of Seinfeld. The Grotto Goblin, as I affectionately call him, was more than pleased to inform us that we could have all the water wanted, but we had to continue coming in and asking for refills. The food was great, although I didn’t get my gelato because I refuse to spend my money to pay for this idiot’s paycheck after the rudeness we encountered. By the end of the day, the whole ordeal had become quite funny. However, I must say that the employee need to really go to some customer service seminars or the Gelato Grotto needs to re-evaluate their hiring process.