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« Photo Friday | Main | Shay Locomotive moves lumber industry in Cadillac »

March 24, 2009

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Geoff K.

I have a bit of a different take on The Shay station coffee company.

My wife and I went to the Shay station coffee company to meet another couple for a few drinks and conversation Friday evening. The live entertainment was Luke Winslow King, who is a talented local musician with roots from New Orleans. We've seen him at other venues and really like him. The clean, smoke free environment is a plus too, since we are all polite, local professional people in our late 30s.

We were enjoying our evening until the point that we started to realize that wait staff continually walked by empty glasses and ignored us. This topic became the center of our discussion and our friend mentioned that this had happened to him here before. This issue was obviously not a result of them being understaffed.

Later we found that this was a result of the staff restricting their service to us as they apparently do not appreciate customers who only order drinks. None of us were even the least impaired. When we complained, management refused to provide a correction in the poor service and insulted us in several ways before we collectively decided to leave and never be guests at the Shay Station coffee company again.

Besides this, I have used wifi all over Cadillac and I can never get my laptop to work at the Shay station. I am not sure what setting they have there, but it is not friendly to all laptops.

The service at Shay station is incompetent at best. As a local resident, I would just say that I would like visitors to our community to have an enjoyable experience. Nobody should have to settle for experiences like we had that night.

There are ample places you can get quality food and solid service in the Cadillac area.

The Timbers on the West side of Cadillac is much nicer in ever aspect for dinner and/or drinks. Herradura's on the South side is one of the best Mexican resturants in Northern Michigan. For coffee and rolls, we've got the Blue Heron and for soup and sandwiches, There is Kodiak's and Herman's (who is owned by one of the best chefs in Northern Michigan by the way). Give these a try and I'll bet you wind up happier than spending time at the Shay station...that's my advice anyway.

Geoff K

I forgot to mention Mineral Springs for dinner and drinks. After hearing we had been treated so rudely at the Shay Station earlier the same night, the owner of the mineral springs 10 miles South of Cadillac in Tustin treated us respectfully and graciously. The mineral springs serves the best pizza in the entire area bar none. Anyone who is in the mood for pizza should head to the mineral springs. That's not the only thing they do well there - a friend of ours was having lobster when we arrived and it looked awesome!

Dominique

Geoff-
I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience at the coffeehouse. I've been a few times on the way through town, and it's always been nice as a quick ice tea stop or for lunch. I remember the guy behind the counter being especially friendly and helpful when I first visited one summer for tea and needed some directions to find a couple of things around town.
I've heard about Herman's before and always wanted to try it. That's one I'll be sure to check out next time I'm through town!

Rachel Partridge

I used to live in Cadillac and specifically miss The Shay for their fabulous muffins! The service is severly slow and I am not surprised to learn that it was difficult to be waited on in a timely fashion. That is par for the course with The Shay. I have always enjoyed lunch at Hermand Deli and the Blue Heron has some excellent pastries as well. I will say this though, I've been living in the beautiful metoropolitan area in the sunny south and have yet to find a muffin as scrumptious as The Shay served up; I think it's worth the wait if you ask nicely. One thing I've learned since moving south is that good manners usually gets you good service.

Dominique

Rachel-Thanks for stopping by!
We've always felt that we usually do decently with service when we go out to eat, and I agree with you in thinking that it has a lot to do with attitude.

Beth Bosscher

I was browsing the references to my coffee shop, and came across this site. I was very dissapointed to read the negative comments posted by Geoff, back in Aug of 2009. We have worked so hard to achieve the great reputation that we have around Cadillac. Many, many people regularly enjoy having drinks at the Shay. In the entire first year of having our Liquor license, this was the only incident where we had to cut someone off (One of the parties was ordering their fifth drink in less than an hour, and the others were close behind.) We try very hard to maintain a very positive family oriented atmosphere, and I'm truly sorry that these people had a bad experience. Oh, and we really work hard to get the food out in less than 10 minutes. Our average is about 7-8 minutes, and we are always trying to make our service even better, so please give us a try! If the service does not meet your expectations, please ask for me personally!! Thanks to all of you who have remained loyal customers of Shay Station! We appreciate you very much! And Dominique, thanks for the kind write up about your experiences at Shay Station. Beth - Owner, Shay Station

Dominique King

Beth-Thanks for stopping by!
I enjoyed Shay Station when I've visited, and I'd make it a point to stop by when I'm up your way again. We don't have too many nice indie coffeehouses in the Detroit area, so it's always a treat when we can find a nice one where we can spend a little time as we travel.

montreal florist

It looks delicious. Really nice cafe!

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