Wolfeboro Inn?

[upthesaukee]

Gracygirl, welcome and thanks for your input.

[Espo]

Why keep hammering a place when they are down? I'm new to this forum, but I see a lot of people really hitting T.W.I. really hard. Maybe people are piling on? Never been there but I am willing to give the a try, and my post will be 100percent honest.

[Chris Exley]

I only gave one review on my experience from Thanksgiving. Most others are giving their honest review of the issues and problems as they see them. Intermingled with those bad reviews are some fairly good reviews. Sometimes, an individual review will point out a specific problem that gets discussed further. To my eyes, this has been a thread without the vitriol that accompanies some of the other threads on the forum.

I hope that you go to the Wolfeboro Inn and have a great experience.

[gokart-mozart]

Originally Posted by Espo

Why keep hammering a place when they are down? I'm new to this forum, but I see a lot of people really hitting T.W.I. really hard. Maybe people are piling on? Never been there but I am willing to give the a try, and my post will be 100percent honest.

I don't think people are piling on. TWI is an important property in the community, and its success or failure is important to more than its owners.

Since they re-opened, the restaurant (Wolfe's Tavern) has repeatedly had problems in a town with several other good-to-great restaurants. Comments are (hopefully) helpful to management in trying to right the ship.

I've been there twice in the last month, once for breakfast and once for dinner.

Breakfast was great - service, food, and efficiency all A+.

Dinner (with 5 kids) was not so good. We were not greeted for five or so minutes, in effect standing in a bar. We got a nice large table but no waitress was assigned to our party, so it took 35 minutes to be greeted and to get menus. This gave me plenty of time to observe the venue. Waitstaff appeared incredibly stressed and were verbally complaining to customers about their tasks. The food was only fair - for what the food was,I thought I overpaid. I ordered a pizza (after the long delay I was hungry, and how can you screw up pizza?) It was horribly - greasy, bland, and lukewarm at best.

So - how's the Inn? Mixed notices is the best I can say, and, in a town where you can walk into the Bayside, the Restaurant, or Garwoods and never have a bad experience or a bad meal, I fear they may be running out of time.

There's SOMETHING about the staff that's a problem. I don't know anything about running a restaurant, and if I didn't know Wolfeboro I'd say, "Hick town, country bumpkin losers with Yankee reserve, what do you expect?" - Except I DO know Wolfeboro, and I know that the waitstaff at the competition, including two restaurants that have opened in the past year, are superb. The Inn draws from the same labor pool, so that's not it.

I'm afraid I have no constructive suggestions about what to do. If it were my problem to solve, I'd get a world class greeter, stand in the kitchen so no bad food went out the door, and try to stay in business until summer.

[secondcurve]

Originally Posted by gokart-mozart

I don't think people are piling on. TWI is an important property in the community, and its success or failure is important to more than its owners.

Since they re-opened, the restaurant (Wolfe's Tavern) has repeatedly had problems in a town with several other good-to-great restaurants. Comments are (hopefully) helpful to management in trying to right the ship.

I've been there twice in the last month, once for breakfast and once for dinner.

Breakfast was great - service, food, and efficiency all A+.

Dinner (with 5 kids) was not so good. We were not greeted for five or so minutes, in effect standing in a bar. We got a nice large table but no waitress was assigned to our party, so it took 35 minutes to be greeted and to get menus. This gave me plenty of time to observe the venue. Waitstaff appeared incredibly stressed and were verbally complaining to customers about their tasks. The food was only fair - for what the food was,I thought I overpaid. I ordered a pizza (after the long delay I was hungry, and how can you screw up pizza?) It was horribly - greasy, bland, and lukewarm at best.

So - how's the Inn? Mixed notices is the best I can say, and, in a town where you can walk into the Bayside, the Restaurant, or Garwoods and never have a bad experience or a bad meal, I fear they may be running out of time.

There's SOMETHING about the staff that's a problem. I don't know anything about running a restaurant, and if I didn't know Wolfeboro I'd say, "Hick town, country bumpkin losers with Yankee reserve, what do you expect?" - Except I DO know Wolfeboro, and I know that the waitstaff at the competition, including two restaurants that have opened in the past year, are superb. The Inn draws from the same labor pool, so that's not it.

I'm afraid I have no constructive suggestions about what to do. If it were my problem to solve, I'd get a world class greeter, stand in the kitchen so no bad food went out the door, and try to stay in business until summer.

Very well said. These are the types of issues I have experienced, too. That being said, I have found the food to be pretty good, but service, as you point out, is lacking and then some. My theory is management understaffs and underpays its help so you wind up with disgruntled employees who deliver consistently poor service. I am not sure how to solve the issue either but I find it hysterical that one of the services that the owners of the Inn provide is consulting to other restaurants/Inns!!! Amazing.

Lastly, while there has been some improvement I'd tell anyone who wants to give it a try to avoid peak weekends, holidays, etc. This restaurant does especially poorly when there are a lot of folks around. Mozart's comments about waiting at the door to be acknowledged are spot on. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me!

[George Soderberg]

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is George Soderberg and I am the new General Manager of the Wolfeboro Inn and Wolfe's Tavern.

By way of some small introduction I have have been in the hotel industry for twenty-five years the bulk of which, twenty-two years, were spent with Omni Hotels in locations all over the country.

The main purpose for my post is invite all of you to become a member of our "Community Advisory Board". It is my wish to engage the community enlisting your thoughts, suggestions and ideas as we move forward. It is also a forum where I can address personally and directly any issues/theories that you may have and/or are floating about but equally as important it's an opportunity for us to get to know each other.

The "CAB" meetings would be quarterly, take approximatley an hour and I would foresee tastings of one kind or another being in the mix. That is to say, I'd like these to be informative and fun. I would like to limit it to 10 or 12 participants first come, first serve and after a year invite others who remain interested to revolve in.

If you have an interest please reply via my email or phone number at gsoderberg@haycreekhotels.com or 603.569.3016 extention 805 or just stop in! Of course you can reach me directly absolutely anytime for any reason.

I am very excited about this opportunity and anxious to meet all of you. I appreciate the feedback. We have been focusing on service and food quality and receiving positive responses. We are not where we want to be yet but we are determined headed in the right direction.

You should know that we are bringing back some old favorites before we do our seasonal menu change. We make our soups from scratch and the French Onion soup is back some come on in and check it out!

Until we meet, enjoy and thank you for your passion!

Warm Regards,

George

[Heaven]

Thank you George, and I do wish you and the Wolfe Inn the best. I see your employment history below and am feeling a disconnect.
Where is the service component?
Where is the small town/intimate gathering place component?

Again, I do hope the best for the Inn

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/george-f...g-ii/4/928/691

[jack1706]

Wow, I can't quite think of how to reply to your email George...

I quess with over 22 years experience, you and your staff would already know what your Patrons want.

I know like most people, I want good service,(polite service),
good food ( not overcooked) and reasonable prices and a friendly place to keep going back to.

Sounds like you are still confused after all these years or something.
Can't quite put my finger on it. I would think you know this.

I wish only the best for the Inn --
as we always went to the old one -even when one meal wasn't so hot..(we still went back )

Good Luck

[Chris Exley]

Originally Posted by jack1706

Wow, I can't quite think of how to reply to your email George...

I quess with over 22 years experience, you and your staff would already know what your Patrons want.

Good Luck

I wouldn't presume to make that assumption if I had not been in the community. As a computer consultant, I know I certainly don't go in to every
different client and expect them to be the exact same.

[jack1706]

But, I'm sure if they are paying you... they have expectations....

and they want friendly service, good quality & their money's worth...(& you would handle them accordingly)

if that is what your expertise is in.

The Inn IS in the people business... food business & look forward to that same person returning over & over...........

[camp guy]

Personally speaking, if George takes the time to read through the many posts concerning Wolfeboro Inn he will get more than enough information about what people want, and DON'T WANT, at the Inn. Some of the posts are very specific about certain areas of the operation.

The practice of meeting with the locals (not necessarily native locals, but those who live here full time) is a reasonably tried and true practice aimed at putting a real live face to the situation so as to create a feeling of personal attention to a problem. I have no argument with this technique.

I had breakfast at the Inn recently and was pleasantly surprised with the good food and excellent service. I sense progress with the service end of the operation.

My best wishes to the Wolfeboro Inn, and to George.

[NoBozo]

Now there's a guy (George) with BIG Credentials. SO.........I'm just thinking..Gar Woods (Wolfeboro) for example..satisfying their patrons.....seems to work...???

SO: How come Gar Woods works..??....How come Lions Den works...How come the Wood Shed works...Good thing those restaurants don't have BIG Corporate guys lookin out for them. Maybe the Wolfeboro Inn needs to get a LOCAL restauranteur to run the show...... I'll BET that would work. NB

[Merrymeeting]

George,

Despite some of the responses, I'm sure I'm not alone in expressing appreciation for you reaching out here and trying to make things better.

With some, you couldn't win whatever you do. If you didn't respond here, the management of the Inn would be accused of being uncaring and disconnected. When you reach out, you are accused of being uncaring, corporate, and disconnected.

I'm sure it is no coincidence that several have noticed an improvement in service since your arrival. But you obviously have a long way to go to repair the reputation of the past few years. As has been mentioned, there is a lot of feedback here already. Read it carefully and you'll have a good start on the needed actions

Good luck

[secondcurve]

Originally Posted by George Soderberg

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is George Soderberg and I am the new General Manager of the Wolfeboro Inn and Wolfe's Tavern.

By way of some small introduction I have have been in the hotel industry for twenty-five years the bulk of which, twenty-two years, were spent with Omni Hotels in locations all over the country.

The main purpose for my post is invite all of you to become a member of our "Community Advisory Board". It is my wish to engage the community enlisting your thoughts, suggestions and ideas as we move forward. It is also a forum where I can address personally and directly any issues/theories that you may have and/or are floating about but equally as important it's an opportunity for us to get to know each other.

The "CAB" meetings would be quarterly, take approximatley an hour and I would foresee tastings of one kind or another being in the mix. That is to say, I'd like these to be informative and fun. I would like to limit it to 10 or 12 participants first come, first serve and after a year invite others who remain interested to revolve in.

If you have an interest please reply via my email or phone number at gsoderberg@haycreekhotels.com or 603.569.3016 extention 805 or just stop in! Of course you can reach me directly absolutely anytime for any reason.

I am very excited about this opportunity and anxious to meet all of you. I appreciate the feedback. We have been focusing on service and food quality and receiving positive responses. We are not where we want to be yet but we are determined headed in the right direction.

You should know that we are bringing back some old favorites before we do our seasonal menu change. We make our soups from scratch and the French Onion soup is back some come on in and check it out!

Until we meet, enjoy and thank you for your passion!

Warm Regards,

George

George:

Below is a list of what I see as consistent problems at your restaurant:

1) The hostess desk at the front door is never staffed properly. Waits of five + minutes are not unusual;

2) Once seated, it is not uncommon to wait 15-minutes to have a waitress say hello;

3) Numbers 1 & 2 above seem to indicate you have a staffing problem;

4) There are often items on the menu that are unavailable for weeks at a time. The waitresses either say management is in the process of changing the menu or we just ran out of that item (despite the fact it has been out for the previous two weeks). Take items off the menu that can't be delivered;

In my opinion, your food is pretty good. If you can address the above issues I think you will go a long way toward improving the Inn's image.

[George Soderberg]

Thank you for your continued feedback both positive and constructive. As someone noted earlier, this won't change over night but we will continue to focus, work hard and move forward.

George