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Clubs committee sharpens focus on food and service

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Nov. 23, 2017) Members of the Ocean Pines Clubs Committee continue to gather information, anecdotal and otherwise, in the hopes of improving operations at association food and beverage facilities.

The committee’s focus at last Thursday’s meeting was the yacht club, where the biggest obstacles to success are inconsistency and a poor reputation.

Committee member Donna Hickey, a frequent visitor of the club, relayed a recent experience when she and a large party of friends dined on a Friday night. She said six of the 13 meals ordered by the party were inedible.

“Two of the scallop dishes came back and one was almost raw and the other was burnt, so [they were] two different consistencies,” she said. “Whoever was in the kitchen — there was no consistency.”

She said a seafood pasta dish was served cold with pasta that was “very hard,” and a new featured menu item, Cherry-Glazed Chicken, was “charred, literally black.”

“The waitress was very good … [and] noticed that we hadn’t eaten our meals,” Hickey said. “She took it off the bill and I said to her, ‘You know, that’s not the point. We don’t care about the money — we care about the food.’ We wanted a good meal and if this is the new thing on the menu and you can’t get that right on the first night, something’s not right. That’s what was upsetting.”

Committee member Larry Bohanan, who operated restaurants in the Baltimore area for two decades, said the experience raised some red flags.

“She never got to talk to a manager, but someone took the food cost off the bill — that should be a manager’s decision right there. It should not be a waiter or a waitress’s decision,” he said. “When they’re told that there’s a problem, it’s their responsibility, I think, to get out and talk to the people and try to make amends in some way.

“I just think, quite possibly, the way that things have been going bad, the managers don’t want to show their face. They don’t want to talk to people,” Bohanan continued.

Committee Chairman Les Purcell said it’s difficult to gauge what’s being done at the club. New General Manager John Bailey, by all accounts, is looking into problems at the facility. However, he is also getting up to speed on the community in general and examining several other areas of concern.

“It’s gonna be a while because, as has been mentioned, he’s busy,” Purcell said.

Bohanan said he recently met with Bailey and was impressed by his diligence. According to Bohanan, Bailey is in the process of interviewing restaurant consulting groups and hopes to have many of the issues resolved in time for a grand reopening during Memorial Day weekend. The yacht club recently scaled back to winter hours, open only on Friday and Saturday.

“I don’t know what his plan is, but I do think that he is a very thorough person because he was taking a lot of notes,” Bohanan said. “I told him, I don’t envy you because this place now has a reputation. And when you go to hire people, I know a lot of people that wouldn’t work here in a heartbeat.

“[The yacht club] changes management all the time and you never know whether you’re going to be hired or fired,” He continued. “They want a job where they can have some stability and grow and have customers to come in, so there’s a volume so they can make money, whether it’s a server or a manager … you’ve got to overcome that. It’s not going to be easy.”

Hickey agreed to write Bailey a note about her experience.

Also during the meeting, committee member Gerald Horn showed a draft of comment cards to be distributed all at food and beverage facilities in the Pines. If utilized, the plan would be for the committee members to collect the card and analyze the results, then report to Bailey and the board.

“Some of the things we’re talking about tonight, how to get information — the more formalized and the more data-driven we can make that input, the better,” he said.

Horn said he sent a copy to Bailey.

“I haven’t heard back from him yet, but ultimately it’s going to be his decision,” he said.

The committee will skip its December meeting and tentatively plans to convene on Jan. 18.