Q: As a die hard Starbucks junkie, I seldom stray, but since the one near my house is being renovated, what's a girl to do? Upon entering, I have to say I love the design of the store. It's cute and trendy for sure. Since it was my first time, I had the barista recommend me a drink, which was the Lunch Date. It wasn't bad, (chocolate and strawberry latte). It's definitely a shake up of my usual caramel macchiato. The service was good and the atmosphere was definitely legit. . They also have a loyalty punch card, buy 9 drinks get the 10th free which is pretty cool too. I'll be checking this place out again soon OPTIONS:
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A: positive

Q: This particular Carrabba's is in a great location and has very friendly staff. The interior is beautiful and has a good Italian restaurant vibe. We sat outside and enjoyed a mild Vegas night. We showed up about an hour before they closed but felt very welcome. It was a Monday night and they had a very good deal for a 3 course meal for $12-$16 that includes an app, entre and soup or desert. We had a ton of good food and drinks for under $40! During the dinner the obvious debate ensued of Carrabba's Versus Olive Garden. I prefer the atmosphere of Carrabba's because it feels a bit more classy and updated. My girlfriend is more "stuck in her ways" with OG. The food is a bit of a toss up and needs to be broken down to the two things that matter in an Italian Restaurant. Bread: Carrabba's has a warm loaf of hard-crust with soft-inside bread sliced and fresh from the oven, with olive oil and herbs to dip. The breadsticks at Olive Garden are world famous, but I tire of them. My gf prefers the OG breadsticks but I pointed out to her that night that she sucked down the Carrabba bread like Kobyashi on the Fourth of July. Sauce: The last few times at OG I felt like the sauce was more underwhelming than I remembered. Like it was more watered down and bland. Carrabba's sauce seems a little thicker and sweeter, a little less mass produced and a little more home-made than OG. I asked the waiters at both OG and Carrabba's if the pasta is made fresh in store. OG replied no, but Carrabba's does make two of it's pasta's fresh in-store. Either place is okay in my book. But I think I lean towards Carrabba's OPTIONS:
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A: positive

Q: I'm a consistent customer of this place, but I feel like there are a lot of improvements to be made. I'm going to use this post as a laundry list of small improvements that could result in success for the business. -Credit card minimums: Let's move past the fact that the Visa Mastercard cartel says that credit card minimums are actually a punishable offense (pro-tip: if you report to V/MC that a merchant is using minimums for credit card transactions and a V/MC secret shopper confirms this, they run the risk of getting fined in the thousands... very mean pro-tip, but it's there for a reason)... So moving past that, this place is a quickservice bake shop and should be run like one. When the average itemized price of your products is ~5$ and your minimum transaction size is ~10$, it's really annoying! Renegotiate your interchange rates with whoever does your payment processing, but this makes you look novice and makes me choose a place that doesn't force me to overbuy. (full disclosure: used to work in cc finance.) -Average price points: Turn cupcakes back into a simple consumable or provide a rebate for purchasing multiples. The fact that you don't reward bulk purchases causes me to to purchase less. -Product quality: I saw in another comment on here that there was unprocessed batter... I've had that problem too. I've also had inconsistent coloring, hardening of cakes or desiccation (eek!) of chocolates (makes me question how old they are)! If you want to command a price premium, your product has to be premium too (not just packaging ;)) In the spirit of being positive, I'll say that my favourite thing about this place is the use of colour! I think that the Laduree-style muted colours on the counters and walls combined with the almost ostentatious food colouring (I love rainbow cake!) is sweet-tooth inducing! That whole artisinal crap that started in the early 2000s has made companies forget how much fun it is to take advantage of modern design and colour with food! (see Premiere Moisson, Au Pain Dore, etc). You guys have a young spirit, now run your store like you know what you're doing! :) OPTIONS:
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A: negative

Q: WOW WOW WOW!!!! I observed a Contract Writing Class taught by David Compton at this school! It was the BEST class EVER! The 6hr class went by soooo FAST! This man is a wealth of information! AARE has done a great job of keeping him on staff. We need more instructors like him in this industry! I give this school an A+. Lynda Toraya OPTIONS:
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A:
positive