During the summer months Letizia’s is a pleasant enough place to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee and a muffin. The sidewalk café has flower boxes and café tables, and the spacious backyard patio has big comfy outdoor sofas and coffee tables and a burbling fountain. The baked goods are made fresh daily using the best natural ingredients such as unbleached wheat flour and real butter, and the Caffe Umbria espresso is fine. But Letizia’s is not keeping pace with their customers.
In spite of the fact that many of their customers look to Letizia’s for lunch now – they added panini sandwiches and rustica pizzas to serve that crowd nearly ten years ago – they seem stuck on the idea that they are nothing more than a bake shop, and continue to serve their customers in that way, making for a confused and stressful ordering system.
For a restaurant that can seat dozens of patrons inside and out during the summer months, a system that requires all of them to get in line and wait while the counter person runs around trying to collect everything from silverware to Hazelnut truffles is well-nigh ridiculous. The result is a tedious anxiety-laced interval underscored by the forced pleasantries of the obviously overtaxed staff and one that tends to undermine the wish to create a relaxed and graceful environment.
By the time you get to your seat, you are feeling edgy and bewildered, and if you are unlucky enough to be missing something – like I was, God forbid! I had neglected to get a napkin and there were none at the service station – you will have to go back inside and stand in line again, or wave frantically to the counter man who is busy and will justifiably ignore you.
I have a hard time believing that the refusal to employ a waitstaff has anything to do with penny pinching. Rather, I think it has to do with the proprietor’s concept of what they think they are. If you start out as a bake shop and you arrange things that way, you tend to continue seeing yourself as a bake shop, even after you’ve evolved into a restaurant. Eventually there is a disconnect between how your customers see you and how you see yourself, and this discrepancy can do real harm, especially if, as is the case with Letizia’s, the winter time experience is so dramatically different than the summertime experience.
During the summer months there are plenty of comfortable places to sit at Letizias, but during the winter when the front and back patios are closed, a total of twelve tables is all they can manage in the narrow space, and the seats are hard bench-like affairs that discourage lingering. Because it’s not a place you want to hang out at when the snow is flying, the quick-turn bake shop concept gets reinforced, much to the eventual chagrin of the summertime patrons who will be expected to wait in line for five minutes to get a napkin while their coffee turns cold.
Letizia’s should give serious consideration how best to serve customers who see them as a sit down restaurant and not a mere take out joint.
Letizia’s Natural Bakery
2144 W. Division
773-342-1011 / Reservations Not Accepted
Hours: Su-W 6am-11am; Th-Sa 6am-5pm.
Features: Outdoor Dining, Carryout, Private Party Facilities
Avg. Price of a Meal for two including drinks and tax $20
Website: www.superyummy.com
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