Rant: An Easter Brunch Fail & Crying Children

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, an Italian restaurant in the northern suburbs hosted an Easter Brunch Buffet, and it was a significant failure. Children were upset, screaming and crying, and obviously parents got upset as well. Many of the buffets had to be comped and the restaurant took a significant financial hit.

The Brunch Buffet contained many of the usual items, from scrambled eggs to French toast, from glazed ham to sliced lamb. However, the buffet also contained a far less common dish, rabbit fricassee. Anyone simply looking at the dish might not have realized what it was, except that each dish on the buffet was labeled. 

That labeling caused the chaos at brunch. A few children, who were old enough to read but young enough to still believe in the Easter Bunny, saw the label and were horrified. At first they started asking their parents uncomfortable questions, but soon after there was crying and screaming, and other children started hearing that there was rabbit on the buffet. The chaos spread and angry parents began complaining to their servers and the management. 

The rabbit fricassee was quickly removed from the buffet, and effusive apologies were given, but that wasn't sufficient for many parents, who chose to leave the restaurant. The management had to comp their meals, as well as everyone else present at the time. At later seatings for Brunch, the restaurant kept the rabbit dish off the buffet, so the holiday wasn't a complete bust for the restaurant. 

However, their social media, especially online reviews, will likely take a serious hit, and word of mouth is going to spread about their error. I'm sure you'll see this incident on the news this afternoon. The chef is a very good person, as well as very talented, and this was simply an unfortunate mistake. Hopefully, people won't allow this mistake to destroy the restaurant. Most restaurants operate on a thin profit margin, and unforgiving customers can ruin a business.