American Flatbread

I wanted to let the Community know of a change in our "Call-in" carry out ordering policy at American Flatbread. As to not compromise our quality of service to our Dining Room Guests, we will be taking call-in orders before 5pm and after 8pm. Please know that you are always welcome to come in anytime and place a carry out order at the bar.

I would also like to thank the Community for being so supportive during our first 5 months in business here in the Broadlands. It has been an exciting time for our American Flatbread family, everything from being asked, "What is AF? Are you a bakery?" to being able to support and bring awareness of the importance of our local farmers. It has been a learning process as we continue to grow and we are very proud of our staff, many of whom live in the Community, for helping to make AF successful. We continue to encourage everyone's feedback, it is always appreciated and helpful to us.

As always... Come join us by the fire, watch the baker and cooks prepare your pizzas and ENJOY!

Cheers,

Denice Santangelo
Owner
American Flatbead
Ashburn Hearth
43170 Southern Walk Plaza
Ashburn, VA 20148
(703)723-7003
www.americanflatbread.com

 

I really think you are limiting your business by not allowing call-ins for carry out during dinner hours. Not many people will want to come in, order, then have to wait for it.
Unless, of course, this limiting factor is your intent.

 

I can understand the premise.

The oven is only so big. I think it can only handle 6-7 flatbreads at one time. If they started doing a significant carry-out at in-store peak hours, the diners wait time could grow significantly.

 

You are correct, T8erman. I guess I should have explained in further detail. Our clay oven holds 6 to 8 flatbreads at one time and when we get too many call-in orders it causes a backup and we feel it is not in our best interest to have dining room guests wait too long for their pizzas.

Denice Santangelo
Owner
American Flatbread
Ashburn Hearth

 

I ate dinner at American Flatbread one evening a couple weeks ago. I'll be back - in fact maybe tonight. It is a great place to eat.

 

AND drink Dogfish!

 

What is the earliest time I can call in to order? and pick up? Thanks.

 

What a shame! Way too difficult to take the kids out sometimes, but I love Flatbreads! Guess I'll be eating at 4:50pm from now on.

 

Raetopp, this is one of the few places I feel completely comfortable taking my little ones. I wouldn't take them to Callalloo or Anothai because I'd feel bad if they got up and wandered around there, but at AF I feel perfectly fine with it. And it helps that my guys LOVE the food.

 

Oh, we've been several times - I do really enjoy it. But my two year old isn't always a joy to eat with no matter how family friendly the restaurant is.

And let's face it - with so few good pizza places around, it gets hard to meet the cravings sometimes!

 

I have a two year old... I hear you!!

 

Sharse, Anothai is great with the kids. They love my boy!

 

We were unfortunate enough to go to Flatbread for dinner on a Friday night 2 weeks ago. When we sat down we were glad it wasn't too busy. Of course our waitress didn't tell us about all of the phone in orders placed before ours-with absolutely no warning that it might be awhile. There probably wasn't hundreds of phone-in orders, but it was clear that the tiny oven couldn't support very many.

Basically, we waited almost 1.5 hours to get our 2 flatbreads. Again, during that time there was no mention of why the wait. And the waitress seemed missing in action?!?! Also, some of the patrons seated after us were getting their food a little quicker than ours. There is no apparent order for the flatbread making. It was a Friday Night Pizza Free-For-All! No FIFO (first in, first out) mechanism that I could see. The pizza was okay, but not worth the aggravation.

We always make sure to talk with the manager as opposed to just never coming back. It is always best to let the managers know that you won't be coming back. She did remove the cost of 1 of the pizzas, but I would have rather had a good experience than $13.

So, they have officially made it our out "BAN" list (along with the usually suspects: Del Ray, Sports Bar, Glory Days, etc).

Even with Flatbreads change to no phone orders on Friday night, I have little confidence that our experience would be much better any other time. It doesn't appear to be very well run.

We keep finding that our excitement of new restaurants quickly leads to disappointment. In addition, we are not hyper-critical food experts, but there is a certain minimal level of expectation for these restaurants. Our "BAN" list includes restaurants that can't meet the MINIMAL standards for food quality and/or service for the type of restaurant it is.

 

Im confused i thought that I knew the owners

 

Wow!

I'd hate to be your child! ZERO forgiveness!

Wow!

It sounds like the manager did the right thing by reducing your bill and that they changed their policy after realizing their mistake. Instead of writing them off, how about a second chance? You are going to write off the restaurant for an inattentive waitress? I guess that you expect for every waitress to be perfect every time. I'd recommend that you get a job in the service industry and see if you ever mess up.

RELAX!!!
This is not a restaurant to grab a quick pie, wolf it down, and head home with agida (sp?) You are supposed to slow down, relax, drink a couple of glasses of wine, have one of their yummy (if small) desserts, and spend an hour "off the clock".

The only thing that I would fault them on (beside not giving me 1/2 off my bill every time) is not having some more appetizer choices to tide their patrons over their wait for those delicious pies!

 

Actually I am very relaxed, thanks for the concern neighbor. Sorry that you read my post as being intolerant. We really are not. We have actually been there a few times, but didn't want to bore you with my complete dining history. With very few exceptions, we give 2nd chances to restaurants.

Just sharing my experience at Flatbread, for those who are interested.

More power to you if you like them!

 

As I've often thought - "to each his own". What one person may like in a restaurant, someone else may not. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I can't give an opinion of AF because I've never eaten there. If I want pizza, I usually get Emillios, but may try AF one of these days.

 

I generally agree with to each his own, but I must say that I agree with the analysis of Mr. Rogers. Mr. Marcus' experience did seem like a bad one, but it did seem that the owners were geneuinely regretful, going as far as to change their policies.

I just came back from dinner there and LOVED it. The dogfish, the Evolution salad and the Virginia Sausage flatbread were all scrumptious.

I would hope all reading would see Mr Marcus' ban as a little harsh.

 

I think the demographics of our area, combined with the large number of restaurants, makes it very difficult for restaurants, even very good ones like AF, to recruit quality wait staff. We went to AF Wednesday night and had a great Virginia Sausage flatbread. Our waitress was actually very good and we had no problems, but I did notice a help wanted sign in the window, so it does look like they are still trying to get to an ideal staffing level.