515 Crew

joseph wrote:the one downtown was nasty. the one in pleasant hill had good service. its like perkins but with booze.

vegan ss wrote:I've never been there and I don't give a shit about them.

El Rhino wrote:

vegan ss wrote:I've never been there and I don't give a shit about them.

+1



What exactly happened there with teachers?

As many of you know, yesterday DMPS had a teacher in-service at the Convention Center downtown. I was with a group of 8 teachers that went to lunch at Legend’s on Court Avenue. One of the teachers in our group found a hair in her salad. When informed, our server rolled her eyes and said, “It is not my fault. I did not put it there.” Then as she walked away she said, “When can this day be over?” We thought management would like to know of her rude comments, and thought our group member who received the “hair salad” deserved to hear something along the lines of, “We are sorry for the hair, and for our server’s response.” Additionally, we thought the manager might want to speak with the server about better ways to respond to reports of hair in the food. Someone in our group went over to ask for a manager and was told a manager would be sent over. Ten minutes later, we had finally been able to pay (after nearly 1½ hours of lovely company, but terrible service), but there was still no manager. We needed to leave to get back to our meeting. We stopped at the bar on our way out and tried to speak with the manager, but she told us she was too busy and we would need to sit down for 5 minutes to wait. We told her we had already been waiting, and needed to leave. She offered to have the owner come out of the kitchen to speak with us. We said that would be great.

Several minutes later, an angry man came out and introduced himself as the owner. He repeatedly stated that he was understaffed that day and that was why our service was so poor. Each time we attempted to refocus on our server’s response to the hair, he would reply that the entire staff was stressed out because “all of these teachers keep showing up unannounced to eat”. We told him that our concern was not with the speed of service, but with the response of his server when we told her there was a hair in the salad. From approximately 5 inches from my face, he yelled, “Let me ask you something! Did she charge you for it?” I told him that we were not charged for it, but the server’s response was inappropriate. He angrily said he did not see what the problem was. He said if “anyone” lets him know of the Des Moines Public Schools in service next year he will be ready for us. We told him that would not be necessary for us, because we would not be coming back.

At that point he yelled , “Good! Get out! GET OUT! I don’t want any teachers here!” He started walking back toward the kitchen. We were stunned that what could have been solved with the simple statement, “Sorry about the hair in your salad, and about your server’s response to the hair” (by anyone…the server, the manager, or the owner) had escalated to this point. We turned to leave. As we were walking past other customers, we heard him yelling “Buh-bye, Teachers! Buh-Bye! Don’t come back!” We turned to look back and he was standing in the entrance to his kitchen waving. He then yelled, “Get out teachers! We don’t want you here! Go unionize!” Again, we were stunned at his bizarre behavior. Someone in the group said, “Seriously?” He replied by waving his arms in swooping arcs above his head, wildly gyrating his hips in an obscene manner, and yelling , “Hasta luego teachers! Hasta luego! GET OUT!” It was a very disturbing sight. I replied, “You need to get some counseling.” We quickly exited the restaurant with him yelling unintelligible things at us.

Mark Rodgers is listed as the owner of several area Legends Restaurants and Jimmy’s American Café . He is part owner of Fire Creek Inn. I plan to respect his “I don’t want any teachers here” proclamation. Additionally I will take every opportunity I have to help him keep his restaurants “teacher free”. Please pass this on to other teachers, people who support teachers, and people who do not like to spend money to be publically berated by an out of control man.

Thanks!

Marsha

Dear teachers and guests of Legends, I am writing you this apology as I have been watching this whole ordeal snowball today. I have received hundreds of emails today, and have kept up to date on the new Facebook page telling everyone to boycott our establishments. It is too bad that this incident has escalated the way it has, and nobody really took the time to think about what they were forwarding on to probably thousands of people by now.

I am the Director of Operations from Legends, and I first want to extend my sincere apologies to all of the teachers out there. The work you do is a thankless job most of the time, and I applaud your efforts you give every day to make our youth turn into fine young men and women.

I have several friends that are teachers, and in fact we employ several teachers. And I assure you that this one incident does not summarize the way we feel about teachers and guests. I want you all to know and understand that we work hard every day to make sure our guests leave happy when they have dined in one of our establishments. The company is much larger than just Mark Rogers. We employ over 500 people now as we have grown over the years, providing jobs to the Des Moines area. Have we had some ticked off staff members over the years? Of course we have. Name a company that has been around for 15 years that hasn’t. Have we had some ticked off customers over the years? Have we given poor service over the years? Of course we have. It is bound to happen. But I would like to bet that for every angry customer we have made a 100 happy. That is why we have made it as long as we have. We truly care about everyone’s experience in our restaurants.

What happened with Mark is very unfortunate. But I want you all to know that he has been a business man in Des Moines for many years now, long before Legends was even dreamed of 15 years ago. He has employed thousands of people over the years, including the 500 or so we have on staff right now. Legends has donated thousands of dollars to area schools, from simple fundraisers to feeding the football teams, to after prom parties, to little league sponsorships. We cater charity golf events and have our own annual golf tournament for Blank Children’s Hospital where we have also donated thousands of dollars. We can do all of these things because of fine people like you who visit our restaurants.

Mark is a good man. He is trying to keep a company afloat in a very tough economy. He is running short staffed and is trying his hardest to make people happy. His sister was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer last week and he has had an overload on his mind for many weeks now. He is working 7 days a week to try and make everything run smoothly, and unfortunately this teacher convention caught him off guard. He was not ready for the business, was short staffed, flustered, tired, worried, and an unhappy guest pushed him over the edge. He knows what he did was wrong, and apologized on the news tonight. Some people are going to say that he didn’t mean it and to boycott our restaurants anyway. That is unfortunate, because it is not Mark Rogers you are hurting…it is the 500 employees that work for him that you are hurting. Employees with kids and families to feed, mortgages to pay, utilities to pay, car payments to make, school loans to pay, and the list goes on. So I ask you to not make this incident be the last of Legends American Grill. I ask you to please accept my apology along with Mark’s. I ask you to please continue to visit our establishments so we can continue to grow with the fine city of Des Moines and the suburbs. I hope you can find the compassion in your hearts to forgive him, and accept his apology.

Please forward this to the same people you received the first email from, as I do not want to miss a teacher or patron of Legends with this apology. Please address any future emails to troy.lebeck@legendsamericangrill.com

Again, my sincere apologies,

Troy Lebeck Director of Operations Rogers Restaurant Group

Nick wrote:Okoboji > Legend's

Boji Fries.

Both are very mediocre though.

jjjsXe wrote: I would rather eat at Fazoli's.

robdigi wrote:Boji fries rule.

Also, I vaguely remember someone back in high school telling me that "boji" is Korean for vagina.

Nam wrote:i think its kinda awesome/funny to see "word of mouth" in action

Shamone Jackson wrote: Flacid and shitty.

Shamone Jackson wrote:Is Legends the place below Peoples on Court ?
Either way, I ate there once and just ordered hot chicken fingers/boneless wings/whatever. They were $8 and fucking the worst. Flacid and shitty.And the bartenders were Cunts.Probably the black thing . Fuck that place.