Best of Luck!
 

I wish Mr. Soderberg all the luck in the world. I dealt with the Sales group this past summer in scheduling an outing on the Winni Belle. Very very very bad experience. He's got his work cut out for him.

My wife and I went to a Christmas party a few days ago and were happy with the whole experience except for the bartender. The food was very good, the service was fine but the young man at the bar was far less than professional. He was in a bad mood and made no attempt to hide it. But, all in all I would rate the experience a A-.

Thank you george!!
 

Thank you George.
And my message wasnt meant to speak badly of the Inn and the owners at all, only to remind people that it is local people that work there and WE as locals need to support them especially this time of year as we should all local businesses year round. they have many events scheduled all the time and the generals club is great!!!!

WE haven't been there since the new opening because of all the bad reviews. I would give it a try just the same but get outvoted every time. We used to go there a lot. A couple of weeks ago some friends went and liked it but had all kinds of little issues. The one that most stands out in my mind is forgetting the cheese on a cheesburger. Now how hard is that to remember? And then when told, they just brought him a piece of cheese to stick on the burger. The waitresses should be checking out the chefs to make sure the meals are ok. It doesn't seem like it should be too hard to correct the problems that they have.

In May of this year a gentleman by the name of Stephen Smith said in this thread that he was the "new" manager and things were going to change.

Now six months later a new manager comes on board and he says almost the same thing.

I think that they need to hire someone who understands the culture in the Lakes region, especially Wolfeboro.


Here is what Stephen Smith said:


"Hi Folks, my name is Stephen Smith and I am the "new" manager of the Wolfe's Tavern. I took over late last fall and we have been working very hard on staff training and service. We essentially have an all-new staff, and rest assured that all comment cards are reviewed by the management team here at the Inn.

I also make a point of visiting as many of the tables during lunch and dinner that I can, and I know that many of our local regulars appreciate this. I enjoy brief conversations with many of them (you), and look forward to sharing more time with you this summer season.

I have reviewed a lot of the posts on this forum regarding the things that happened last summer, and I am confident that this year will be highly successful. If the current success of our General's Club is any indication (575 members! see http://wolfestavern.com/tavern-generals-club.html for more), we are on the right track.

I welcome any and all feedback that you may have, I can be reached at the Inn 569-3016, or by email ssmith @ wolfeboroinn dot com. Please be sure to say "Hi" the next time you come in!"

I think there may have been more than one "new" Tavern Manager since the renovation, but the change now is that there is a new General Manager. That means positive changes should be coming from the top down and include all aspects. Hopefully. Reading the employment history on the webpage of the top officers in the company that purchased the Inn, I would agree that their backgrounds appear to be largely in large hotel chains. They may not understand (or even want) the small local area hotel flavor.

Several people from our road ate there last night. We were all quite satisfied with the experience. The service was very good as was the food. I forget the name of our server, but she had recently relocated with her husband from Sarasota Florida. She was excellent and a credit to the Inn. The food was not the best we've ever had but it was very good.

I really hope they continue to improve because it's a great place for larger contingents.

Looks like a job for UNDERCOVER BOSS.

Seriously though, my wife and I eat out about 3x per week and are dying to try the Inn but since it's a half hour+ away I want to see a few good reviews first.

Remember the GM reports to Sr Management/owners so unless they give him total support and backing there may be no changes. We still wish them all the best in their efforts.

Inn Breakfast
 

I went the Inn today for breakfast. Ordered the $5.00 breakfast. It was very good and too much food for me. Eggs, bacon, pancake, and home fries. Service was prompt.

Thanks for the review FLboater. It is hard to screw up breakfast, but at least it is a start for these folks. I'm guardedly optimistic.

Wolfeboro Inn
 

We ate there on Thanksgiving evening and had excellent service and very good food. We were having a family turkey dinner on Friday so we opted for other items on the menu.

I also had brunch there on Sunday the 19th. two adults and 4 kids. The spread was excellent. Good food choices. Breakfast of all kinds, Roast Beefe and country fried chicken!!! Good desserts too.

Also I've decided after who knows how many years to start punching a card for a mug. I figured, "what the hell?"

I would have to say after going into the Wolfboro Inn quite a few times in the past several months, the restaurant has definately come a long way. My daughter and I go in a couple times a month, either for breakfast or dinner. We think the breakfast is fabulous! As I agree the tavern was in a downwards spiral, I have seen significant changes in the staff and the food. I think the new GM and the two restaurant managers have really started to get things turned around and heading in a positive direction. For all of you that have written the Wolfe's Tavern off, I would suggest giving it another chance!

Welcome to the site
 

http://i44.tinypic.com/1499wms.gif Gracygirl to the Winni site and thanks for your input as it is good news for all us restaurant goers.http://i39.tinypic.com/15firux.gif

Just wondering... does Gracygirl have any connections with the Wolfeboro Inn. :look: Her post seemed to be very professional. I apologize in advance for my Cynicism. NB

RLW, you seem to have access to alot of graphic representations . Where do you get them from?

It is also her first post so the value of the post, in my humble opinion, is of limited value. That being said, I have dined at the Inn several times in the past couple of months. The quality of the food has improved in my opinion and a number of locals seem to have returned to the bar scene. However, the quality of the wait staff is still lacking. Perhaps they have improved marginally, but there still is a big need for training in this area. Waits can be long, the waitresses have little manners and there is a general lack of regard for the customers. I'd rate the overall experience a B- up from a D+.

No I don't have any "connections" with the Wolfboro Inn and I didn't think I would get adversly judged by my professionalism. I have read previous posts from people indicating that the Inn is full of the "local drinkers" and one would think you would be happy about having more 'professional" type customers at the Tavern. Again, all I wanted people to know is that I believe the restaurant is on the right track.

Welcome to the forum
 

Gracygirl, welcome and thanks for your input. :)

why?
 

Why keep hammering a place when they are down? I'm new to this forum, but I see a lot of people really hitting T.W.I. really hard. Maybe people are piling on? Never been there but I am willing to give the a try, and my post will be 100percent honest.

I don't think people are hammering it.
 

I only gave one review on my experience from Thanksgiving. Most others are giving their honest review of the issues and problems as they see them. Intermingled with those bad reviews are some fairly good reviews. Sometimes, an individual review will point out a specific problem that gets discussed further. To my eyes, this has been a thread without the vitriol that accompanies some of the other threads on the forum.

I hope that you go to the Wolfeboro Inn and have a great experience.

Just Honest Commentary
 

I don't think people are piling on. TWI is an important property in the community, and its success or failure is important to more than its owners.

Since they re-opened, the restaurant (Wolfe's Tavern) has repeatedly had problems in a town with several other good-to-great restaurants. Comments are (hopefully) helpful to management in trying to right the ship.

I've been there twice in the last month, once for breakfast and once for dinner.

Breakfast was great - service, food, and efficiency all A+.

Dinner (with 5 kids) was not so good. We were not greeted for five or so minutes, in effect standing in a bar. We got a nice large table but no waitress was assigned to our party, so it took 35 minutes to be greeted and to get menus. This gave me plenty of time to observe the venue. Waitstaff appeared incredibly stressed and were verbally complaining to customers about their tasks. The food was only fair - for what the food was,I thought I overpaid. I ordered a pizza (after the long delay I was hungry, and how can you screw up pizza?) It was horribly - greasy, bland, and lukewarm at best.

So - how's the Inn? Mixed notices is the best I can say, and, in a town where you can walk into the Bayside, the Restaurant, or Garwoods and never have a bad experience or a bad meal, I fear they may be running out of time.

There's SOMETHING about the staff that's a problem. I don't know anything about running a restaurant, and if I didn't know Wolfeboro I'd say, "Hick town, country bumpkin losers with Yankee reserve, what do you expect?" - Except I DO know Wolfeboro, and I know that the waitstaff at the competition, including two restaurants that have opened in the past year, are superb. The Inn draws from the same labor pool, so that's not it.

I'm afraid I have no constructive suggestions about what to do. If it were my problem to solve, I'd get a world class greeter, stand in the kitchen so no bad food went out the door, and try to stay in business until summer.

Very well said. These are the types of issues I have experienced, too. That being said, I have found the food to be pretty good, but service, as you point out, is lacking and then some. My theory is management understaffs and underpays its help so you wind up with disgruntled employees who deliver consistently poor service. I am not sure how to solve the issue either but I find it hysterical that one of the services that the owners of the Inn provide is consulting to other restaurants/Inns!!! Amazing.

Lastly, while there has been some improvement I'd tell anyone who wants to give it a try to avoid peak weekends, holidays, etc. This restaurant does especially poorly when there are a lot of folks around. Mozart's comments about waiting at the door to be acknowledged are spot on. I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me!

GM WBI Introduction & Invitation
 

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is George Soderberg and I am the new General Manager of the Wolfeboro Inn and Wolfe's Tavern.

By way of some small introduction I have have been in the hotel industry for twenty-five years the bulk of which, twenty-two years, were spent with Omni Hotels in locations all over the country.

The main purpose for my post is invite all of you to become a member of our "Community Advisory Board". It is my wish to engage the community enlisting your thoughts, suggestions and ideas as we move forward. It is also a forum where I can address personally and directly any issues/theories that you may have and/or are floating about but equally as important it's an opportunity for us to get to know each other.

The "CAB" meetings would be quarterly, take approximatley an hour and I would foresee tastings of one kind or another being in the mix. That is to say, I'd like these to be informative and fun. I would like to limit it to 10 or 12 participants first come, first serve and after a year invite others who remain interested to revolve in.

If you have an interest please reply via my email or phone number at gsoderberg@haycreekhotels.com or 603.569.3016 extention 805 or just stop in! Of course you can reach me directly absolutely anytime for any reason.

I am very excited about this opportunity and anxious to meet all of you. I appreciate the feedback. We have been focusing on service and food quality and receiving positive responses. We are not where we want to be yet but we are determined headed in the right direction.

You should know that we are bringing back some old favorites before we do our seasonal menu change. We make our soups from scratch and the French Onion soup is back some come on in and check it out!

Until we meet, enjoy and thank you for your passion!

Warm Regards,

George

Thank you George, and I do wish you and the Wolfe Inn the best. I see your employment history below and am feeling a disconnect.
Where is the service component?
Where is the small town/intimate gathering place component?

Again, I do hope the best for the Inn

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/george-f...g-ii/4/928/691

???
 

Wow, I can't quite think of how to reply to your email George...

I quess with over 22 years experience, you and your staff would already know what your Patrons want.

I know like most people, I want good service,(polite service),
good food ( not overcooked) and reasonable prices and a friendly place to keep going back to.

Sounds like you are still confused after all these years or something.
Can't quite put my finger on it. I would think you know this.

I wish only the best for the Inn --
as we always went to the old one -even when one meal wasn't so hot..(we still went back )

Good Luck

I wouldn't presume to make that assumption if I had not been in the community. As a computer consultant, I know I certainly don't go in to every
different client and expect them to be the exact same.

But, I'm sure if they are paying you... they have expectations....

and they want friendly service, good quality & their money's worth...(& you would handle them accordingly)

if that is what your expertise is in.

The Inn IS in the people business... food business & look forward to that same person returning over & over...........

Wolfeboro Inn ?
 

Personally speaking, if George takes the time to read through the many posts concerning Wolfeboro Inn he will get more than enough information about what people want, and DON'T WANT, at the Inn. Some of the posts are very specific about certain areas of the operation.

The practice of meeting with the locals (not necessarily native locals, but those who live here full time) is a reasonably tried and true practice aimed at putting a real live face to the situation so as to create a feeling of personal attention to a problem. I have no argument with this technique.

I had breakfast at the Inn recently and was pleasantly surprised with the good food and excellent service. I sense progress with the service end of the operation.

My best wishes to the Wolfeboro Inn, and to George.

Now there's a guy (George) with BIG Credentials. SO.........I'm just thinking..Gar Woods (Wolfeboro) for example..satisfying their patrons.....seems to work...???

SO: How come Gar Woods works..??....How come Lions Den works...How come the Wood Shed works...Good thing those restaurants don't have BIG Corporate guys lookin out for them. :look: :look: Maybe the Wolfeboro Inn needs to get a LOCAL restauranteur to run the show......:) I'll BET that would work. NB

George,

Despite some of the responses, I'm sure I'm not alone in expressing appreciation for you reaching out here and trying to make things better.

With some, you couldn't win whatever you do. If you didn't respond here, the management of the Inn would be accused of being uncaring and disconnected. When you reach out, you are accused of being uncaring, corporate, and disconnected.

I'm sure it is no coincidence that several have noticed an improvement in service since your arrival. But you obviously have a long way to go to repair the reputation of the past few years. As has been mentioned, there is a lot of feedback here already. Read it carefully and you'll have a good start on the needed actions

Good luck

George:

Below is a list of what I see as consistent problems at your restaurant:

1) The hostess desk at the front door is never staffed properly. Waits of five + minutes are not unusual;

2) Once seated, it is not uncommon to wait 15-minutes to have a waitress say hello;

3) Numbers 1 & 2 above seem to indicate you have a staffing problem;

4) There are often items on the menu that are unavailable for weeks at a time. The waitresses either say management is in the process of changing the menu or we just ran out of that item (despite the fact it has been out for the previous two weeks). Take items off the menu that can't be delivered;

In my opinion, your food is pretty good. If you can address the above issues I think you will go a long way toward improving the Inn's image.

Appreciate the feedback
 

Thank you for your continued feedback both positive and constructive. As someone noted earlier, this won't change over night but we will continue to focus, work hard and move forward.

George

Thanks to the Wolfeboro Inn for a great job...
 

I signed onto this forum specifically to thank George Soderberg and the full staff at the Wolfeboro Inn for a very big comeback in food and comfort for Folk Gallery's Jonathan Edwards show on Thursday February 10.

As a sponsor of the Folk Gallery series and a regular patron of the Inn and Tavern I add my voice of appreciation and relief that I can again recommend the Inn to friends and clients.

The Wolfeboro Inn is very often the default choice of accomodation and dining for the folks who drive our two roads for the first time and should make a lasting favorable impression.

Looking forward to Devon Square next month,

Dave Baker
Points North Financial Consulting
Wolfeboro, NH

Welcome
 

http://i44.tinypic.com/1499wms.gif Arctos to the forum and thanks for your input. Please enjoy all the great threads that are offered here on the forum. http://i28.tinypic.com/o9n8co.jpg

SORRY: Sounds like another "Seminar Caller" to me. When will the BS Stop. These people are connected with the Wolfeboro Inn. Rather than POST..maybe they should just take care of the PROBLEM at the INN. :look: Once they do that....all the other stuff will just fall into place and the ratings will improve. How complicated can it be....??:) NB

Wow! How did you find out so quick that these people are connected with the Wolfeboro Inn?

Sorry
 

Had you taken a few moments to check Mr Baker's post out, you would see that he is not connected with the Wolfeboro Inn. He is a local businessman and would be reasonably expected to be a sponser of the show. Thanks Arctos for your sponsership. Here is a link to his website:

http://www.arctous.net/arctous.aspx

And from the Folk Cellar ad online for the show: Here is the link to that show. http://www.wolfeborochamber.com/comp...ails/did,1142/

Bottom line: Here is someone who sponsored an event at the Inn and obviously was very pleased with their handling of the event and his investment in the function.

Methinks thou "dost protest too much" !:rolleye1:

Mandatory disclaimer necessary in posting these days: I have been to the Inn 2-3 times in the past 15 years, none in the past 6-7 years. No financial interest. Do not know anyone who is employed there. I have not been compensated for this post :cool:.

upthesaukee, "Methinks thou "dost protest too much" !"

So mote it be.

To all those who I have offended, I apologize for my indiscretion. I am not a local and don't know who the local players are.

I have been to the Wolfeboro Inn, although not in the past three or so years. The last time was either before or during the big renovation. We usually went to the Pub section for sandwiches and it was always fine.

This time we went to the big dining room for a fancy dinner. Without going into the details I can only say you don't go out and spend well over $100 for an experience like that. The service was non existant..

I don't remember what the food was like, but I DO remember the Service. :look: NB