Burning Brownie!

I have been reading a mixture of good and bad reviews on different food forums about different restaurants. Surprisingly, more than the food these days, it is the customer service of these places that is being scrutinized. Amidst all the blame games, I would like to mention one place which has been extremely consistent, in terms of both the food quality and especially customer service. I am talking about none other than Burning Brownie. I do not know the owner personally and neither am I in any way associated with BB. I just happen to be a very loyal and an extremely grateful customer.

My sister and I once went to buy a birthday cake from BB for a surprise party we were throwing. This was in August 2013 and BB had just recently opened its premises in Beverley. We had no cash of us; just a credit card and we were running very late. BB at that time did not accept credit cards. However, the owner, Ammar, was kind enough to give us the cake and asked us to pay whenever we could. We were so touched by this gesture that we returned right after the birthday party to pay for the cake.

The second incident occurred when we found a hair in a friend’s birthday customized birthday cake. After many ewwws and yucks, most of us still managed to gobble down the cake because Burning Brownie. I did, however, message the owner regarding this incident. He was extremely quick to apologize, asked me to collect a full refund and a complimentary cake. I told him that wasn’t necessary but I only messaged him because it was pretty embarrassing since it was a customized birthday cake and the hair was pretty long hair and if it were a tiny hair, I wouldn’t even have bothered. His reply ‘The length does not matter. A hair is a hair. If we cannot take care of these basic hygienic matters, we might as well shut down because there is no point in continuing like this. It simply means we are not doing our job well and must rethink our decision of being in this business.’ He again asked me to collect a cake and a full refund, an offer which I obviously, albeit reluctantly declined since I was extremely touched by such a kind gesture. It was a friend’s birthday a month ago and we decided to surprise her at work. Nobody had a car and my friend’s driver was already on his way to pick her up so we asked him to pick a cake from BB. Turns out, he was low on cash and called from the counter. My colleague called the owner and requested him to let the driver bring the cake and we could pay later. He agreed instantly.

These are the small (yet impactful) gestures that help you build a clientele. Retaining customers is what helps a place grow and Burning Brownie is an example of this.