Cabin 12 | Victoria | Government at Pandora

[martini]

Unfortunate way to get exposure, but maybe an odd blessing in disguise:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Br...245/story.html

It was the product of desperation. Judd himself was maybe a week and half from the street after his old restaurant job went south March 10. So he launched a Facebook group, raised $10,000 from friends and relatives who kicked in $20, $50, $100 apiece.

He hired 15 people who had, like him, found themselves living in the margins. Judd vowed to foster a workspace built on mutual respect and trust.

“We refitted an entire kitchen, created a front, hired a staff and built a restaurant with virtually nothing. We did it by asking people to come and help us build a better workplace, and they came,” Judd wrote. “We learned how to grout, and tile, and plumb. We painted and painted and painted. We scraped and scoured and somehow, amazingly, in three weeks we managed to create something incredible out of almost nothing at all. We did it by offering pride and something to work for.”

But this was a shoestring operation, and the shoestring snapped when the vandal hit early Friday, just after midnight. A $1,000 window bill is enough to sink you when you don’t have a thousand bucks. Judd was in the front room and saw it happen.

[VicHockeyFan]

Ya, I dunno, that seems a little under-capitalized, even if the dream is a good one.

[Jill]

The name is actually Cabin 12.

[martini]

Originally Posted by Jill

The name is actually Cabin 12.

woops! Sorry about that.

Mods? Can someone edit the title for me?

[VicHockeyFan]

Hmm, he got $3500 for that broken $1000 window...

http://www.timescolonist.com/Jack+Kn...247/story.html

[Caramia]

A friend of mine went in and gave them $40.

When he told me about it I had that feeling of half exasperation and half pride. My friend had just got out of jail after a bad encounter with coke. He's clean and sober but has lost everything - a good paying job, marriage to a wonderful woman, house... all gone. I've been trying to give him a leg up with some work around my family property and he goes and splits his first paycheck down the middle with strangers! His rational? "I've been that drunk asshole before, I thought this was a good way to pay back the universe."

Actually, on second thought, pride outweighs exasperation.

This little story about Cabin 12 is more than just a story about a random act of vandalism, and a bunch of people whose heartstrings got tugged. It is a story about self-sufficiency, hope, redemption, and how to pull together. It trickles outward - from saving a restaurant and a handful of jobs, to helping the Mustard Seed feed families in need, to giving my friend a chance to contribute to his own redemption.

Stories like this can have a lot of power if we let them. They can make a difference to who we are as a community. Well done Jack Knox.

[VicHockeyFan]

I gave Cabin $100 in Soprano's GC's that they could use for staff etc. The girl I gave them to seemed very happy.

[Jill]

I had lunch at Cabin 12 today. The food was good -- my husband really enjoyed his burger -- and the service was great.

[BlasterVic]

Live next door so go there frequently now and they are great, hope they make it. Maybe a little bit of an unrealistic dream for a starter but they get an A for effort and try to make quality food without breaking the bank. Had a few good meals and the service is great. Hope they make it and they've got the right idea.

[Pyroteknik]

Had breakfast here today.. they were apologizing for the slow service (which it wasn't really compared to some other places in town) They were very busy. The food was great and the price was right. I'll be back for sure.

[Jill]

I was wondering how they were doing, and when I walked past today it looked close to packed.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Cabin 12 hosts another Victoria tweetup tomorrow (7/9) at 8am.

[Jeremy]

mmm, I am loving Cabin 12. Great food, awesome price, friendly service.

[Caramia]

I've taken to having all my meetings at Cabin 12. They have couches with low tables in the corner, and large semi circular tables near the window. The food is damn good and really well priced. They have free wireless which you can access from Committee Room 2 at City Hall. After my last meeting I was told to feel free to come and stay as long as we wanted - take over the couches for a few hours if need. The owner and staff are not just super friendly, they are also engaged and intelligent on all the topics that interest me. As I go through this Johnson Street Bridge material, I found that the staff make a pretty good sounding board on issues as well as a mean benny. It is like having a living room downtown.

[Baro]

I keep walking past the place but never going in, I'll have to check it out.

[mat]

Have to say Cabin 12 is a nice surprise. The Eggs Benny were very good, and the price is right.

[Jason-L]

Had a hamburger there recently. Was pretty good, with good fries. Sadly, the place was pretty much empty though.

[martini]

I took my friend there today for eggs benny based on the recommendations here. She was very impressed! Better than Floyd's she said.
I had the Jack Knox and am still full.
We were the only ones there for probably a good 45 min. I do hope they can stay afloat.

[Baro]

me and my friends tried to go there for dinner last night but found they have some rather odd hours. They don't open till 8pm!

[AnonAnnie]

Originally Posted by Baro

me and my friends tried to go there for dinner last night but found they have some rather odd hours. They don't open till 8pm!

'k. that cinches it for me. I'll make sure to visit.

[Ginger Snap]

I keep forgetting to go here for lunch, but I went the other day and it was really good. The sausages were delicious, and even better was the bill at the end of the meal. It was about half full the day I was there.

[mat]

Originally Posted by Ginger Snap

I keep forgetting to go here for lunch, but I went the other day and it was really good. The sausages were delicious, and even better was the bill at the end of the meal. It was about half full the day I was there.

Well said - what surprised me was the prices compared to the quality of the meals. Lot's of places offer similar fare - often quite average. Cabin 12 is making a real effort to provide decent dishes (some very good) at very reasonable prices. Lunch for two came out at $25 which is great for the downtown core.

[Bob Fugger]

So based on the positive reviews I've read on this site, I proposed that we (my wife, her girlfriend and her husband) head down there for breakfast today, as our first choice - The Superior - was closed for a private function.

Perhaps I was expecting too much - especially after reading how much people on here enjoyed it. And even after getting there and reading the comically Floydsesque menu and getting a good tasting cup of java, I was eager to try the food. - but I was sorely, sorely disappointed.

It was moderately busy when we arrived, but nowhere near packed. I ordered the Kobayashi Maru (steak benny), my wife the Willie's Hash and our friends each had a The Breakfast Club.

Some 45 minutes elapsed from when we ordered to when we eventually got our food. I was getting a bit impatient, but I was enjoying the ambiance and the coffee (so good I could drink it black) and I assumed the wait would be worth it. Not so.

The steak on my benny was overdone (I ordered it medium rare). I don't think it was cooked that way, but instead had been sitting under the heat lamp, waiting for the rest of the meal to catch up. This was confirmed by the telltale sign of a congealed, unrunny yolk in the poached egg. Perhaps even more unforgivable is that the steak was utterly and totally unseasoned - it tasted foul. It was also grey, evidence that it had been fried on a flatop. Steak needs to be grilled or fried in a cast iron skillet. Notwithstanding, seasoning could have saved that error.

As for the other meals, I noticed that the bread on the sandwiches was wafer thin - club sandwiches are supposed to be impressive and even a little imposing, but these ones seemed almost apologetic. My wife's scramble also did not look as good as we had been led to believe - nothing was carmalized, no sizzle. It looked bland like hospital food.

The total bill was $54.91, each of us having ordered a breakfast entree and a coffee. The bill was in my opinion about $15 too much for the quality if food we (eventually) received.

At the end of the day, I actually felt embarrassed for suggesting this place.

[Caramia]

I've had the Kobayashi Maru ($11.95) and found it to be delicious, my steak actually was medium rare, my eggs soft/medium poached as I had asked. You must have caught them on an off day. I personally prefer the thinner bread on clubs. I'm after the filling more than the starch, however that's personal taste.

Definitely Cabin 12 is not the Superior, but I'd suggest a $54.91 bill for 4 people isn't a shock. If you had eaten at the Superior the food would have been fancier but the bill would have been much higher.

[cabin]

Youch.

Sorry Bob, we clearly dropped the ball on this one. I'm happy to hear that our coffee and ambience are working, but I'm pretty disappointed with the rest of your family's experience. Although I didn't see the bill in progress, from your description it sounds like you hit the nail on the head. Rushing and poor timing led to a bad product.

While no one likes a bad review, I do appreciate you posting it. I'm blessed with a fantastic staff, and I see each and every one take a great deal of pride in their jobs. So I was curious as to what happened. Upon finding the bill in question and a little investigation, we realized that we could have avoided the mistake by writing the order slightly differently. (put x2 on the left, not the right. It's harder for the cooks to miss that way) It's funny how it can be the small things that trip you up. Unfortunately in this case is led to the Heat-lampification of your meals while we made the second Breakfast Club, just as you suspected.

But I'm pleased that it's led to another small but important system that will help avoid similar situations in the future. This is important to me for the obvious reason, guest satisfaction, but for another equally important reason. I want my staff to enjoy their workspace, and that's hard to do when it's easy to make mistakes. We just made it a little harder to mess up, saving countless future headaches and aggravation.

Again, my apologies for your experience. I'm proud of my team and what we're doing in here, but I know that we still screw up. I hope you'll give us another shot, but even if you don't, thanks again for the feedback. It does help us.

Cheers,
Corey
Cabin 12.