210 replies to this topic

[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]

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.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Wow, Corey - excellent response to Bob's write-up/ critique.

Bob, try Cabin12 again - I ate there for the first time recently, and found it quite good.

[VicHockeyFan]

Heat-lampification would be a great name for a band...or just for a song.. so without further delay, here's my rendition, since we just had Big Audio Dynamite on the site, here is some RHCP:

Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind's elation
Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It's Heat-lampification

It's the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location
It's understood that Hollywood
sells Heat-lampification

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging

[Chorus:]
First born unicorn
Hard core soft **rn
Dream of Heat-lampification
Dream of Heat-lampification

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It's Heat-lampification

Space may be the final frontier
But it's made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon's not far away
It's Heat-lampification

Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody's been there
and
I don't mean on vacation

[Chorus]

Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl's guitar
They're just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn't save the world
From Heat-lampification

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Sicker than the rest
There is no test
But this is what you're craving

[Bob Fugger]

Hi Corey - I appreciate the thoughtful response.

I'm kind of in the biz, too, so I know what it feels like to hear negative feedback. I don't like writing bad reviews, either, but I'm glad that some very positive follow up ensued. Because of that, I'll be glad to give you guys another shot.

[cabin]

Thanks Bob,

Thanks to everyone on this site, We appreciate so much all the support that Victoria has given us.

And VicHockey Fan, thanks for the laugh! We were humming it in the kitchen all afternoon.

Cheers

[Baro]

I tried going back tonight around 10, remembering the evening hours of 8-12 but the place was closed. When is cabin12 actually open, am I reading the hours wrong or something??

[martini]

I tried going back tonight around 10, remembering the evening hours of 8-12 but the place was closed. When is cabin12 actually open, am I reading the hours wrong or something??

I checked on Facebook and it says open 9-4 daily.
Not sure about the evening hours.

[VicHockeyFan]

I checked on Facebook and it says open 9-4 daily.
Not sure about the evening hours.

That's what I read last time I was there. I'm going for lunch Tuesday, I'll double-check if it hasn't been answered by then.

[Holden West]

They are closed and a note on the door says something to the effect that despite several months of success they are too undercapitalized to continue.

[jklymak]

Thats a shame - we went there the other day and had a decent breakfast for a good price...

[VicHockeyFan]

They are closed and a note on the door says something to the effect that despite several months of success they are too undercapitalized to continue.

I talked to a worker there yesterday, he said they were just closing for one day. Still closed today?

[martini]

If you join the facebook group Cabin 12:
http://www.facebook....gid=69688632736
Corey's explanation is in the discussion section.
The gist of it is:

We need to re-organize internally to ensure that we stay within our labour and food/cost budget. For this, it all starts with the numbers. Within the last two months we have brought in a professional bookkeeper. She has done an amazing job organizing us, and has started providing me with numbers. All of our internal focus will be on staying within these numbers. If we're able to keep going, my hope is that this event will scare us into paying much more attention.

As for raising Capital, I'm afraid that this is my first order of business. Without it everything else is moot.

So here's my plan.
Today is Wednesday November the 11th. I'm going to give us until the 15th to raise $5000. If we're able to do this, the doors will swing back open and we'll carry on. If we're unable to come up with this amount, I will find work and honor all of my obligations.

[weirdie]

Imagine if every restaurant in town asked for a hand-out when they got in financial trouble...

[weirdie]

If there is blame to be doled out, it can rest firmly on my shoulders. I will admit I'm exhausted, but we saw this crunch coming and my efforts to avoid it were ultimately unsuccessful. I can see in retrospect many things I could or should have done differently. While the sales have been slower in the last two months, if I had had slightly better controls on our food and labour costs, we might have avoided this entirely. While I have done my best, I know that I have dropped a great many balls.

In order to get us there, we need to raise $5,000. This will get us out of the hole for the first time since we've opened, and give us a small $2,000 buffer to survive the holidays with.

I wonder how many times this is going to happen if they get what they need again. It seems to me like this guy has good intentions, but doesn't have the necessary skills to follow through.

[Mike K.]

Downtown eatery seeks $5,000 to keep doors open
By VibrantVictoria.ca
http://vibrantvictoria.ca/?p=1392

After finding himself out of a job in 2008, Corey Judd decided to rally the support of his friends and family to open Cabin 12, a downtown Victoria eatery at Government Street and Pandora Avenue, with the aim of providing employment for not only himself but for Victoria's most marginalized would-be workers. He managed to raise $10,000 for his business idea and hired about a dozen individuals to help run the operation. That was in the early days of 2009. [...]

[Holden West]

He should go on Dragon's Den. I'm only half-kidding. He needs someone to buy a stake in the company in exchange for management guidance and access to borrowing power.