There are certain things that we come to expect at some restaurants and serving bread before dinner is a regular occurrence. Johnson's Seafood and Steak in Northwood had been one of them until now.
Before digging into the details, it is important to look at the past. We have been regular customers here for 15 years. At the beginning of every meal, the server would bring out bread. Sitting on top of a small cutting board with a serrated knife, we always looked forward to slicing and indulging a homemade loaf. Our personal favorite was the onion but they had several other delicious varieties.
Moving to the present day, NH Reviews heard recent rumblings that their bread service ended. I didn’t think much about it at the time only hoping that it wasn’t true.
Over the past weekend NH Reviews ended up having dinner there and I had forgotten all about it. We were both starving and looking forward to our usual starter carbs. My wife asked me where the bread was and then I remembered and explained what had been heard.
We asked our waitress and she said that yes, the end of bread was true. Her explanation was that Rise & Shine, their bakery now housed in the new building attached to the restaurant, was “too busy” to handle the bread for the restaurants (they baked for all the Johnson locations as well as the York River Landing in Maine). Why don’t they hire more staff? I wondered. Ironically, you can purchase the bread in the bakery which means that you now have to pay for what was provided for free as a service before.
At the end of our meal, we went to cash out and the hostess asked how was everything? I asked about the new bread policy and she commented that they have had “negative feedback” from customers. What did they think? Nobody would notice.
In conclusion, the entire change in bread policy was botched. There was no notification anywhere letting their customers know that they were stopping bread service. We checked on their Facebook Page and saw nothing mentioned.
Next time we may bring our own bread and a charcuterie board.