Behind the Bookstore

Category:	Cafe
Address:	46 Main St, Edgartown, MA 02539, USA
Phone:	+1 774-549-9123
Site:	btbmv.com
Rating:	4.1
Working:	7AM–5PM 7AM–5PM 7AM–5PM 7AM–5PM 7AM–10:30PM 7AM–10:30PM 7AM–10:30PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 4

Stephanie Fumo

Was in here yesterday and have been coming to the Vineyard for over 14 years. We were excited when the book store opened this quaint cafe that was secretly tucked away behind the store a couple of years ago. The coffee is great but over time as they grew the service is very slow and the waitstaff is not the friendliest plus it is very expensive. Would expect more for the prices. Yesterday waited over 25 minutes after we ordered (which was another huge wait in a tight crammed space) for the waitress to then tell us they were out of the porridge? And we never got the griddle cakes we ordered at the same time. She offered scrambled eggs and bacon in place of the porridge but then said that would cost more. My husband said he wasnt paying more for waiting all that time for them to then tell us they were out of something. He said we would like that but we arent paying more for it. The waitress gave us a dirty look, didnt say anything and just walked away. While we waited to see if we were even getting the eggs finally a little plate of eggs and bacon showed up while our griddle cakes still didnt arrive?? I said something to this other girl who brought the eggs and she said she would look into it. Finally maybe 10-15 minutes later burnt griddle cakes arrived with barely any yogurt or blueberries. Our kids were starving and so were we so we ate everything since we waited forever but it was less than favorable. My son got a bottle of coconut water which was $8.50 which was pretty outrageous!!! We also had the berry galette and the inside was so bitter they need to sweeten the berries a little to balance it. It was just a disappointing experience which really didnt have to be. Last year we had to wait a pretty long time also and you barely have any room to order inside standing also. I never see an owner or a manager or anyone walking around asking anyone how they are or if they need anything. This would help the business. We could have used extra plates and it would have been nice to let someone know our experience other than a nasty waitress. Also while waiting for the bathroom you can see both the prep spaces. We watched an employee eat a sandwich in the prep area and continue to prep. Employees should be allowed to take breaks to eat which is not only unsightly but is also unsanitary. It has so much potential to be more. Like many places in Edgartown it does attract the pretentious but we did manage to have one decent conversation with one friendly person. Hopefully this place will improve and really shine through the prices, service and partial mediocre food. Still undecided if we should give it another try next time or skip it all together.

Anna W

The service here is truly terrible. I came in at exactly noon on a weekend for lunch. I ordered an iced latte, and the woman taking the order missed the "iced" part when putting the order in. I gently corrected them when I got the hot drink, and the woman who took my order told me, in a sarcastic tone, "If you wanted it iced, you should have asked for iced." Thats it, no indication as to whether they would remake the drink, just condescension, even though she was the one who got the order wrong. She was then rude to my friend, who asked her a clarification question about some of the specialty drinks on the menu before ordering. She gave him an attitude and rolled her eyes at him. Working behind the counter doesnt mean youre obligated to educate anyone who cant google what a latte is, but when you work somewhere that makes specialty drinks but doesnt explain what they are on any of the menus, people will have questions. It took around 40 minutes to get our orders, even though the place wasnt crowded, and we ordered sandwiches off the menu without substitutions. Another friend split off from our group, went to go get a meal at a different place, ate it, and came back before we even got our first sandwich. Sandwiches were ~$13 and bad. The brisket was dry and my other friend couldnt even get halfway through her turkey sandwich without giving up. I also got a biscuit, which was stale and greasy. Long story short, we overpaid so that someone could be mean to us while we waited a long time for our bad food to arrive. After I left them a bad Yelp review, their barista Mikhail decided to create multiple fake Yelp accounts to leave BTB 3 different 5-star reviews under 3 different names and send me multiple messages ranting and raving about other customers. Mikhail went out of his way to make a bad experience worse even days later, and personally messaging me multiple copies of his same incoherent ramblings is beyond creepy and inappropriate. No customer should expect to be harassed like this by an employee, ever. I have screenshots of him doing this and admitting it was him up on Yelp. I spoke with BTB manager Elana about Mikhails harassment. She said that he had removed his reviews addressing me and would not be harassing me further. As of 11AM on 7/8, his review is still up! Mikhail is still working at BTB, and was not disciplined. I am disgusted with BTBs customer service and baffled as to how they plan to prevent future harassment given that they have no control over employee actions outside work, and they imposed no consequences for Mikhails acts.

Becky S

Had a similar experience as the above 1 star ratings. The service was absolutely terrible. The entire waitstaff was extremely rude. The unpleasant women at the counter did not inform me that you pick up your coffee right there so I went and sat outside while I waited for my meal. The coffee never showed up so I went inside and there it was - sitting on the counter. It was cold since I was never told to pick it up from the beginning and the "barista" told me he wouldnt give me a new cup of hot coffee after I had asked him very politely to do so. A woman who overheard me ranting about this experience expressed to us that she also had a negative experience with the staff as well after asking them for a glass of orange juice. This place has NO sense of customer service at all. For a cafe that is so wildly overpriced for the quality of food and coffee, customer service should have been out of this world. I am an island native and Im truly disgusted. I hope this place goes out of business soon - with this lack of customer service Im sure it will. -Korrine Altieri

Francesca Emmett

Great atmosphere and crowd, good location and menu. Tasty food. I didnt rate it more highly purely because it stops the lunch service at 3 pm, by which time some of the dishes are sold out anyway. Seems to me a peculiar cut off point, but Im sure there is a reason for it. Also a 3 star rating because most of the staff are great, but today one (I will NOT name and shame!) seemed to hate customers. We ordered a dish rich in hot chilly flakes and a side of plain toast for our daughter...server carried the two dishes a little unsympathetically and the toast ended up sprinkled in chilly flakes! Perhaps the server had a bad day. Also note that food is taken to your table after ordering it at the till and being given a number, whilst hot drinks need picking up from the same till. A little dysfunctional? Again, there might be a reason for it. I dont work in hospitality!