Austin E-Bike Brunch Tour

The e-bike brunch tour was overall quite fun and provided my friends the opportunity to experience some of the highlights of Austin in a few hours. The bikes had no issues at all and were an excellent way to navigate the surprisingly hilly roads and feel a nice breeze on our faces the whole time, keeping us cool even during the infamous Austin summer. However, there are a few notes for the owner that can significantly enhance the experience for future guests. Considering that proceeds from this go to a nonprofit with a very worthy cause, I just want to make sure that nothing goes unsaid. My group arrived about 20 minutes early and Kristen, our guide, was frantically trying to get all of our bikes ready. She complained about the mechanic not "doing what he was supposed to do" the night before and was working with Nick (a guide in training) to fill air in the tires and add battery packs. Normally this would have been okay, but we ended up leaving about 20-30 minutes after our scheduled departure time, which meant we were sitting in the sun for about 40 minutes while everything was getting set up. After we got going, we arrived at our very first brunch spot at Counter Cafe. This was a highly rated restaurant and we were quite excited to be able to experience this as our first stop as there were many items on the menu that looked really good to try. Kristen ordered a few items from the menu herself (egg sandwiches, a quinoa parfait, and some blueberry pancakes). None of these were arguably what Counter Cafe is known for and when we asked to order an Eggs Benedict on top, she reprimanded us like we were little kids and said, "no it's too late, you should have asked me sooner." This didn't make much sense since we were never consulted about the order at all and she didn't provide any explanation beyond this. After this slightly rude response, one of our friends who didn't eat eggs wanted to eat a little more of the parfait since he couldn't eat 2/3 dishes she ordered and her response was "Okay you can have 1 more bite of it." Once again, very condescending and unnecessary especially since one of the parfaits went almost completely uneaten. Along with all of this, we were sitting at this restaurant for a very long time, and it was quite loud so she had to literally yell across the table to make conversation and it was quite awkward most of the time. We have been on many tours in the past and so far this one had gotten off to an unpolished and unprofessional start. After this, we went to the next restaurant and got seated in a nice location. Kristen once again ordered some appetizers for the table, including some guacamole and some queso. When the queso came out, it contained beef on the side and Kristen didn't make any notice of this until we saw this and asked specifically about it. As vegetarians, it's important that our dietary choice is respected and the nonchalance just rubbed everyone the wrong way. Since we only had 2 cups of queso for the 10 of us, we asked for another one to be ordered and placed closer to one side of the group and once again she very brusquely dismissed us. Note that we all understood the reasoning, it's just that she is quite rude in her communication style and treats us like children rather than the mature and accomplished adults we are. The rest of the tour continued pretty smoothly and we really enjoyed riding our bikes around ladybird lake. We especially enjoyed Nick's company and he really turned it around for all of us who were put off by Kristen. Some recommendations to enhance the tour in the future: 1. Let Nick run the trip entirely on his own 2. Provide specific menus and a "limit" per person if possible so that we know what are the established boundaries around what we can or cannot order. 3. Choose picnic areas with "to-go" orders from top-rated restaurants so that we get to converse freely without having to yell across the table to speak to each other 4. Give a run-down of the agenda in the beginning of the tour so that we know what's ahead 5. End it with some cold water bottles or electrolyte drinks to hydrate everyone after a few hours in the sun Once again, a shout-out to Nick for turning this tour around for us.