Springfield Store and Cafe: Owner's poor service could be winning ticket

Monday, 1 July 2019

The Springfield Store & Cafe has one of the lowest online ratings of any cafe across the country. (Video first published in June 2019)

OPINION: A good pie is a rare and precious thing. Just yesterday, I watched a nose-to-tail collision outside my favourite pie shop (whose name and location I wouldn't disclose if tortured).

This sort of accident isn't uncommon, such is the competition to secure the last steak and cheese before they sell out.

It's no surprise, then, that New Zealand's most talked-about food story this week centres not upon a spat between Michelin-starred chefs but on a humble pie shop in the otherwise inoffensive Canterbury town of Springfield.

I confess to having been party to the pie renaissance. Some years ago as a freelance advertising creative I helped name and design the Bakel's Supreme Pie Awards. (You'd think that would entitle me to a lifetime discount on award-winning pies but my gold card must have been lost in the post.)

* Review: 'eat-shop-stop' at The Eatery, Cambridge

* Vaughn Davis: Come fly with me**

Cafe owner Karyn Cullingford, social media commenters agree, makes a bloody good pie, and has some Bakel's awards on the wall to prove it.

The proprietor of the Springfield Store and Café, social media commenters agree, makes a bloody good pie, and has some Bakel's awards on the wall to prove it. It's her attitude to customers that leaves them feeling a little short-changed. They've taken to restaurant review sites with accounts that make Seinfeld's Soup Nazi sound like an otherwise nice guy having an iffy day.

So what's happening here? Not so long ago, when you wanted a pie, it came from a warmer, and the only 'service' was in the name of the service station you bought it from. If you didn't like it, you chucked it in the bin on the forecourt and that was that.

These days, thanks to social media and an endless stream of anyone-can-be-a-chef cooking shows, we're all food critics.

The cafe is the subject of dozens of scathing reviews on TripAdvisor.

Stories of online reviewers holding hospitality businesses to ransom are rife. A restaurateur I know says she gets weekly approaches from Instagrammers after a free feed in exchange for a positive post. Her polite refusals aren't always well received, and sometimes lead to snarky reviews. But it's more honest than giving away food for write-ups, so she's sticking to the policy.

While I've left my share of social media reviews, I've always tried to follow my mum's advice that if I can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.

I'm in the minority, though. Online commenters aren't short on the bile, and the Springfield Store and Cafe is wearing it.

On the plus side, the cafe and the town are in the news for the first time since the erection of its Simpson's-themed concrete donut. Travellers who might never have thought to stop will be popping in for a feed and to see for themselves if the service is truly as bad as they say.

And you know what? I might join them (even if it's a bit of a hike from Auckland). If I want one-script-fits-all service with a smile™, I'll go to McDonald's or – God help me but the wifi is free – Starbucks. But the real world isn't like that. It's real people doing their best to cook decent food, get the coffee orders right and keep grumpy travellers happy in a cold little town in the middle of nowhere. And if sometimes that means you get grumpy back, I'll take it.

And a steak and cheese to go, please.

Vaughn Davis is creative director and owner of The Goat Farm.