East Side Marios attempting to rebrand themselves?

East Side Marios has done a great job of branding in the past. People know exactly what to expect when they eat there and the atmosphere at the restaurants is very consistent with their advertising.

So we were very surprised, and disappointed, to discover that they're changing the "feel" of the restaurant. In the past, they put on a big show for birthdays. All the staff come over to your table and sing and the person celebrating the birthday gets to spin the big wheel and get prizes ranging from free deserts to "Surprise - let's hope it isn't a pie in the face". I got the latter once and while the kids were disappointed, I was glad it was a coffee mug rather than a "pie in the face".

Yesterday was my son's birthday and Saturday had been my nieces birthday so we took them both out for dinner at East Side Marios. We took them there specifically because East Sides has always made a big production about birthdays (and we like the food). So we ordered our food and waited for the staff to come over to sing and for them to bring the wheel for spinning. By the time desert arrived, it was obvious that neither one of these was going to happen so we asked our waitress and she explained that they had discontinued both of those. She said that the restaurant was trying to be more upscale now.

If you haven't been to an East Side Marios', you may not appreciate how inconsistent this is with their branding. The walls are covered with empty tomato cans and jars of food stuffs and crazy sayings. This has always been a "fun" place to eat, not an "upscale" place. The place is loud, the decor is tacky and it's always a good time.

Thinking that perhaps our waitress was new and just didn't understand the whole East Side process, we asked to speak to the manager. The manager then proceeded to tell us that there had been complaints and so they were changing their process. Now this is a franchise and franchises are required to follow the formula provided by head office so I have to assume that this is a change across the entire company.

We hadn't come to East Sides for an "upscale" dinner. We'd come for a fun birthday dinner for two kids and they didn't get it. If we'd known in advance about these changes, we would have eaten somewhere else.