Central Pastry

Sorry to hear about your experience with Central Pastry. First negative comment I have heard from that business. Been there for decades at that location. Have heard positive feedback until now. One of the few businesses left downtown that hasn't changed (or closed)

Been a long time since we had and actual birthday cake. Usually do the ice cream cake at Dairy Queen.

Wondering now, with these problems, if Central Pastry is under new ownership and are not as dedicated as the previous owner.

Is the "Mom's" in Hunter the restaurant at the five street intersection that you are referring to? That business has relocated to around the I-75/ Rt. 123 area hasn't it?

A relative had a bad experience not long ago when ordering what should have been a fairly standard cake.  They couldn't really make the cake, or were missing ingredients, or something ...so they improvised and threw together a cake like Frankenstein.  Slap some frosting on it and here you go.  No offer of a refund or discount.  Incredible. 

Sure, there are worse things in life.  I'm in a desert being shot at etc etc etc. 

med--unfortunately I have to turn the cheek daily, since there is little that I can do about certain situations

When all those things are against you, you would think you would have a GREAT product and GREAT customer service.

I've had problems with the last few cakes from Central Pastry. They're not up to the old standards at all. Some have been a little sloppy looking. I'm not aware of Central Pastry having any loss of business. I've heard people drive long distances for their cakes. They'd survive no matter where they are located, but if they don't get their act together they will turn off too many people. It is that icing that keeps us all addicted. If I could find another bakery with that exact icing I would never go back to Central Pastry for cakes.

Does anyone know if they make their own buns? Those would be hard to replace as well. Those buns are so good you can eat the bun all by itself and it's delicious.

med, I don't know how big you cake to be, but Costco has massive cakes which are superb for about $16.00, with a great butter cream, and very large, so large, we have difficulty getting them in our refrig, which is a very large Jenn-Aire, try Costco next time.

I have never had bad experience at Central Pastry and that goes back to toddler years. I really don't get it what you are stating. They usually will write what you want on the cake, and have an excellent selection of cakes ready, you choose, and they write the name. Unless you had a party of 300 for a 5 yr old party, don't really understand the problem. If you needed one that big, perhaps Costco was the way to go.

I have eaten in some of the finest restaurants in the country and a few in Europe. I don't recall ever eating better icing on a cake than Central Pastry. Same on buns, they melt like a croissant.

I drove up on Sunday to the Town and Country shopping center in Kettering, as I like Trader Joe's. All power was out, and three employees at Trader Joe's were outside with apologies explaining the power was off. I didn't get angry, say I would not be back, I filed up at 3.22/gal for gas, and drove home.
 
Hit Costco's the next time you want a big cake. You'll spend 1/3 of the money and it will be ready timely, unless you had a 3-4 layer cake. I suspect the Central Pastry store had employees that were without power and probably had an impact on their business.

BTW, Collete's has the best cookies on earth, Dickerson's sister in law, and she puts together spices that are heavenly.

med, I have worked with some of the top retained search firms in the business, Kearney, RR, HS, you name it, Occasionally, they will blow the search, don't reveal something meaningful, screw up needs of company, and poor qualification on occasion as to client needs. Wouldn't let one time hiccup mess my plans up. If you said to them they had delayed and inconvenienced you, I cannot imagine they would not apologize and explain what happened. We all have choices. You do. Costco, DLM, Collette's, you name it. Your choice. I'm just saying in 35 years, I have not once, had a bad experience at the Central Pastry. I suspect it had something to do with power, but I would have asked why the delay and asked for a refund, but that's just me. 

excellent advice, Rhodes!

A $70.00 cake is not quite a $25,000 contracting job, which can go through many delays. As this is such a big deal to you, why did you not not ask for an adjustment on price, and say you'd file a report with the BBB? I mean, what good is it to slam the owner here. Many establishments in Dayton were w/o power. Could have had a friend pick up the cake and brought it to party. How many cakes do you think they make weekly? Any possibility they thought you needed sometime on Saturday. I've had many disappointments in business transactions, but I would never use a blog to slam an establishment. 

Acclaro, you're right, my $70 cake is not a 25k contracting job.   So when do I get to be upset over paid services?  If I go to Flemings and order a Steak and get served a hamburger, should I just shut up and eat the hamburger? 

And I still don't get why companies use a retained search firm.  Barely 30% of retained search firms are able to fill the positions.  Our owner has done a few retained searches, he just sits on them for about 30 days, then just posts an ad on careerbuilder or monster.  How he can call himself a recruiter is beyond me.