It's hard working at Tilley's OK?

Yes your time is precious, you’re on here pissing in the wind.

I don’t want you to agree with me. Your comment lumbered all people with a mental illness into te same category when you should know that everyone deals with mental illness differently.

you see the problem is you have a view, i have a view – both based on our experiences.

you just want to batter me into agreeing with you, when frankly i dont care.

we both could be right.

if spending days arguing with a mad person works for you – great.

my time is more precious.

and tilleys is still shit.

youre is spelt you’re.

No I am not on meds. Are you now implying I have a mental illness?

Is that your only response?

People with mental illness sans meds can think logically depending on the severity and type of mental illness.

Now with your “supposed” experience, you would know that.

youre on your meds ?

I beg to differ, not all unmedicated people lack logic.

And I speak from experience.

years of experience.

tactics work better than logic.

mad people not on meds cant be ‘reasoned’ with.

despite softhead dogooders wishing it were so.

logic is a rare visitor ro your mental illness hazed world.

What a load of bollocks.

Even if chester was suffering from a mental illness, so what?

One way to “stop” falling back into your old habits (with a mental illness) is to keep yourself busy so you don’t spend time thinking about the bad stuff.

Also, with what medical certainty are you stating that logic rarely works in a person with mental illness?

Idiot.

Having never been there, but judging from the unanimous vote of crap service, crap food and crap coffee, surely it must qualify as the worst Cafe in town. I might go there just so I too can bitch about how bloody awful it was.

when your posts are all about you, what are my alternatives ?

logic is a rare visitor ro your mental illness hazed world.

just when i thought cc’s meds were working, she posts again…

You must be an ACT public servant bonfire given your propensity for attacking the person and not the argument.

I have been a few times, and found the service mostly pretty dreadful. I avoid it except when the music makes it compulsory. The staff should know they are there to work, not to stand around, chat and preen. The management is so laid back it may as well be comatose.

I think this can all be summed up thusly: In comparison to other Canberran cafes, Tilley’s has mediocre to poor service and food, and is coasting on reputation alone. Thump your staff into gear, fire them when they turn up drunk and/or tripping, get to to actually wait tables and improve the food. Kthx.

i used to frequent for the great live bands. havent seen any advertised lately that would make me go there.

on occasion i’d brunch on the weekends, but i hate fricking ordering at a counter.

its like maccas or starbucks or other places i will not patronise.

my own 2 cents – it is urban legend that lesbians get better service at tilleys. i am a longtime-inner north-residing lesbian who has never been given preferential service there. maybe they, with their super-intelligence, can tell i am there only 2 or 3 times a year under duress (friend demanding to meet up there for a coffee or drink) and that ordinarily i refuse to go there because of the terrible sullen service and poor-or-at-best-inconsistent food quality.

I’ve been homosapien all my life, apart from the time I was a robot.

Just thought you might appreciate the (allegedly) better service that gets fowarded to members of that distinction.

I’m guessing effeminite males with a penchant for body lotions, bonds t shirts and square rimmed glasses get treated the same as all of the other non-lesbians.

Mael, now why would I ‘need’ to do that? Are you going homo and need a friend through the process?

just when i thought cc’s meds were working, she posts again…

Maybe you should go lesbian Nyssa.

Yes we’ve noticed the hangovered looks from staff.

Gee, it’s real smart to get smashed the night before work.

If I did it (smelling like booze and half tanked)in my job I’d be sacked immediately.

Umm – I thought in the last 6-12 months it’s great how friendly and helpful almost all Tilley’s staff have become, compared to previous times. And I’ve been a regular for years anyway due to ambience, bands and good coffee. Good onya Belle, some of us have noticed!

Oh and in a bit of a d’oh moment, obviously it should have been spawned the Doug Anthony All Stars, not spurned in my first post.

Welcome back, crazy, nice to know the other issue must have been cleared up.

I think of it more as passing through rather than being “back”.

As to the rest, hardly. Given the decisions of the ACT courts up to now mean any tertiary student can be chucked out on the whim of the institution and in breach of their statutory duty, and that anybody at all in the ACT can be subject to arbitrary detention involving unlawful arrest and false imprisonment, I’m afraid I’m compelled to pursue the matter because, regardless of the views of others, it’s a situation that certainly leaves me cold.

And even though the Human Rights Commissioner is muttering about Public Interest Disclosure, thus far that appears only to have generated more threats from CIT, including some guy dispatched by the Government Solicitor’s Office to hand deliver a letter that could have and, indeed, should have been mailed to me weeks ago. Why he needed to quiz one of my neighbours about me and then lurk downstairs waiting for me for over half an hour is something I’d like to think I’ll get the answers to when I apply for a few Protection Orders of my own this week.

However, I very much doubt that I will. Haven’t you heard? We don’t do accountability in the ACT.

Welcome back, crazy, nice to know the other issue must have been cleared up.

Yes it’s crazychester (note one word, no caps). I’ve lost my password and don’t use that email anymore. But I’m going to have to put in my $0.02 here having something of a soft spot for the Commonwealth Employment Programme (CEP), the scheme under which Tilleys received its grant. From memory, I believe it was introduced originally under the Fraser government. Because it was so long ago, there’s little specific detail on the web. However, I can weigh in and speak with some knowledge as I was employed along with 5 others at another organization that received the funding for its set-up under the CEP at the same time as Tilleys, namely PhotoAccess, the community photographic centre.

CEP grants were certainly designed to provide training and employment opportunities (in hospitality in Tilley’s case). I wasn’t aware they tried to get the money back off Tilley’s, although it may have happened. My recollection is that part of the idea of CEP projects was that at least some of them would become independent concerns.

Certainly, it was accepted when Tilleys received the grant that they would be endeavouring to exist as a profit-making exercise. And while it’s never been perfect, I think Pauline did an admirable job at that in a fiercely competitive industry. The place’s survival in spite of its not always stellar performance is testament to her success. She was in the right place, at the right time when social, economic and political circumstances meant that the Federal government was handing out great gobs of money and she had the savvy to grab the opportunity and make a go of it.

What I do know for sure is that Tilley’s was a women’s place originally, or yes, in those days, “wimmin’s”. But this was actually one of the terms under which Tilley’s received its grant. Their submission sought and was granted funding to set up a women’s only bar. For many years, men were not permitted at Tilleys except on Friday nights when they could only be there if accompanied by a female. The raison d’être being that bars and pubs tended to be overtly male-dominated environments and, as a result, often places that females found intimidating and threatening and where they were frequently subject to harassing behaviour.

I’m not weighing into that argument. Yes, there was something of a furor at the time about funding being granted to the place because of this policy, which Tilley’s detractors argued (not entirely unreasonably) was discriminatory. But it died down fairly quickly, largely I suspect, because at least half the population knew that bars and pubs are overtly male-dominated environments in which females often feel intimidated, threatened and harassed by drunk male patrons. And in it’s “wimmin only” phase it quickly became apparent that Tilley’s did represent a real alternative to this.

To add a bit more context, these were the days of the “Reclaim the Night” marches which were spurred on by some particularly nasty incidents around town involving attacks and abductions of women. As for the “free grants”, I’m pretty happy with what CEP produced which included aside from PhotoAccess and Tilleys, grants to Megalo, Goanna Print, the gone-but-not-forgotten, Cafe Boom Boom, that spurned the Doug Anthony All Stars and many others.

As for the posters comments, waitressing is shit work, for lousy pay, where you’re the patsy who cops all the shit for the kitchen’s cock-ups. I think they earn the right to vent, especially when they’re (rather amusingly) also honest enough to admit Tilley’s service is kind of crap. But it’s survived and grown for 23 years so they must be doing something right.

I actually have a soft spot for Tilleys. Never had a problem with the staff. OK, the food is a bit random, but that adds to the experience. Only issue I have is with the lesbians who seem to have preferred customer status and go to head of the queue.

“FREE GRANT to open the place”? Al

Al, Tilleys’ owner wore two hats at the beginning of the business – used her maiden name and married name, one as a ‘nonprofit organisation’ and one as business owner, so she could get a massive amount of funding (six months wages fulltime wages for all the staff needed to kick off the business, and possibly a further six months to bed the by then profitable enterprise down) and the administrators had no idea ‘both’ women were one and the same. It was essentially fraud on the taxpayer, I think it totalled $250,000 in 1983 money. Basically, the public servants administering the program didn’t draft their grant rules properly, so the owner couldn’t be touched. She says she was cleared, but the inquiry at the time only said they couldn’t do anything about it. Owner is now a multi, multimillionaire on the back of the taxpayer, and it does beg the question, why did the government make it a grant and not a loan? It did stick in a few craws over many years that Tilleys charged high prices, when they were so heavily subsidised.

I use to go all the time, but recently, my orders have come out wrong, they charged me the wrong price, and the food quality seems to have gone downhill. Once upon a time I got a great breakfast feed for $16. Now I get a couple pieces of budget bread, the cheap end of bacon, and mushrooms that didn’t look real. Service has always been an issue. I find it funny watching staff walk around to all the tables with their hands full of food asking what meal they are waiting for!

its not reporting, its someones personal opinion

I don’t see that you’ve presented any solid facts to refute, rather a vague collection of hearsay and speculation.

yes you can be inflammatory can’t you Johnboy.

as I said. it was well reported at the time in the CT and the TV. my memory is slightly hazy with the history (and years of alcohol). Nonetheless, the facts stand. Go ask the owner how she bought the place.

can you you refute them with anything more than vitriole?

I suspect now your just showing your bias towards the venue. Not quality reporting.

Grant was wrongly convicted?

i used to like going there for the bands…

what other sorts of grants are there?

FREE GRANT Sounds a bit like how revolve began.

Thats a good point Nyssa. When i’m working, tips are good incentive to work harder and do a good job. I once recieved a $35 tip from one group. People tip good service – even if it is just the coin change from their bill. If your not getting many tips then that should be a bit of a hint.

At the moment your “Truth” is a pile of drivel even you can’t recall or explain the details of.

What I can see in your story is the outlines of the established history overlaid with prejudice and ignorance.

Johnboy.
yep, thats a QUANGO. Somehow Ros Kelly comes to mind too…remember the Whiteboard saga? (which had nothing to do with Tilleys funding BTW) or r all u guys under 30?

the muddy history I present is the truth.
take it or leave it.

When I get good service I leave a tip (very American I know).

I’ve NEVER tipped at Tilleys.

My friend lives close by and it is her favourite “haunt”. Seeing as I only have to go 1-2 times a year, I can deal with the crap service.

I’d rather go to Manuka though. Better service and staff who actually do their job.

Quasi-Autonomous Non-Government Organisation?

Sounds like very confused bar-talk.

“FREE GRANT to open the place”
Please explain?

Ok – my hazy details are thus: (this is all from memory, dont bag me if its wrongish)

Government grants were made available for training venues way back when I was young’ish. Sometime in early 80’s ?? It was the Hawke era.
Owner of Tilleys got a grant said she would be training hospitality staff.
Soon became apparent was a Wimmins place and very little “training” was occurring, it was plainly being run as a profit taking venue.
Government suggested it might ask for its money back.
It was discovered (I remember the word “Quango” for some reason) that a legal loophole meant they couldn’t get their money back.
I think Govmint even tried to take her to Court at one stage…
Owner said “ppphhhhttt” to Government.
Now has a venue fully paid for by Federal government.
And the rest is the sad history of Tilleys……

I’m a waitress and have to put up with peoples shit everyday. But being a bitch never helps. If your nice to people you’d be surprised how many people will be polite back regardless of their mood.

Besides, they are out of your hair in about an hour or so anyway – it’s not like they live with you.

when I said I changed – I mean industries 🙂

Apparently I got moderated out for colourful language – the jist of what I said was Dont like your job – get another – I was a chef – I didnt like it – I changed – I didnt expect the customers to change.

Remember – without customers you have no job – so stop treating them like an inconvinience.

Sorry for language JB – I am passionate 🙂

Went there once, was unimpressed by the crap service and the queue jumpers, also a massive dogfight in the courtyard between 2 bull mastiffs put me right off.
Never going there again after that little read- give me Kingston or Manuka anyday!

The Wikipedia has a start on the storied legend of the place.

It was planned by Government to be more of a women’s space than a bar in the beginning.

‘If you work in an industry where you serve people, essentially you are a slave.’

I think it’s probably only slavery if you don;t actually get paid?

“FREE GRANT to open the place”
Please explain?

good on belle for understanding customers, I am sure she is one of the useless excess staff behind the bar. Belle, you might get paid minimum wage, but you don’t have to take it out on us, most of the staff seem lucky that they get paid anything.

The only time I’ve had a problem was when we found out that they weren’t serving drinks during a performance, so we just had a order a couple of extra carafes of red at the break

I also like that you can take your dog, not sure what my dog thinks of it tho

I have had those lesbie bitches threaaten me with violence whilst the owner just stood behind the bar and sniggered.
They will get all the cussin’ I can muster !

I’m not sure what being ‘intelligent’ adds to the equation, whether true or otherwise.

I have personally never had a problem with the service there either.. the lineup is mildly annoying.. but i avoid the busy times when I have been there.

Maybe it’s that foul mouth of yours that puts them off?

Or being called “lesbies”? or perhaps “bitches”?

If you spoke to me like that never mind rudeness you’d be taking your teeth home in a hat.

Tilleys has been rude and sh*tful for as long as I can remember. Ive lived in Lynehem since before the lesbie bitches got their hands on the FREE GRANT to open the place. They were rude then and nothing has changed. Every few years I try again, but its just always really BAD something – food, service, wait, cost, abuse by staff members (yes, i’ve even had that)
And look, now they employ whining bitches too!
I truly wonder how they do any business at all. I know of ONE person who likes the place.

What you do with the comments are your own business.

I print them out and rub myself down with them instead of having regular showers.

Right so just because you guys get some rude customers, you think it’s okay to be cranky at everyone?

The purpose of this *story* is to air a point of view as most readers don’t read the comments.

What you do with the comments are your own business.

So, what, the whole purpose of this thread is to have a second go at bashing a comment?

Can ya feel the love?

some of us are sullen/exhusted/hungover/studying,

Wow – welcome to the real world! Now you have to provide the service you have ostensibly been hired to do.

That’s emo whinging. Nothing will change the fact that the ordering system is inefficient and plain stupid.

I’m betting 99% of the bad exchanges you experience with customers is because they are pissed off with the ordering and waiting, and you’re pissed off trying to cope with them.

I’m sense a mystical and enchanted solution to all of this…

I really feel like visiting Tilley’s after that verbal-spew. So welcoming LOL

If you work in an industry where you serve people, essentially you are a slave.

boo hoo

I guess you do have to be a bean-flicker to get served there after all…