Don’t be too hasty in making judgments on the quality of the food and service at the yacht club, now rebranded as Mumford’s Landing, since the Ocean Pines restaurant and club is going through the same thing all new restaurants do.
As veteran diners know — and Ocean Pines has plenty of them — the first few weeks of any food service operation are tough, and it’s even more difficult for Mumford’s Landing as a community-owned facility.
It’s going to get more scrutiny than most other restaurants would, with a clientele drawn initially from a base that largely consists of stakeholders in the operation.
No restaurant likes unhappy guests, but the one advantage private operations have is that the disappointed few can’t go to a board of directors to complain about it.
No matter how much association members might want Mumford’s Landing to produce revenue quickly, the kitchen, the wait staff, the procurement people, the bus staff — everyone — will need several weeks to learn their customers and to function smoothly.
Every restaurant in the area has gone through the same thing — a big rush of first-timers in its opening weeks, followed by a drop-off while its staff works its way into full-swing mode.
No restaurant should be discounted based on a single visit, because things happen at the best of them. So give this one some time and go again – and maybe a third time – before deciding if it’s your kind of place.