The White Elephant

"I called to see if they were open for dining. Person said they only do take out now. I guess it's a sad sign of the times. It used to be a fun restaurant to go to!"

"Absolutely disgusting “customer service” experience here this morning. I’ve been all over the country and this was top among awful experiences. I will be contacting the owner when this old “lady” isn’t working later on today. I don’t live in Strong so I don’t come here too often but have passed through enough times to have seen this one cashier (probably a 70/80 year old woman) here enough times to know she has been here for a while. Always been polite never had any had experiences with her— I walk in and ask if they have iced coffee or not. She runs the cash register for the side that serves coffee, unless dining in. She very rudely asks “huh???” So I repeat, “do you serve iced coffee here?” She continues to stare at me dumbfounded, as if she has no idea what iced coffee is. Though what it is, is explained in the name of the beverage. She very rudely shoos me away saying “Go ask them or go look!” I say “excuse me?” She then screams loud enough for the entire restaurant of diners to hear “GO ASK THEM!” At this point everyone is staring based off me asking a very simple question so I’m uncomfortable to the point I just go to a cooler and grab a canned drink to go. Feeling disrespected for no apparent reason, I ask her when being rung up “haven’t you worked here long enough to know if your coffee bar serves iced coffee or not?” She says “yep!!! 3 years!!!” So I say “so then you do know?” She then snatches my money out of my hand and screams “take your drink and get the HELL OUT OF THE STORE!” Absolutely horrific experience. I see they have help wanted signs in the window frequently, but I can’t imagine being that hard up for employees that as a business owner you would ever accept having someone like that as a customer forward facing employee, ever. She needs to be back of house not in a position of interacting with people, or let go completely. There is absolutely no reason for her to have treated me that way when I was being completely polite, the White Elephant has good food and now just clearly needs to raise their standards for customer service experience. I will be reaching out to the owner and expect for this to be made right in some way or another. As it stands I will not come here again, which is unfortunate after being a customer for years here, on and off when passing through town"

"Staff was very accommodating. No gluten-free bread, so they combined my hamburger with my salad. Food was excellent. Good size portions!"

"This was a great stop for us to grab some breakfast as we drove from Rangeley to Moosehead Lake. A combination convenience store and restaurant, it was perfect for us to grab a quick breakfast as we continued on our way. Make sure to overtip and help out the short staffed kitchen."

"This place is a cute little sore with a restaurant inside the store. The restaurant is fairly decent, however they claim the mashed potatoes are supposed to be real mashed potatoes, however they turn out to be instant mashed potatoes. The rest of the food seems to be homemade. The store/restaurant was fairly clean and the staff super friendly and pleasant. The store has a little bit of everything to include kitchen spices and on the other side of the store is a basic convenience store. Overall this is a cute place to stop with pretty decent food and a very decent menu."