Essence does have an amazing menu but the last two times I've tried to enjoy myself there it just hasn't happened. Twice in the last two weeks I've had experiences where I now will never go there again unless a group of friends decide that's absolutely the only place they want to go to brunch. \n\n1st experience: About two weeks ago today. I had a busy day ahead of me but I had enough time to grab a coffee and some food somewhere before going about my day. I was craving their hot breakfast cereal with fruit and knowing how busy they can get I thought I should probably just call in a to-go order and even if I have to wait a little while when I get there, that's fine because I can take it with me. The first time I called a girl answered the phone and instantly asked me if I could hold without even asking how she could help me, I said \"of course\". I stayed on hold for 15 minutes. I walked into my coffee shop, stood in line, ordered my coffee and when my coffee was done, I decided to hang up and redial Essence. I call again and sure enough \"can you hold please?\". I'm thinking \"really?\" but I say \"of course\" again. \n\nI'm on hold for about 5 minutes (which is a long time when you're already a little frustrated waiting for 15 min the first time). I decide to hang up when I pull into their parking lot and no one has picked up the phone. I walk inside and to my surprise it wasn't as busy as I thought it might be which would justify the ignorance on the phone. I walked up to the counter and stated \"I need to place a to-go order\". The look on the girls face was like \"crap, this might be the girl from the phone\". Still, I am a patient person and I thought \"its OK, I'm here now and I can just order\". As I was ordering one of the gals who works there was showing a girl how to use the register. It ALL made sense! This girl was new and they were trying to train her which was causing everything to be a little more backed up than usual. OK, now I'm not as mad.\n\nAfter placing my order I told the girls I would wait out on the patio. The girl retorted with a condescending tone saying \"Just place your number on the edge of the table and we'll find you\". Although, I've been to Essence MANY times and knew how their process worked, with their already awesome lack of service I felt I needed to verbally state where I was going to be. \n\nOK, sitting on the patio waiting for my food for how long now? I realize that there are other people who may have ordered  before myself but waiting 25ish minutes for hot oatmeal is just ridiculous. It gets better, after I the whole \"I'll be on the patio\" fiasco. I see a girl pacing the shop inside holding a to-go box looking desperately for whomever it could possibly belong to. At this point I'm thinking to myself \"you've got to be kidding me\". I just sat there and watched her walk around for a good five minutes if not longer. She finally went back to the counter and did an \"I don't know\" gesture. I decided to finally mosey on inside. The girl training her saw me frustrated, standing up and walking in so she grabbed the box and some silverware and handed it to me as i was approaching her. I was kind despite my annoyance and thanked her but come on meow. REALLY?\n\nA week and a half or so goes by and I think to myself, ya know what? I'm going to give Essence another shot. With their ridiculous hours I wasn't sure when they stopped serving breakfast so I tried to get their as soon as possible. I arrived at  10:45am and they stop serving breakfast at 10:30am (which I will never understand from a business stand point especially given their awesome location. They are totally limiting themselves.) I wasn't annoyed or bothered or frustrated because I could have easily looked up their menu hours and chosen somewhere else to go knowing I would miss the breakfast menu. (Same two gals working by the way) I was pleasant and ordered an iced coffee and a simple SIDE SALAD. Somehow my total came to around $9 after a tip. I'm thinking \"that's fine because I know they use fresh/organic ingredients and I'm happy with that\". And then I also waited forever for my salad and once it got there the sad pile of green on my plate was enough to erk the evil Steph monster out of me. I was pissed. I downed my salad in maybe five minutes because I HAD to get out of there. I ate my salad so fast I didn't finish my iced coffee. I walked up to the counter to ask for a to-go cup so I could take my remaining coffee with me. She told me I had to pay extra if I wanted to take it to-go!! ARE YOU SERIOUS????? \"For a refill its more\" me: \"but I don't want a refill. I simply want to take the coffee which I've already paid for with me\". \"Its still more if you want to take it to-go\". She knew I was upset. I sat my iced coffee on the counter and left. \n\nI promise, I waited a LONG time and thought about all of this over in my head a few times before writing this review. I'll miss their breakfast but OH WELL.