CAMILLE’S SIDEWALK CAFE Franchise Complaints

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• Camille's sidewalk cafe has a high default rate because there is no support. Franchisees cannot get a hold of them and they put no effort into helping them with support. The concept is ran by family that has no real restaurant or business experience other than watching the food channel.

• Beautiful Brands which is Camille's Sidewalk Cafe parent company. They have moved on from Camille's and are doing the same thing with there other brands. They make most of their money from franchise fees and development deals. 

• As a former Camille 's Sidewalk Cafe franchisee, we can speak from a painful experience that there is no support from the franchisor. There continues to be a great deal of deception as well in alluding to the so-called "development" of several hundred franchises world wide!! We were the only cafe in Michigan despite being told there were several in development in the Detroit area. The food service company , US Foods, was a nightmare to deal with since they struggled to service our one store. With delayed deliveries, missing items, and poor service, we were continuously forced to buy food at retail prices to compensate for missing items.

  The only marketing plan Camille's ever suggested was to give your food away free with bogo offers and free wrap nights. Of even greater disapointment was the lack of professional support / training when we first opened the store. We were sent a 19 year old that was an hourly employee in a Camille's restaurant who ended up going out with our female employees! We did have one other corporate staff person who tried to offer support. Last but not least, there was absolutely NO field staff overseeing restaurant operations. Consequently, when we would visit other Camille's cafes in other states, we would find a total lack of adherence to operational policies and procedures that were supposed to be governed by the franchisor. This total lack of consistency among franchisees hurt all of us that tried to maintain high standards and strong operations. Camille and David collect their franchise fees, including the required additional development fees, when there is no possibility for development, no support staff, and no enforcement of operational standards. With all of these major problems causing a high rate of restaurant closures, they continue to turn their heads, once they have their money, and move on to other concepts, leaving the franchisee on his/her own to survive with a total lack of support.

• Beautiful Brands International (BBI) sold 14 franchises for their Coney Beach hot dog franchise before they even opened the first prototype store.

  They obviously did zero market research before taking people's franchise fees. When asked why they would expand into Chicago, the hot-dog capitol where other hot dog chains failed miserably, "Rutkauskas reasoned that if you are scared, you shouldn't be in the business."

  When the Coney Beach concept failed miserably, David Rutkauskas told Tulsa World “I don’t think we realized that people don’t eat hot dogs three times a week,” he said.

  Seriously? He admits to doing NO research into hot dog consumption before inducing people to invest in a hot dog franchise? Of course he wasn't scared of selling hot dogs in Chicago - It wasn't his money (home, 401K, credit) at risk.

  People who sell franchises with no real concern for their franchisees should be banned from business, not given Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

• Don't walk away from this opportunity. Run like a greyhound. We signed up for 50K for three sites, they turned down every location and after 3 years we asked to get out and they said it was 50K for services rendered. We took what we had left and bought an existing restaurant. It has been 5 years and we are opeing our second. Forget Camille's and her greedy husband. I battled life threatening illness at the time and the most they could do for me was extend my developing agreement. I am a firm believer that what goes around comes around and they will get what they deserve.
  I am thankful in a way, because had i spent $350K I would have lost it all.
  Open up a Frozen yogurt place and you don't need a franchise to do that.

• I am an ex-franchisee of Camille's who ended up losing every penny I had earned and saved. My family and I lost everything.

  I blame myself for not doing my homework, not talking to every franchisee that was out there. But in essense this company and it's leader desire nothing more than to take the money of people they convince their concept is great. I was lied to about food and labor costs and profit margins.

  I read an article on David once and when asked what his goal was he said it was to become a millionaire. That says it all.....not to help people become successful, no , become a millionaire and he did it on the backs of people who's lives were ruined.

  I was welcomed with open arms at first, paid for a multi-unit territory and after we failed were told we didn't really ever have enough money to last. Isn't it thier responsibility to decide that prior to me paying franchisee fees?

  We had zero support from day one through the last day. Like another mentioned the total of our marketing support was to do a BOGO and we lost our ass.
  Once you are in trouble they stop taking your calls period.

  US Foods did not carry the ingredients we saw in Tulsa so we were given crap to sell.

  The people working there are all family members too scared to confront David. They tell you behind his back that his ways are not professional and in some cases cross the line of what a franchisor is allowed to tell an prospective franchisee but if you want your job you play along with him.

  I was told at our interview before we had signed our agreement that if we signed up to "prepare to live a lifestyle we had only dreamed about". Well that came true, convincing mysler daily not to drive my car into a tree because I was worth more dead than alive was a different lifestyle.

  Stay away, run as fast as you can, this is nothing more than a scam designed to take your money with no support in exchange.

• Well I could on w this senerio for pages. Simply put Dave R should be tried and prisoned for the way he treated us and other franscises. We had purchased rights to 7 locations in MN and opened 2 one Waite park and one in rochester near the Mayo clinic. Dido prior comments. Although they helped in opening the sites that was it!
  All support was gone when we continued to struggle with shitty and high priced food prices and losey support from us foods. We had to find our own vendor with very high prices , Cisco. Two other franchisers in Minneapolis opened 4 restraunts and despite long experiences in the restaurant business were unable to make a go of it. The whole ordeal cost me millions,frustration, drove my to son to drink and leave the business, and a law suite and judgement for payment os a long term lease. All in all it comes down to lack of support and pricing that Camille's couldn't offer. Dave was interested in selling his francises collecting his money and and leaving town. I would like to some day see him on CNBC American greed after they lock him away.

• Well let's say this was the worst thing I did. This also cost my family our life savings. There were no support once you signed up. I reopen with food about the same and was able to save 5 to 10% on everything I purchased as Camille's. Then they turn into a franchise selling company, that way David can make a quick buck and golf everyday. Someone please turn the table on them.

• Don't want to add more salt to the wound. It's too painful to recollect bad experiences as a franchisee. Everything bad about Camille's Sidewalk Cafe had been said accurately by those who shared their comments. Total greed... "what comes around goes around, ten fold"

• WE LOST EVERYTHING. Why has there not been a Class Action law suit initiated yet???