“Just a restaurant from Akron”Just a restaurant from Akron. To launch his first restaurant in Akron, his hometown in Ohio, NBA champion LeBron James chose the same slogan he used to "sign" his career as an ordinary boy from the small towns of the United States: “Just a kid from Akron”Currently playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he is playing the playoffs these days, LeBron has given his restaurant the name “Buckets” (baskets, like the over 16 thousand that he has collected in the NBA), adding on the sign "Good Food. Good Times. We promise".
“We promise” does not mean just any promise, because the hamburger restaurant opened on April 1st with the sign “No joke” (it's not a joke) It is run by students, parents and graduates of the LeBron James Family Foundation's “I Promise School”, and serves as a hospitality training internship. Every Buckets employee, from the front of house to the kitchen, has spent weeks learning the ropes of hospitality, many of them learning to cook for the first time.
Buckets specializes in fried chicken and offers affordable prices
“Every member of the staff has had some connection with the I Promise School, and this shared background gives the restaurant a decidedly family-like feel. The welcome is warm and the menu is inspired by soul food cuisine.", wrote the specialized website Food&Wine. Obviously, this sort of internship is also fairly remunerated, and the restaurant also serves a social function for customers, given that, at LeBron James's behest, it offers food at strictly affordable prices.
Buckets specializes in fried chicken and It is located inside House Three Thirty, a multipurpose space once again managed by the foundation of the famous basketball player. In short, everything revolves around him, including the menu, starting with that "Taco Tuesday" that went viral a few years ago because it was James's favorite dish, and he even tried to trademark it once. And then there's a good selection of wines, another passion of the champion.
The merciless reviews: “Mediocre and bland food”
However, while recognising the solidarity value of the initiative and the truly popular prices (you can get by with around twenty dollars each), in these first weeks of operation the reviews lead one to think that “good food” has remained a promiseOn Google Buckets it reached an honorable 4,5/5, while on Facebook the average rating is 3,7/5, not exactly an NBA champion score.
And above all, many reviews are merciless: "Terrible service, cold food. The food isn't homemade, it's frozen"; "The food was mediocre. We got the sloppy joes, the meat had the consistency of dog/cat pate and a sweet taste”; “The fried chicken looked great, but it was tasteless, incredibly bland. And there wasn't a single bottle of hot sauce on the table”; “The mac and cheese was barely warm and didn't seem homemade at all”; “I ordered a beer, but they brought us a non-alcoholic beer. Credit card only, but there is a fee.” These are some of the complaints of an ever-demanding clientele.
