For more than 20 years, Chef Boyd has been serving Chico through catering and made-from-scratch food. After years of catering, demand for his food eventually led to the opening of The Foodie Café in 2015. The restaurant quickly became a Chico favorite, known for creative dishes, generous portions, great sandwiches, and food that keeps people coming back.

For years, Foodie Café primarily operated around breakfast, lunch, and weekend brunch. Then Chef Boyd decided it was time to add dinner. The new dinner hours were updated in the obvious places, including Facebook, Yelp, and, most importantly, the restaurant’s Google Business Profile.

Google wouldn’t leave the hours alone

Chef Boyd would update the hours on Google. Everything would look correct. Then a few hours later, the new dinner hours would disappear and Google would revert the restaurant back to its old lunch-only schedule. So he would change them again. And Google would change them back again.

This wasn’t just annoying. It meant someone searching Google or Google Maps for Foodie Café during dinner hours could be told the restaurant was closed when it was actually open and serving customers. Chef Boyd had already spent money with another SEO company trying to solve the problem. The hours still wouldn’t stick.

“Google keeps changing my hours”

One evening, my wife and I were having dinner at Foodie Café when Chef Boyd came over and sat down with us. During the conversation he mentioned what had been happening: “Google keeps changing my hours.” He explained that he could correct them in the morning and, sometimes by later that same day, they would be back to the old hours again.

I told him I’d look into it and see if I could figure out what was going on. At first glance, this looked like a Google Business Profile problem. It wasn’t.

The real problem was outside Google

Instead of continuing to change the hours inside Google, I started looking at the information about Foodie Café across the rest of the internet. Over the years, Foodie Café had accumulated business profiles across multiple directories, maps, and local-search platforms. Several of those profiles were still showing the restaurant’s old lunch-only hours.

While Chef Boyd was telling Google, “We’re open for dinner now,” other longstanding business listings were still effectively saying, “No. Foodie Café closes after lunch.” That gave Google conflicting information. The answer wasn’t to keep fighting Google. The answer was to clean up the information Google was finding elsewhere.

See how accurate local information supports Google Maps visibility →

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Fixing the information at the source

We started identifying the more prominent business listings associated with Foodie Café and correcting the outdated information. That included listings and profiles involving Google, Bing, Apple, Yelp, Facebook, YellowPages, DexKnows, SuperPages, and MapQuest. We also found a duplicate MapQuest listing that needed attention.

One by one, the important sources began telling the same story. Foodie Café wasn’t just open for lunch anymore. It was serving dinner. The goal wasn’t to manipulate Google. We wanted the information across the web to accurately reflect the real business.

Then something happened

The hours stopped changing back. Foodie Café’s Google listing finally began displaying the correct operating hours, including the new dinner service. Chef Boyd no longer had to keep correcting the same information over and over again. More importantly, customers searching Google could finally see that Foodie Café was actually open for dinner.

Tuesday through Friday: 7:30 AM–2 PM and 5–8 PM.

This wasn’t really a Google problem

Your Google Business Profile is important, but Google isn’t the only place holding information about your business. If you’ve been around for five, ten, or twenty years, there may be old versions of your business information scattered across the internet: old hours, addresses, phone numbers, business names, duplicate listings, and outdated descriptions.

That is why local visibility isn’t simply about filling out a Google Business Profile. It is about creating consistency and confidence around a business. The easier it is for Google to understand who you are, where you are, what you do, and when you’re open, the easier it is for Google to confidently show that information to customers.

And About Those Dinner Hours...

Today, Foodie Café's Google listing reflects the hours Chef Boyd was trying to show in the first place.

Tuesday through Friday: 7:30 AM–2 PM and 5–8 PM

So no...

Foodie Café isn't just open for lunch.

And if you haven't tried them yet, you should.

Foodie Café is one of those uniquely Chico places that has earned a loyal following over the years. Chef Boyd and his team serve made-from-scratch food with personality, and in my opinion, some of the best food you'll find anywhere on the West Coast.

If you're in Chico, put The Foodie Café on your list.

And now, thanks to a little MyMediaGuy Search cleanup across the web, Google can finally tell you when to go.

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