May 2013
13 posts
Wasn’t in the water even 5 minutes and we saw a huge frickin shark.
Think it’s time for lunch.
Truthful Tuesday
I’m a bigger extrovert in real life than I am online.
I’ll glad hand my way around any room without hesitation.
But, online, I’ll usually let other people break the ice.
2 tags
Late May in Florida and I have no AC
It’s been weak for a month. Turns out there was a filter that you had to replace in the crawl space attic where the air exchanger is.
Trying to get through a door in a 10’ ceiling using a 6’ ladder required some serious ninja moves and I think I’ve done something serious to my shoulder as a result.
Then, an hour later, the whole system shuts down.
There is no power...
1 tag
I'm tired
Needy staff. Needy customers. Needy family.
I need someone to do something for me for a change.
1 tag
My day started with a catering drop off at a modelling shoot at 6:15am. It’s now 9:30pm and it will take probably another hour to get this place closed.
Same thing tomorrow. Oh, wait, it’s Friday and we have live music. I probably won’t get out of here till mid-night.
Yup, another crack of dawn delivery Saturday.
There's a damn good reason the south lost the war
Living in New York the leeway on an appointment was 3 minutes. That was the rule even with all the uncertainty of transportation that existed. Subways were subject to unpredictable delays, traffic could be gridlocked. Still, if you showed up 10 minutes early for an appointment I would leave you sitting in the lobby for 30 minutes. If you showed up 10 minutes late I wouldn’t see you at all.
...
reignyreigny replied to your photo: Fuckyouiminabathroom
Anyone ever tell you that you look like Jon Hamm? If yes, ignore this. If no, hell yeah!
I guess that’s why I can’t walk down the street without women throwing their panties at me. Would be more fun if we didn’t live in a retirement resort area though.
All those boring anti fraud and money laundry...
I get an email that got me pretty excited at first yesterday.
This guy wanted to get 150 grilled chicken Caesar salads for pickup. I quoted him $17 a piece. That’s kind of rich. No hesitation, here’s my credit card number.
Only one hitch. He’s arranged for someone to pick them up and deliver them. He’s in ICU with lung cancer and so, wants me to add the delivery charge...
April 2013
28 posts
Vaginal or nasal?
My chef called out today. Said she was spewing bloody mucus.
I had to ask.
And, don’t get me started on dishwashers. I can’t get one to show up for an interview, let alone for work.
1 tag
Anyone with fine dining service experience that wants to make $6 an hour ($1.33 more than the legal minimum), make $100-$250 in tips a shift, live in a place with year around beautiful weather and where $1,000 a month will rent you a 3 bedroom house within a block of the beach, give me a shout.
Because, apparently, that won’t get you shit around here.
My servers just don't understand wine
The previous owner did very little in the way of wine sales. She didn’t have any traction on a dinner service and for day time she just offered cheap supermarket wines, but at a ridiculous markup.
I’ve done a lot of work to put together a really nice wine list. Wines that are great at their price point, but then I’ll only carry them if I can get a deal that allows me to make a...
Fucked by the BOBs again.
About once a week we will get a booking for a group of 10 to 20 ladies who lunch. These aren’t your Manhattan ladies who lunch. They are local retires. Bitches on a budget, or BOBs we call them.
They spend as little money as possible. Splitting salads, drinking water and lingering for 2 hours.
But, the biggest issue is, they all come in separate cars, filling the parking lot. I’ll...
Which is better?
grizzlycasualgourmet:
A large menu that runs the risk of being overwhelming? Or A menu that changes a lot?
You definitely want to limit the number of ingredients you have to keep on hand.
Our dinner menu has 8 appetizers and 11 entrees. Most of them use common ingredients from our lunch menu. In addition to that, we run 2 to 3 specials each night. Those are driven by availability or...
I just updated my Linkedin profile to “Part Time Dishwasher” at my restaurant.
Sayonara Wall Street.
1 tag
buck4itt replied to your post: “Retirement” job, my ass.
I’m addicted to those Restaurant Stakeout shows on Food Network. As well as Bar Rescue on Spike. I know they are staged but I’d love to hear your opinions on those restaurant-type reality shows.
Like I have time to watch TV.
Actually, I used to like Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare. Especially the UK version, which...
"Retirement" job, my ass.
When I decided to end my Wall Street career, retire to Florida and buy a small restaurant for something to do and a bit of income, I knew it wasn’t going to really be a retirement.
Owning any small business is going to be a ton of work and none more so than a restaurant.
The reality is, the only day that I haven’t been here since we bought the place last August was Christmas Day. We...
I grabbed a garbled note about a reservation tonight and asked one of the servers who’s hand writing this was?
Ah, your wife’s.
What kind of a fucked up digital world do we live in when we don’t even recognize our own partner’s hand writing?
1 tag
1 tag
REMEMBER ME: You know how some restaurants have a... →
crossmyheartxkissmyelbow:
You know how some restaurants have a tip box on the counter? Usually the employees split the money at the end of the day or week?
I worked at a restaurant for 3 years and was never given any money from that box. The owners kept it. I would cringe whenever a customer thanked me and then proceeded…
This is illegal in virtually every state. Owners, floor...
WatchFather son day. We ran the restaurant together through the brunch crush. Then I taught him how to hit a flop shot. Went to a sports bar for dinner. Then I taught him to drive the car.
I’m plastered. You couldn’t expect me to drive.
amorversal replied to your post: I’ve never been so happy that my kid got suspended
this is exactly the type of story I would have felt honored to know that my Dad had told about me. he’s fortunate you have you as a Dad. you’re fortunate to tell the story. none of that is an update. it’s just really cool. cheers, sir.
Thanks. When you make the jump into a family business, there is no...
I've never been so happy that my kid got suspended
BooBill Jr got suspended today for using his phone at school. Whether that was justified or not is another story. I might have been to blame, because I text him in the middle of the day to ask what hours he had worked when I was doing payroll yesterday.
However, if he wasn’t going to be at school, he certainly wasn’t going to get the day off to play video games.
We had a server call...
1 tag
When we bought this restaurant the revenue split was 90%/10% in favor of the daytime service. We’ve brought up the dinner to the point now that it’s neck and neck most days. It’s become a competition.
When ever one of the chefs asks me how we did today the answer is either Eldorado or Steak Knives.
Thankfully we don’t have a third shift or I’d have to sack someone.
Thursdays are for some reason the slowest night of the week in the restaurant. I don’t really need to be here. I don’t want to be here.
MrsBooBill is away for the week. Ordinarily on a night like this we would be out somewhere. I like to say that we’ve made more friends in 6 months in this tiny town then we did in 20 years in New York. Now I’m sitting here thinking who I...
Did I mention that MrsBoobill has gone back to New York for a week with BooBillette? Leaves me here with BooBill Jr.
What are my chances of sneaking a 14 year old into a strip club? I mean, he is 6’ 2”
I finally feel good about buying this restaurant.
Last fall we were running 42% labor cost and 42% food cost. There is no way you can cover overheads with a 16% gross margin, let alone have something left over to live off of.
Since then we’ve gotten costs under control and have a 36% gross margin. That’s covering overheads and leaving us with something. On top of that traffic is way...
March 2013
17 posts
1 tag
STM
Serves me right
posting that screen shot from the weather app showing it to be 84 degrees yesterday.
Today doesn’t look like it’s going to get over 50 and it’s so cold in my office that I can barely type this.
The power went out just after 5pm today and just came back on now. Guess who has the only restaurant on the south end of the island with a backup generator.
We were the only restaurant open. Absolutely packed. You’d think that in that situation people would be courtious and clear out quickly to make space for someone else. Nope, with no power at home they were content to sit all night.
...
1 tag
closest-thing replied to your photo: Eat’n in my office again. What a weird weekend….
What are you eating?
It’s a ribeye fillet. We separate a whole ribeye and get our of it a NY Strip, a Fillet and the Spinelas. The Spinelas (sometimes called the Deckle) is that really tender end cap. We do something special with that. Wrap it around a lobster tail and jumbo lump crab. Chargrill it...
