NYC Visit, Part IV
Lessons Learned- Slow is fast, fast is slow. This is the mantra of the Navy SEALS. What it means is that when the shit hits the fan, don't panic, don't try to do things too quickly ... when you do, you'll end up in a situation where you're likely to make more mistakes. Instead take a deep breath and just go at a slower pace. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't work without a sense of urgency ... you should, but don't let speed become the number one issue. Do the job right first.
- The industry is still about the industry. At the trade show, I saw way too many things involving prepackaged, convenience goods or the latest machine or the latest in food science. Very little of the show was actually devoted to seasonal, locally sourced sustainable foods. It was kind of sad.
- You need to staff at adequate levels. I can be perfectly happy at a restaurant just sitting at the bar, watching the employees do their work. You learn a lot. For example, at Lucille's, I saw a bar that was poorly laid out and the bartender had no barback -- on a Friday night. He was slammed the entire night, doing his best to get drinks out, but he was working fast, not working slow, and in the end it showed. He broke a glass, he didn't wipe down the bar, etc. I felt bad for him because he needed help and I wanted to jump back there and help him, but I couldn't. The worst thing is that the manager would come by to talk to him while he was slammed and didn't even bother to help out. In this business you either need to staff at adequate levels or, if there's a job to do, just fucking do it, no questions asked.
- Traveling as an industry insider. I love it. We take care of our own. Whether it's great deal on the bottle of wine, free drinks, free apps, free dessert, it's nice to be comped and to feel special. Of course, pay on credit, tip in cash, and leave everyone feeling happy. I love our little community.
- Whipped creme fraiche beats the pants off of whipped cream any day of the week.
- Excellence vs Hospitality. You need both to be successful. Excellence is being met at the door as soon as you enter, having your coat taken, being taken to your table immediately, etc. Hospitality is being greeted enthusiastically, having your real wants and needs taken care of. However, you can have one with out the other (waiting 3 minutes to be greeted at the door, but having a warm greeting when it finally happens is hospitality without excellence, for example) but you need both to be successful. You need to have absolute standards, written down, so that each day when you start the day everyone knows what their responsibilities are, they are documented, and they are signed off by the manager so you have an audit trail. It's simply a matter of setting your standards of excellence and hospitality and then making sure your employees are meeting those standards.
- Read the room. When I walk into a place now, I'm always checking out how it's designed. Does it feel right, is it adequately lit, how is the color scheme, how is the lighting, are the fixtures and art appropriate, does the furniture and tablewear work, are the linens good, are the dishes cracked, etc. I'm also looking at the layout, seeing where the traffic flow is congested and thinking about how to redesign the space to make it more manageable and how I would work around the limits of the space. It's good practice.
- Bartenders. A bartender is the heart and soul of the social life of a restaurant. Seated customers interact with servers a bit, but mostly with each other. Bartenders can create awesome drinks, create a following ... get a great bartender that is excited about making cocktails the right way and your restaurant can only prosper.
On a more personal note
What does all of this mean to me? I learned a lot from my visit to NYC. One of the things that I realized was that the only places I felt comfortable at while I was in NYC was in restaurants. I really didn't like the idea of living in the city. I love Seattle because it's different ... it's got little neighborhoods, each with their own appeal and they feel like small neighborhoods with green spaces, wide streets ... NYC is the epitome of urbanization in the USA and I feel like I'd like to be able to fool myself into thinking that I live in a small town at times. I can do that in Seattle.
Honestly, you can get good food anywhere and your mouth is just as happy with a $10 pizza as a $150 meal. Good food is good food and I see a lot of potential in Seattle, especially with the region's lead in getting people to buy local, buy sustainable. There is a real chance in this region to be the model for sustainable agriculture, where it's not just the restaurants that lead the way, but the community as a whole.
Of course, all of this means that there are very few places now that I would want to work at here in Seattle. In fact, I think there's only one - Tom Douglas' restaurants. He has a proven track record of delivering hospitality and investing in his community. I really love that and of all of the people who embody being good business people and being good restauranteurs in this town, Tom Douglas is that man. The next stop is probably a front of the house job at one of his properties. Next goal? GM of one of his properties.
Read this book
The celebrity chef phenomenon tends to elevate cooks into gods. I don't like it because, honestly, rarely, if ever, will you eat a perfect dish (I think food is just as much about the company you keep, the conversations you're having, and how drunk you are, as much as the restaurant, the staff and the food). I think that restaurants that build communities do much better than places that are one note, that are a cult of personality. However, these gods are actually mortals, and one book, Don't Try This At Home : Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Chefs, does a good job of describing a chef's mortality. You get 40 short stories by some famous chefs talking about their greatest failures in the kitchen. Get this book. You'll enjoy it. I laughed my ass off.
PS. Stefan, I've tried getting in contact with you but none of the numbers I have work. Drop me an email at martin@lindychef.com
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home