Most of my staff knows about my posts. 50% of them read it on Facebook. 50% read it on the blog.

So many of them have NO social media accounts. Bob doesn’t have a cell phone let alone Tik Tok.

I’ve been asked why I don’t post about them….

Truth is, I’d could write five posts a night about the stuff they do. That’s another book in and of itself.

However, I’d never discuss employee issues in a public forum.

Unless

It’s so embarrassingly funny the world needs to know.

Like when someone asks if he have a sommelier and they say yes, by the glass.

My staff is stellar. They still surprise me. I tell everyone my worst staff member would be a rockstar any where else.

They occasionally do do (I said dodo)stupid stuff though.

We serve a mixed grill.

It’s an assortment of most of our meats. Chicken. Skirt steak. Long bone. Sweet breads. Sausages.

It serves two.

It’s also served on a small barbecue grill with coals in it to keep the food warm.

Last week a server found the trash can in the dish area smoldering because someone had thrown their hot ashes in the trash can.

I also have an employee who says we don’t have regular beers because all we serve is craft beer. We have no bud light. No Miller Lite. No PBR.

I have another server who is amazing. Her guests love her. She makes 24+% every shift. She still gets confused about the table numbers. Even when looking at the seating chart.

And one server kept seating the bar wrong because he thought we had 24 seats not the actual 23 seats we do.

It is so awesome to stand at the door and receive the compliments on the staff. And it’s all of them.

That being said, I love them all. I appreciate them all. I think they are amazing. They, for the most part make my job easy.

So for those of you reading this thank you! Keep up the good work.

When I got my first GM job almost 9 years ago, one of the first questions I asked my new boss was, “What is my costume?”

He said business casual. Slacks, dress shirts, tie.

So on March 25, 2013, I showed up to work dressed accordingly. And that was my costume for three years.

Slacks.

Dress shirt.

Tie.

Over the course of those three years I collected lots of fun ties. Tasteful. But fun.

What I didn’t know when I started was that EVERYONE who worked for the parent company wore jeans. T shirts. Tennis shoes. It was super, super, super casual.

I could never buy into it. And I never allowed my management staff to buy into either. I wanted us to be a step above everyone else.

I held onto my tie until 2016.

One day I took it off. And they are still hanging in my closet.

This was all brought to mind as Adam and I went from restaurant to restaurant in NYC.

The costume for managers in NYC is very different than a manager in Maine. In NYC everyone wears suits. Not just ties, but the jackets too.

Even a lot of hosts are dressed in suits if they are male.

Suits.

And most of them looked nice. Not bought at the outlet mall in Secaucus. And every time we were shown to our seats I commented, “Aren’t you glad we don’t have to wear suits?”

I can’t imagine doing my job in a suit. I’m sweating just thinking about it. The patio. The bussing tables. The running drinks and food.

Of course maybe people would be less likely to yell at me and treat me like I’m stupid if I had on a suit.

Reminds me of the story of a coworker at one of my sister properties in 2014 who had a guest look at him, call him a child and asked to speak to a grown up.

Maybe I should wear a tie on Wednesday?

My vacation is winding down.

Two days to go.

Ugh.

Actually, I’m ready to go back. I don’t do well with free time. I’m a six year old that needs structure. Even with project after project to do I’m lost at home.

So to ease myself back into the saddle I drove down to work to check messages today. As you know on any given day I can have 47. I can have 10. Having been closed for two weeks I wanted to check them so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed when I got there on Wednesday. I will have a lot to do and messages aren’t something I want to stress over.

So I got there just as our executive sous chef was finishing up his orders which needed to be done to get us open.

He, myself and Trish who is secretly the person who runs the place and we couldn’t live without sat down and chatted. Vacation comments, food, booze, all the things.

As things wound down, they left and I hit the play button on the machine. I was floored when it said 7. Yes. 7. In two weeks only 7 messages. And for of them were hang ups. Only three messages to return. None of them were in a hurry to be returned so I wrote them down and left them for Wednesday.

With that stress off my plate I truly am ready to go back.