I’d like to speak to the manager.

We opened tonight.

And this was our oyster sign.

An oyster I’ve never heard of.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

A man walks in and says, Hi, my name is mark. My mother lives at 56 Langford road. And we have a reservation tomorrow for 7 people. We have been coming to this restaurant for forty years and we need to change our reservation from 7 to 8.

I think to myself.

Is your mother’s address important?

Is the fact that you’ve been in the building before important?

And I’m sorry but the most we can accommodate is 7.

He then insists on looking at the dining room.

Comes back and asks why the table in the corner won’t work.

I explain that it only seats 7.

He grunts and leaves.

Meanwhile a server from downstairs appears saying that a woman is insisting we accommodate her 13 top walk in party.

She won’t take no for an answer.

I walk downstairs and say no.

She turns and leaves.

No argument.

I go back upstairs and a woman walks in and announces she is going to the bar.

I explain that we take reservations and the bar is booked for the evening.

She looks at the bar with mostly empty seats and says am I to believe all these seats are not available.

I assure her they are not.

90 minutes later she appears again, saying she’d eaten downstairs.

She walks in and takes one look at the bar, comes back and says I thought you said the bar was full. All the seats are empty.

I want to be a smart ass and say that’s not what I said but instead I say, the bar is empty because we are controller seating in the bar, the restaurant, etc since everyone is new. We want to ensure every one is having a great experience.

She grunts at me and says you could have said that in the first place.

I think to myself you wouldn’t have accepted that.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

This is a public service announcement.

Unless you are at a salad restaurant in NYC.

Unless you are at chipotle.

Unless you are at Burger King.

The menu is not a list of ingredients for you to pick and choose from.

It’s happened a lot but tonight a table ordered a plate of thinly sliced tomatoes, with fresh herbs, an Italian vinaigrette, kosher salt, and avocado.

The server came to ask what they should say.

I said, ask them show you on the menu what item they were ordering.

They asked if I was serious.

I said no.

But do tell them we can’t accommodate the request.

Often, if they are ballsy enough to order Ike this they’ll ask why not, as you have all the ingredients.

Our restaurant services 160 seats.

If we say yes to you, then we have to say yes to the other 159 people.

If we said yes to 159 people you’d get your food in about 90 minutes. Because every ticket has things we don’t have readily available in a station ready to use.

The same is true at the bar.

Don’t order a drink with fresh cucumbers or jalapeño unless it’s on the menu. Someone has to go fetch the items, cut the items and make the drink.

Now 159 other people are waiting for their drinks they ordered 6 hours ago.

Order off the menu.

They way it comes.

And at most ask to leave out an item.

But don’t build your own menu unless the menu says build your own burger, salad, burrito.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I was called to a table last night because two of the guests hated the lobster roll.

I get there and they tell me that they are Mainers and this is NOT a lobster roll. Explaining that a lobster roll either has butter or Mayo and definitely does not have tarragon in it.

I ask them to explain.

And they continue that everyone wants a traditional lobster roll.

And I explain that the lobster shack next to us has a traditional lobster roll.

And.

That 7,429 restaurants in a 30 mile radius including McDonald’s has a traditional lobster roll.

We are not those restaurants.

We respect those restaurants.

We enjoy those restaurants.

I had a fried fish sandwich from next door last week.

But we are different.

And.

The menu tells you that we are different.

Embrace the difference.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

The locals continue to pour in.

An endless stream.

At 5:30 a woman walks in.

She says they are going to sit at the bar.

The host explains that we have reservations at the bar.

The woman says, that’s not possible our website says we don’t take reservations.

I interrupt and assure her that it does not say that.

She doubles down.

I assure her that that’s not the case.

She doubles down again and says we’ll since you just opened, and it’s empty in here I’m sure you’ll have room and she goes toward the bar.

I stop her and explain that although we are empty in 30 minutes we won’t be and therefore can’t accommodate her.

She is not pleased and storms out.

An hour later two men walk in, push past the host and say they are going to the bar.

The host says we take reservations at the bar.

They replay, that’s okay we are locals and we are just going to have a drink.

I interrupt and say, we take reservations at the bar. We are booked. You can’t sit at the bar.

They get pissed and leave.

Meanwhile a man is sitting at the bar who arrived at 4:45. He assured us he was just having a drink.

It’s now after 6:00 and he’s nowhere close to leaving.

He stayed over 2 hours.

Just for a drink.

And the stories continue.

But I’m a local part 2.

The most we can seat at our new restaurant is 7.

We have one table that seats 7.

One table that seats 6.

The rest seat less.

All day long I say no to requests for bigger parties.

From friends of the restaurant.

They usually end up at the other restaurant.

But a few people have pushed back.

But weve been bringing our family to this restaurant for years.

Tomorrow I get to tell someone that that can’t be true.

Because we opened 8 days ago.

You went to a different restaurant.

That restaurant cease to exist last fall.

That restaurant would seat a party of 15.

Our restaurant won’t.

That restaurant had rats living in the walls.

Our restaurant does not.

That restaurant charged 12 dollars for an allagash beer.

Our restaurant does not.

So. No.

You have not been coming for years.

And please do not be rude to my staff to prove your point.

The answer is no.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Day 7 is in the books at the new restaurant.

The last two days have been special.

I no longer know everyone in the dining room.

And every second person that walks in let’s me know they are locals.

They then ask questions about the restaurant.

Not one of these people knows me.

Which means one of about a half dozen things.

They are local but just moved in last Tuesday.

They are local but the don’t venture off their street.

They are local but have a bad memory.

They are local but don’t like steak.

They are local but NEVER eat out.

They are local but only for three weeks a year.

Here’s the thing.

I’ve worked in this town for 7 of the past 10 years.

So.

And for the last two less than a mile from you.

And.

I have missed at best 15 days in the last two years.

So I’m pretty sure you should at least know my face.

But you were strangers tonight.

I was discussing this with someone who is not a local but does have a home here. She was in with her family. They dine with us several times a month when they are in town.

I said all of the things above.

And I mentioned that not only would you know me, but I’d know you.

I’d know your kid was just accepted to BU. I’d know your house had electrical problems a month ago. I’d know the car you drove to Boston has a leak in the roof. I’d know you’re about to have your fourth boy and are no longer going to try for a girl. I’d know you were the captain of the Harvard football team and your parents were both addicts. I’d know you have known your wife since 8th grade.

I mentioned this and included the part of missing fifteen days.

And the son said, does that include when you had your gall bladder removed.

And with that proved my point.

And if you do live down the street. And you don’t eat out. You are not our demographic.

Eating with us once a year will not keep us on business.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

I just crawled into bed.

It’s 2:38.

I worked a 14+ hour days.

It was filled with anger, yelling, ultimatums, veiled threats, accusations, and a whole list of other things.

This describes at least 6 people today I encountered.

However, one encounter stood out.

When I first started, I became friendly with a family that came in every six weeks or so.

They often requested the chef’s table so after a while I just made it happen.

So imagine my surprise when I had the following encounter.

The phone rings at the new restaurant.

I recognize the name as the son of this family.

I answer.

A voice immediately says, is this Jeff.

I reply yes.

And the voice introduces itself as the father.

He then becomes angry.

Are you no longer at the old restaurant?

Well it depends on the day of the week.

Well are you or aren’t you? I called tonight and they told me you were MIA. I don’t appreciate having to speak to some one else about my reservation.

I say I’m sorry.

He continues on very angry.

I truly don’t appreciate not being able to speak to you when I call. This won’t work if you are going to not be there.

I say I’m sorry again.

He then tells me that he has called to make a reservation and was told he’d have to speak to me to get the chef’s table. And how is that supposed to happen if I’m not even there to answer the phone.

I ask what he’s looking for.

Without missing a beat he demands to be seated at the chef’s table.

I ask how many are in his party and he says 7.

I explain that we can’t seat 7 at the chef’s table and we don’t pull them together.

He demands to know how many it can seat.

I say 6.

He demands that I make the reservation for 6 and change it from 4:30 to 5:00.

He continues at any chance to point out that I’m no longer there.

I tell him that I’ll accommodate him, and he says great.

Then he demands that I give him the name and number of a contact at the restaurant who can accommodate his requests.

I realize this is beyond acceptable.

Way beyond.

He has mistaken my kindness for weakness and privilege.

I’m not weak.

He does not have privilege. If he did he’d have my cell number to access me directly.

I think this might be his last time at the chefs table. That is if it’s not booked by the time he gets there.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

Today.

Tuesday was my first day off in 13 days.

I almost cried when I realized I had a doctors appointment this morning. M

Adam told me under no circumstances could I cancel.

So on 6 hours of sleep, I got up and got there on time.

It was an appointment with my neurologist.

In case you are new here I have a tremor in my left hand. It is an essential tremor.

The appointment went well.

I discovered that my exhaustion, lack of sleep, stress, and pain are the reasons it is seeming worse.

I also discovered that from a scale of 1 to 10 it is a 1.

My doctor, who I adore, said that based on five years of observing it, it will much likely get worse around the time I get to 100.

I told her, that I was looking forward to 100 so I could sleep as much as I wanted and needed.

But I was happy to have good news.

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

10 years ago I opened my first restaurant.

Leading up to the opening day we conducted training.

Part of that training was a speech I put together about hospitality.

It went splendidly.

When I have notes and speak off the cuff I’m pretty good with public speaking.

I’ve longed cease to be nervous.

Especially in my element.

The talk went well.

About 6 minutes in that day I noticed one of the owners watching and listening.

At the end he congratulated me and said that the company should have me share this message with all the teams.

That never happened and fast forward 5 years and he handed me my termination papers and severance details.

Last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I gave a series of talks with our new team. I forgot my notes but they were off the cuff.

I mostly talked about the passion that exists behind everything we do.

I talk about this often.

It’s the reason our restaurant is so different.

Everything we do we do with passion.

The food.

The service.

The ambiance.

I shared with this new team.

What I didn’t know was that I was doing these talks our marketing team from Argentina who was in town to take photos of the new space we’re listening.

They left on Friday.

And as we hugged goodbye they shared that they gave photographed 100’s of restaurants but they’d never seen anyone who spoke so clearly about what they did. What they were about.

I was told they learned a lot.

And had a new view of what we do here.

And it was reassuring.

Because sometimes you wonder if anyone is listening.

You wonder if anyone cares.

It reminded me that I’m pretty good at doing what I do.