News Update.

We had a winter storm today. It snowed a fair amount. It took me an hour and half to get to work.

So imagine my surprise, when I had not one but two calls today asking if our patio was open tonight.

It took everything in me to answer without sarcasm.

I just replied by saying not till the spring.

Seriously.

Who’s patio is open in a snowstorm.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out: In NYC every restaurant has a side walk outdoor seating scenario.

Little outdoor enclosures.

And they were all packed, with people who are afraid to eat indoors.

But the catch is, they are still indoors. One big room. No ventilation. Four walls. Two doors. No open windows.

Meanwhile.

Our patio will open in April.

If you need a reservation let me know.

Normally during my shift I take notes. I write down all sorts of things. Tonight my notepad was not in my pocket but at the host stand.

I’m my rounds tonight I destermined my thought for my post tonight. It was going to be brilliant.

I did not write it down.

Now that idea exists somewhere in the universe, but it does not exist in my head. For the life of me I can’t remember what I was going to say.

An update from yesterday.

We got a very sweet message today, from the wife of the man from last night.

She thanked us for the staff’s quick action. For our concern after the fact. And that ultimately our staff saved her husband’s life.

She confirmed my suspicion that he was worried about creating a scene and being embarrassed.

My advice to all of you is that make the scene. Embarrass yourself if you are choking.

A couple of more minutes and the outcome might have been different.

We are greatly relieved he was doing well after he left.

Ya never ever ever know what a day at the restaurant will bring.

Got to work very early today. It was my first day back. I had lots and lots and lots to do.

Staff started rolling in around 2:30. A few of them had been asked to come in early as we were setting up from scratch today.

It was great seeing them. I like the people on my team and I had really missed them.

Rest of the afternoon went great. The day goes by quickly. It was 5:00 in a blink.

We were not super busy tonight. Rain/freezing rain made the roads treacherous and coupled with the rest of the issues at hand it was quiet.

I took the opportunity to chat with guests. My staff. And after the last of the reservations were sat, I pulled out my laptop to work on some projects.

Around 8:15 I was chatting with a regular who had a question about a reservation when a food runner appeared and said I was needed in the kitchen.

I took two steps toward the kitchen, she stopped me to let me know that the gentleman seated at seat 15 at the bar was choking.

So let’s backup.

About 2.5 minutes before I was alerted:

One of our bartenders was starting to shut down the bar, let’s call her Lexie, as the night was winding down.

While she was cleaning, a woman seated at the bar, caught her attention, and indicated that she needed something. Lexie thought she needed a water and started filling a glass when she realized what was actually happening.

The man with the woman was clearly struggling to get a breath. Lexie was pretty sure it had been 45 seconds to a full minute before he alerted his companion that there was a problem.

Lexie dropped the glass she was filling. I remember hearing the glass break. She yelled for the other bartender, Garrett who was helping a table.

Garrett immediately went to then man and performed the Heimlich. They’re pretty sure the steak he was choking on was dislodged at this point but he was still having trouble breathing.

At this time a member of the kitchen team came out to help. He was performing the Heimlich again when I arrived.

I instructed the food runner to call 911.

The man still couldn’t breathe and couldn’t talk.

The Heimlich was performed again and at this point he threw up onto the floor.

He was finally breathing. And was able to speak.

He was clearly shaken.

He insisted we cancel the paramedics. And that he was fine.

He got cleaned up. Packaged up his dinner and asked for the check.

I checked in with them before they left and he assured me he was fine

They left.

Everyone was shook.

Thankfully my teamed acted wonderfully.

It’s the first time I’ve ever had this happen.

It was a crazy way to end the night.

What a first day back!

My vacation is officially over.

16 days that took about 72 hours to pass.

Where did the time go.

In truth it was a great 16 days.

3 full days in NYC. 6 shows. Three of them the shows that sparked the trip in the first place.

Lots of amazing dinners at home. Adam’s cooking. Awesome drinks. Fire in the fireplace. Cats on our lap. Pretty perfect.

We go back to work with lots of New Years goals. How to improve the business. How to improve revenue. How to improve service. Physical improvements to enhance the experience for both staff and guests. We are off to a good start.

So keep your fingers crossed the current pandemic issues don’t slow us down. That we can find the staff we need. That everyone currently on the staff stays happy and healthy. That the guests keep coming.

I’m seriously looking forward to the new year.

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.

Adam and I had a great day. In the past two days we’ve walked about 500 miles. My shoes are great, but my NYC feet retired 10 years ago.

We spent the day pivoting. Our matinee was canceled while we ate lunch. We walked to a theatre to see if we could move Wednesday tickets to today. We bought Music Man tickets with the plan to cancel the tickets to a show we only sorta wanted tickets for. Before we could get to the theater the first show cancelled.

We did see two lovely shows today. One of the leads in both shoes was an understudy. Both of them were great.

When we finally knew what we were doing we made dinner reservations at Joe Allen’s. It’s a staple in Times Square. Decent menu, not too expensive, and it’s close to the theaters.

When we got out of our first show we realized we had about 45 minutes to be at dinner which was a 4 minute walk. We noticed on our way to the theater that a Times Square staple had moved to a new location. We thought we would pop in for a quick drink and snack before dinner.

I’d like to take this time to point out that with out exception EVERYONE has been super nice. Like someone spiked the tea nice. Definitely not typical NYC restaurant behavior. We are known for being surly.

We entered the restaurant. We were greeted by a gentleman in a suit. (Remind me to talk about that later). He checked our ID and vaccination status. Then seated us at the bar.

The bartender was friendly. Got our drink orders. Then turned around to make them. 4 or 5 minutes later he turned back around and gave them to us. Adam asked if he would put in an appetizer for us. He went to the POS rang it in. And went back to work.

I’m going to digress.

Bartending is an art form. And there are multiple types of bartenders.

You’ve got the ones I always call beer tenders who can put out 30 drafts in 15 seconds. You’ve got mixologists who measure and pour and garnishes your drink with tweezers. You’ve got a sports bar bartender who is slinging gin and tonics and popcorn all night. You’ve got the Hard Rock bartender who’s got to be fast, friendly, and have the ability to do it for 10 hours. You’ve got a night club bartender who opens cans and bottles all night and looks good without a shirt. You’ve got a wine bar bartender who knows all the ins and outs of wine and can talk about it for 90 minutes without boring you. You’ve got a bartender on the pier in Old orchard Beach who serves everything in plastic, serves 500 people themselves and can tell people to fuck off when they’ve had to much to drink. You’ve also got bartenders that provide 5 star dinner service at upscale restaurants, while keeping their guests coursed, entertained, and happy.

I could go on.

The thing is, when you’re interviewing for a bartender, you have to read between the lines and figure out what kind of bartender you are talking to. They are NOT interchangeable. Not at all. It’s also easy to be fooled. You learn to ask the right questions. Like do you know what’s in a Manhattan. You think I joke. Interviewed lots of experienced bartenders who didn’t know it had whiskey in it.

On top of this.

You have service bar.

Service bar is its own beast. You are a machine. Churning out drink after drink after drink after drink. It starts at 5:00 and doesn’t end till close. I’ve had the pleasure of working with lots and lots of bartenders. Some of them tremendous.

But to this day I’ve only worked with a handful who understood the art of it. Who didn’t panic when the tickets hit the floor. Who didn’t get lost as the tickets piled up while a server is shouting at you that they forgot to ask for the martini dry. They keep their bars clean. They usually do this while still helping out with guests. And it’s all done with a smile.

My favorite who I had the pleasure of working as a peer was a guy named Eric. He’d do tricks and show off while making 15/20 tickets at a time. I probably tipped him thousands of dollars in the five years we worked together.

I’ve also had three bartenders I’ve hired who killed. Tara, Lexi, and Steph. All three in Kennebunkport. All three special in their own way. All three beyond excellent.

Back to our story.

Our bartender today was not one of the good ones.

He was sloppy. His tickets were wet, torn and unreadable.

He had no process to what he was making. The order. The ticket. Etc.

Believe it or not to be fast you have to learn to combine steps, look at all your tickets, know whether to make the hard drinks first, or pour the beer first.

This guy didn’t understand that. He was all over the place. Messy bar. Supplies all over the place.

I was nervous for him and the servers.

Adam texted with his friends while I watched.

It never got better.

I also waited.

The clock was ticking closer and closer to our reservation time.

We still had not gotten our appetizer.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Adam finally realized it’s getting to the point of not having time to eat it should it appear.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

At 4:50 we asked for the check.

Adam had his credit card out.

But we wanted to see the check before we paid.

He finally presented it to us.

There was no app on the check. He never rang it in. Which before you get upset. There is not a single server in the whole wide world whose has not forgotten to ring in an item. We’ve all done it.

But.

I really think it was because he was in the weeds with service drinks.

But.

It wasn’t even 4:30 when we ordered. They weren’t busy. There were a handful of tables in the restaurant and six guests at the bar. Two of which were finished and paid.

If he had been more organized, better put together, it wouldn’t have happened.

But it doesn’t end there. He gives us the check. We drop the credit card on top of it.

We wait. And wait. And wait.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

It’s now 5:00 and he hasn’t picked it up.

He finally grabs it.

Swipes it.

Checks his phone.

Then goes back to making service drinks.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

It was 5:10 when he finally gave us the slip to sign.

We signed. We tipped.

And we ran to our 5:00 dinner reservation.

PS. It was also shift change. So there was a lot of banter.

And.

His replacement had a hickey the size of Nebraska on his neck. (This is an upscale restaurant, not fancy like Applebees).

PSS. Nice restaurants, especially nice restaurants, with fancy buildouts. Don’t skimp on the lighting. It look like the jewelry counter at Macy’s with the lights over the tables.

I did something tonight I’ve never done before.

I dined out on Christmas. I’ve always been one of those stay home with your family people. But we were very grateful that places were open for our drive down and for dinner tonight.

We stopped at McDonalds at a service area for lunch. The place was packed. The line for the drive through had to be 20 cars deep.

That being said, almost everyone was masked. People were spaced out. Everyone was being patient as it was about 20 minutes from order to food.

It was not the experience I might have expected from hungry tired people.

We got into the city, found our vacation home for the week, freshened up, and headed out.

I have to say the first fifteen minutes were funny as neither me nor Adam had any sense of direction. Which when you live here a sense of direction is implanted in you when you sign your lease.

We walked from the village down to our restaurant, wandering along, shocked at all the changes.

I suggested we have a drink on the way and we found a cute Mexican restaurant that was open. A margarita would not have been my first choice but when in Rome.

It was delicious. Hit the spot. And Adam and I both thanked the server for working on Xmas.

We then headed to the restaurant.

One of mine and Adams favorite restaurants is Balthazar. It where we had our first fancy meal out. Where I are steak tartar for the first time. We’ve celebrated there many times over the year.

I actually suggested Balthazar because I knew it would cheer up Adam who has been stressed out about this trip for three weeks. Are we going? Should we go? Will the shows be canceled? What should we see? Where should we stay. He did all the heavy lifting for the trip.

I knew the restaurant would be a good alternative after our shows for today were canceled. And I was right. He was super excited for dinner and even happier while we dined.

So we arrive at the restaurant.

We were greeted quickly. They sat us almost 15 minutes early. And we were off to the races.

The experience was great. Our neighbors on both side of us in the dining room were great. And the best part, after we got our drinks the server asked if we wanted to order or relax a bit with our drinks.

WHAT???? I’d kill my servers if they did this.

So we asked for a couple of minutes which was closer to ten which was perfect.

The rest of the meal, service, experience were exactly what we needed.

We both decided it was the perfect Christmas meal.

We thanked our server profusely. Tipped him extra.

Thanked him again.

And took our leave, where we wandered back up town from SOHO.