One week old today

No real crazy problems. Just working on consistency of food – trying to get all the cooks to do everything the same way. Our chefs, Shane and Mike, have been working incredibly hard. There are a lot of details in making sure that the kitchen runs smoothly. Mostly fast ticket times but we’ve had a few drag. Nothing unexpected for a place that’s only a week old. Word is slowing getting out. We tried to put “Now Open for Lunch, Dinner, Bar” on our reader board but we found out that we don’t have any “H”s! We are discovering that we have some favorite menu items among the staff too. So far they seem to be the cubano sandwich, calamari, tater tots, all of the pizzas, and the spinach and chevre salad – yum!

Today was Opening Day!

Very exciting. We haven’t advertised because we don’t want to get overwhelmed. We just want to do a good job. Our first customer was Joseph Patrick Shaw. He was also the very first customer of Hogg Brothers when they opened here in 1994. We tacked his dollar up behind the bar.

Things went fairly smoothly. We had so much staff on hand that it was a little ridiculous, but we did have a great crowd. We saw lots of friends and family, and quite a few new faces as well. Noticed that the noise is a little bothersome so we’re going to work on that. And our sound system is a little quirky too – some songs are really loud and some really quiet. We had to keep running back to the office to adjust the volume- it was pretty funny. Had some issues with cold food. Our HVAC blows cold air in the kitchen so it’s cooling the food down fast. Also, we need to order some heat lamps to keep our plates warm. Just some kinks. Overall, we’re very happy.

Training is starts tomorrow!!

We’re all very nervous and crazy busy. We have to have everything ready by 10 AM when about 35 new employees will come in. We’ll train with them for about four hours and then another crew of about 35 come in at 5:30 PM and work until 9:30 PM. It will be a long day. Some of us managers will be training along with our trainees!

The bar training should be fun. We’re specializing in Small Batch Bourbons. We’ve done some research online but now we’re going to be tasting everything. Fun job!