Friday, October 8, 2010

City vs. Country

As a kid, I grew up in both the city and the country. We weren't so wealthy as to have two houses; we spent the first 5 years of my life in the city, moved to the country, then moved back to the city when I was 15. I have a complicated relationship with rural living. I am an extrovert. I love engaging with people and I get a surge of energy from any interaction. When we lived in the country, our nearest neighbours were a mile away (and they were a little weird, they kept a phone in their house that was reserved for conversations with God...) My only sibling is 5 years older than me and wasn't around much. Most days, I was lonely and bored.

On the flip side, I grew up with 3 acres of gardens, pigs, horses and generally some skills with country living. I can grow all sorts of things, pickle and put up preserves, and capture a chicken. I like putting on rubber boots and stomping around in the field. I have a great affection for this life. But, when we moved to the city, I felt like someone had flipped a switch. I couldn't get enough of being around people. I don't think I was alone for the first five years! I felt buzzy and happy.

It's funny how fundamental this all remains within me. On our travels, I was so happy in Napa. We were staying in Rutherford, a town of 500 people. It was pitch black at night, it was so quiet and pastoral, you could watch the mice skitter and the hawks circle. We travelled through vineyards and organic gardens and discussed ways to garden better. It was perfect.

Then, 2 days ago, we landed in San Francisco. As we drove in, the 2 hour drive, you could feel the shift starting to happen. Gradually, we were surrounded by more and more people. Then all of a sudden you're in 4 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic. Once we ditched the car and started walking and walking and walking, amidst thousands of people on the streets, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face! I felt buoyed by the energy of the city, I could feel it pulsating through me. My city girl came alive! We have been to as many parts of the city as we can cram in, met people in every place we've stopped, eaten some of the best food I've ever had, tried new cocktails, ridden street cars, jammed our days as full as possible. It makes me so happy!

And so, I love that I have these parts of me and they both get turns. Our son has lobbied hard for the past few years for some property in the country and this trip has clarified for me that this is a worthwhile investment. When we get home, we'll step up the hunt for someplace to be quiet, build tree forts, plant some vegetables and watch the stars. And then return to the city to get amped up again!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Napa valley

We're on our last day in Napa Valley. This has been a beautiful and educational three days. I feel like so lucky to have had the opportunity to meet all these amazing people and learn so much about wine and wine-making. The first day, we went to Joseph Phelps and had this VIP tour with a gentleman named Keith. I'm pretty sure he was actually Garrison Keillor. He spoke in this soothing midwest accent and told us stories about the property and the development of Napa and winemaking. I listened to him for two and a half hours and I could have stayed around for more.

After Phelps, we made our way to Quintessa. Phelps is an old well established winery. Quintessa are sort of the new kids on the block. I think they bought their land twenty years ago. Here we had a young woman named Kaitlyn take us on a hike through the property and sat on a hill drinking one of their sister wineries' sauvignon blanc, Illumination. Quintessa was hands down my favourite tour. They are bio-dynamic and after some gentle prodding, Kaitlyn opened up and gave us some really great information about how that works. I particularly like the use of animals to tend to the crops. Kaitlyn explained that some wineries are quiet about being bio-dynamic as it is considered flaky and can keep some 'serious' wine drinkers away. I have to say, I did notice an odd reluctance to discuss organics, bio-dynamics and the environmental impact of say, hundreds of thousands of new oak barrels, at other wineries. I was surprised.

Our final tour that day was Caymus. Caymus is a wine we've stocked for most of the time we've been open. This event was actually just a tasting, with some quick notes about the history of the business from the wine educator. The group had a very drunk couple from New York in it and that kind of made the dynamic a little wonky. In the end, it was the weakest event of the day.

Yesterday, we did Cakebread and Sequoia. Cakebread is a consistently fabulous wine that has always been a popular wine on our menu. It's pretty high end but when you see the production, it starts to make sense. Essentially, the winery tracks every barrel and mixes the barrels in specific lots to achieve a specific profile. It is painstaking. Once they have achieved the profile they are after, they then mix the same combination of barrels to create a run of a wine. The other wineries we met worked in a more 'batch' approach. They played with the chemistry but they didn't track each barrel from each lot. We had a very passionate tour guide at Cakebread, who had been a winemaker himself in Oregon, who clearly felt Cakebread was simply the best. He said that their 2007 Cab had such high ratings that they have pulled it from the tastings! He was also the least interested in talking about organics or the environmental impact of winemaking! Ironically, my favourite part of the tour was meeting with the Master Gardener and touring the organic gardens!

Sequoia is a beautiful winery right next door to Cakebread. Aptly named for the giant sequoias growing on the property, they are a teeny winery with some lovely wines. However by this point, I was pretty worn out and got distracted by a great cheese book from a collective cheese shop in Berkeley. The wine educator liked Alex so she poured him a lot of a big variety of reds, most of which we can't get because they only sell them from the winery. By the end of the tasting, Alex was pretty looped so we made our way to the Rutherford Grill and had a fantastic lunch.

Today, we are heading to Rubicon (Francis Ford Coppola's winery) and then to Boon Fly Cafe in Carneros. I love the name so hopefully we'll have fun! Tonight we head to San Francisco for a different type of fun and hopefully some night life!!

Finally, I just want to send a big thank you in Tina Jones' direction. I know that we buy a lot of wine from Banville & Jones and it makes sense that they would want to get us connected with the winemakers but Tina has gone above and beyond in taking care of this leg of our trip. She's pretty awesome and a great role model for business women in Winnipeg.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Travelling

About a year ago, Alex and I committed to trying to travel more. As young folk, we were very poor (can we buy a ladle this week? No? Ok, the coffee cup will work for another week... ) We had lots of fun and had dinner parties and went camping a lot. Then we bought a house at 23 and poured all our energy and spare money into renovating it. After that, we had kids. No time, no money, no energy.

So, here we are. We work like crazed people at the Bistro all the time. Most people don't know that we start dealing with stuff from home by about 9 am and usually don't leave work until midnight. I stay home with the kids during the day and we have our adventures in homeschooling. Generally life is very full and we really felt it was time to start travelling. It seems like a good way to unplug and recharge our batteries. Also, about two years ago, we figured out that our kids are fantastic travellers and they are all game for an adventure.

In the past year, we've been to Montreal, Toronto with the kids, Toronto without the kids, Vancouver with the kids (we are avid air miles collectors now!) This week, Alex and I are in Napa Valley and San Francisco. This trip was a gift from both our families to Alex for his fortieth birthday. We have talked about this trip, fantasized about this trip, since we were 18 years old. And now we are here!

Of course, all trips come with hiccups: our flight was delayed out of Calgary so we missed a bunch of stuff that we wanted to do in San Francisco yesterday. And, they lost my luggage. Which has meant not only am I without my things, we had to waste valuable time yesterday shopping for socks and underwear and a toothbrush for me. But we are here! And today we are going to go on 3 VIP wine tours that TIna Jones from Banville & Jones organized for us. I am just in awe of this whole experience. I plan to try to chronicle it as we go. But, who knows, I may just be eaten up by the moment.

I am very grateful that Alex and I have shifted away from buying things for each other and toward creating experiences. It also seems to be rubbing off on our kids: our son asked that no one give him any gifts for his birthday or Christmas. He asked for people to donate money instead. As a family, we decided to also pool our resources to send him on a trip to Vancouver to see his cousin and his buddy. I hope he has the adventure of a life time.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Still alive

We survived the Folk Fest!!! I believe that I felt at 3 am on Saturday morning wandering around Festival Camping that my survival may in fact have been in doubt. Fatigue had set in. I was surrounded by mayhem. Delightful mayhem but mayhem nonetheless. People dressed up as teddy bears, minstrels of varying quality, a giant sphinx and multiple pyramids, one of my staff in a housecoat wandering around muttering and gesturing to himself, a LOT of glowy stick people and one Christmas light guy, mussels being cooked, lasers being shone into the sky, the smell of pot and booze and cigarettes, seas of tents, and a giant lit up roving dragon. Oh yeah, and we were sleep deprived in a way I haven't been since having a newborn baby.

I loved it, tho. Love the festival, love festival camping. We are now plotting on how to get to Burning Man to cook. I love the idea of bringing fabulous food to fantastic places and being part of this enormous creative energy. We cooked and cooked and cooked. I'm sure that over the next few weeks I will continue to process this whole time in my life because it was so full and amazing.

We moved into our new digs which I have to say I was very worried about. I was not wanting a building, I was happy with my cooking tent and outdoor dishpit and cajoling the health inspector into our perspective: grass if fine flooring. However, change comes and you have move with it or get knocked over. I'm more of a move with it and see where it takes me kind of person. The building is phenomenal! It's huge and airy and bright and has the potential to be enormously efficient. It is cavernous so I had almost no voice by Monday. It was the place everyone wanted to hang out! We had musicians come and play for us and busses drop off folks right at our porch. We have a porch! it is really a beautiful space.

The food was good, too. There were some hiccups: chicken on the bone is tricky but extra tricky when there is no prep time and you have to make it on the fly! Potatoes (most starches, really) for 5000 are just challenging. But there were some highlights: bison short ribs falling off the bone, 3-bean salad out of this world!, grilled cheese sandwiches, and some crazy apple pancake thing that Alex said, "It worked!!" when he saw it (I sense he may have had some fears on its viability). We also cooked in "guerilla tents", setting up tables and burners wherever we could find a bit of space, on the folk fest site and the camp site, we simply started cooking and people would come to get food. When we ran out of food, we shut it down. It was so great! It also has opened up ideas for me around travelling food and bringing food to places.

I have left this festival with many great ideas rattling around in my head and we'll see what they lead to.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Delightful Bedlam

Oh, it's been a whirlwind. Every year around this time I think to myself: Why? Why in the world did you think this was a good idea? Surprisingly I am not talking about a) being married b) having children c) owning a restaurant. In fact, I am talking about running the backstage kitchen at the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

When I was eight years old, in 1978 (gasp, I know I don't look it, do i?!), my dad's best friend was on the board of the folk festival and invited my dad to come. My dad and I have similar senses of adventure so he brought me along and we both fell in love with it. We volunteered the following year (this is before people worried about age restrictions, seat belts, smoking while pregnant, general safety, etc.) and were put in the kitchen. I was given jobs to do and started a life long love affair with the place. My dad still volunteers (somehow he got the 30-year volunteer jacket and I didn't?) but he has defected from the kitchen and is now a schlepper. They drive golf carts and look pretty.

When Alex and I were 23, we were asked to take over running the kitchen. At the time, there were about 100 kitchen volunteers and we fed about 1200 people 2 meals/day for 3 1/2 days. Today, there are 3600 volunteers and probably 1500 assorted other people, including performers. This year, our crew has 250 people on it and we will be feeding everyone for seven days. It's a mammoth task.

And, though I ask myself, why in the world did you think this was a good idea?, better than ever before, I know the answer. Three years ago, we were not "hired back" (fired, I do believe) and we had to sit out two festivals. We were given other tasks but truly it was painful. I was so sad I took up running and shed 50 lbs. It was a terrible period of feeling like I didn't control anything and like I didn't know where I belonged. The best part was running. I still love it and I have learned to be somewhat more accepting of the path I find. A smidgen more zen than I once was.

Last year, a new Executive Director landed at the festival and very graciously asked us back. I leapt at the opportunity (Alex did chide me a bit for not at least pretending to think about it for a bit) I have felt completely invigorated by the experience. I am back with my peeps! I love this work more than I can say. Building a kitchen where there was bush, watching cooks become chefs, deciding what song to have the two thousand people lined up for dinner sing for their supper, sharing a glass of wine with an old friend: it is truly magical.

I am currently buried under emails, logistical problems (how to get food to one place from another, how to deal with black pepper sensitivities and vegans with soy allergies, getting people on site when I need them, making sure everyone's ordered their food, do I have enough reefer space?!), personality conflicts (it'll all be FINE, I'm sure), and lost things (I don't even know what those are yet) but I am relishing it. *sigh* I love this time of year.

Now I run to make sure I have my ducks in a row.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

3 most common questions

There are three questions I commonly get asked:

Where do you get your hair done? Buck at Hive Hair Co. I've been going to him for 12 years. I am very attached to him and he is very sweet.

Where do you get your jewellery? Predominantly at bijou on Provencher. I also have a fondness for Hilary Druxman. And, I have been known to get stuff at Zellers (yep) and H&M.

Finally, the one I find hardest to answer: How can you work with your husband?

I am stumped by that one. It's complicated.

It has not always been easy. Last year, we went through a business and relationship crisis. Now the thing about a crisis is that it clears away the clutter and your vision becomes laser sharp. We both needed that. It seems to me that you can bumble along living life without being mindful and the whole thing gets muddy. What is important? It was a process and it took about six months to begin to come to a better place and now, a year later, we are on much firmer ground. I think for me the most interesting part is that the crisis confirmed for both of us that we really love working together. In fact, I would be surprised if we ever worked apart again.

Alex and I push each other to be better, stronger, harder working, more creative, more responsible, more capable, and more fun. We can call each other on our shit or we can turn a blind eye. We know how to make something hum. We both love what we do and love it ten times more when we are sharing it. Wild, huh?

Finally, the most important thing for both of us is that we make each other laugh. Even when it's all a mess, we can find a way to laugh! Makes for a pretty great work day.

May I?

Over the course of the past couple of months, there has been a bit of a spotlight shining on to the restaurant worker community. Essentially, a Red River student created a book for a project that asked some local chefs to tell her "uncensored" tales of working in a kitchen. One local chef wound up in a jam about what he spoke about. I'm not interested in getting into that - not my business. However, I do want to talk about behaviour by restaurant workers.

Let me preface this discussion by saying I grew up in a feminist workplace. For ten years, I worked in a unionized, left-wing, feminist, health care facility. Loved it! Loved my co-workers. Loved working in this very safe, highly protected work environment. There were days of dark humour born out of the life and death situations we found ourselves processing but there certainly was always very respectful behaviour amongst staff and clients.

Then I came to work at a restaurant. Wow. I'm not in Kansas anymore. First of all, we are in a tiny workspace. I have to say that the amount of bodily contact in a night would make anyone blush. What can you do? Sometimes you can't get pass another person or reach for a bottle without some inappropriate touching! And, the language! I have become the queen of the f-bomb. I talk like I was raised by sailors! And then there are the jokes and put-downs. Got to have tough skin and be able to laugh at yourself or you'll never survive. I always use to admire that Alex can so easily laugh at himself but now I get it: he grew up in a restaurant. Now, I too have that skill. Essentially, it's a brutal environment: you are hot, tired, and inevitably someone has treated you like something they found on the bottom of their shoe, running for about 10 hours at a go. And, SMILE! (Not every day is like this but every day has at least one of those elements.) Add into all of this, the predominantly 15 year old boy support staff and you have a recipe for some very basic humour.

I have to admit, I was shocked by it all at first. I am now acclimatized.

Here's the interesting thing, tho. The piece that hasn't been talked about in the FreeP or the Guardian. During service, restaurants work on an age-old system of basic respect. Everyone says, "May I?" before speaking to you. Servers run each others' food, bussers hustle to clear tables, cooks make beautiful meals for their co-workers, shifts are covered, cooks call each other 'brother' and when they are in the shit, they mean it. Sometimes people comment on how long we keep staff. And we really do. We've had people with us since the beginning. We're small and started with no money so they haven't been staying for their stellar salaries. The environment at Bistro is very familial. We are there to take care of each other. It is amazing how sweet and kind we can be to each other and to the customers. That's very important to me. But just like siblings on the playground, when we play it can be ugly!

So, yes, restaurants breed rude and inappropriate behaviour in their staff. And, yes, restaurant workers are some of the sweetest, hardest-working, most respectful people I have ever met.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

beer

The other day, I had a talk with myself. This is, fortunately or unfortunately, not a rare event. On this particular occasion, I was giving myself a talking to.

Here's the thing: I like to be helpful. I like to have a purpose. I like to aid the project along. And so, when things are jumping at the bistro, I will sidle up to people and offer to get them a drink. Most of the time, this is not a problem. They say, "Sure, I'll have a caesar or a vodka martini extra dry," and I toddle off to create it.

However, sometimes, people say, "Sure, what kind of beer do you have?" Now, at that moment, I panic. Complete despair. 'I don't know' I whine in my head. And then I rattle off a few different beers that I know we carry: Fort Garry Pale, Fort Gary Dark, Stella, and then on into others like Half Pints, Leffe, Heineken. Of course, the person responds with: "Great, I'll have a St. James Half-Pint" And off I go to the beer fridge, muttering a prayer of hope that we actually have the beer that I have suggested we might. More often than not, Murphy's Law kicks in and we don't have the beer they order from me and I have to go back and try again. Including trying really, really hard to memorize what beers we actually DO have.

There are three things: One is I don't drink beer. I really love beer but I cannot drink it as I'm allergic to tyramines which are found in beer. This means that I can't remember the names of the beer beyond a very few specific ones. If I don't drink them, I can't remember their names (a learning style issue, I'm sure.) Second, I don't stock the beer fridge so I have no idea what we have and what we are out of. Third, we are a tiny restaurant and don't have a ton of storage space so if a party of 10 people focus on one beer, they will blow through the two cases we started the night with and I won't necessarily know.

All of this translates into my knowledge of the state of beer at the bistro at any given moment being pretty dismal. And yet, I keep pretending like I know. Hence, the talking to. And the fessing up: I will no longer pretend to know what beer we have even though I feel like a spaced out goof when I say to a customer that I will have to get a server to list them. The price of being honest.

Monday, March 29, 2010

significant moments

There are moments in time that feel significant. Moments where you think to yourself: Well, that's going to change my life. Tonight, I had such a moment.

Five years ago, I had such a moment. I should preface this by saying that I am an intuitive gal (and I believe that this is an important part of people - yeah, I know, it can flaky and weird but it works for me). I rely on my gut, a lot! So, five years ago I was sitting in my tent trailer at my uncle's property near Clear Lake reading the newspaper and I saw a pencil drawing of the building at 725 Osborne St. and I knew that this moment was a biggie. I called Alex on his cell (he was still at work and going to join us later in the week) and said, "I found it." He knew what I meant. He called the landlord and the rest is Bistro 7 1/4 history.

Tonight, I had a moment. I sat in a meeting with two chefs and a friend and thought, "Well, there you go." Many of you know that Alex and I are constantly curious and working on multiple projects at a time but tonight was a meeting with a significant weight.

We'll see what happens but I am excited to be on yet another adventure!

Friday, March 5, 2010

the news to now...

I apologize for not writing more recently. It has been a crazy few weeks! First, I turned 40 which felt significant. I'm still processing that one although I sense my forties are going to be good to me. One of the advantages of owning a restaurant is that you can use it to host parties on occasion and so Alex threw me a fabulous birthday party! Thank you to all the staff for working so hard to create wonderful food and a lovely evening for me. Thank you to all my friends and family (my sister flew in from Vancouver!) for celebrating such a important event with me.

Next we flew off to Montreal for a couple days of rest and relaxation (read: catching up on sleep and eating incessantly.) Aside from two overnight trips to Grand Forks, Alex and I have not had a holiday since our week off last January so we seem to be trying to create more space for play (as the work piece is intensifying - see below.) Okay, every time I go to Montreal, I wonder why I don't live there. I love the urban nature, the metro, the restaurants and the markets make me want to weep. I love the French culture, the in-your-face, of-course-I'm-right, let's-have-a-drink-and-laugh craziness of it all (for those who don't know, I am half French Canadian). We ate ridiculously yummy food, mostly involving Au Pied de Cauchon restaurant and the markets. We bought fresh chickpeas, sausage from Ile-de-Madeleine and the most glorious cheese imaginable. My favourite is called Le Secret, a runny, oozing, melt in your mouth bit of joy (my girlfriend and I call it 'cheese puddle'). The cheese list at the restaurant takes up half the chalkboard and is being gobbled up by appreciative cheese lovers! I know Alex is going to write more about the food in his blog.

Next, we are heading to Toronto with our kids for some quality time with Alex's extended family. And, to shop for kitchen items (we need a quail egg cutter - who knew?) and food! In her retirement, Alex's aunt Inara took a part-time job at The Cheese Boutique. Of course, this is one of the few members of Alex's family that isn't obsessed with food so there is a fair bit of irony in that. Anyway, we'll be spending lots of quality time with Inara shopping for cheese! We also plan on checking out Mark McEwan's new market/restaurant, going to our friend Joanne's restaurant Relish, and heading to the Black Hoof for some offal and other nasty bits. If anyone has any suggestions for food stores or restaurants, please pass them along.

We are also planning trips to Brandon for the Royal Winter Fair (I love the fair, horse jumping and pig displays rock my world) and then to Vancouver in May to see our family and friends there. I haven't even begun to wrap my head around the food possibilities of that trip yet.

In between all of this, we have begun the process of planning the folk festival (yeah!!!) and our expansion (yeah?). I joke. Of course we are excited about the expansion of our restaurant to include a lounge and a private party room (and city planners willing, a patio) however I am not so daft as to not recognize the mountain of work involved in that process! We have drawings, we almost have a prospectus done and we are in negotiations with the landlords to take over the space next door. It's exciting and terrifying all at once. I will continue to update on the progress of this project.

As for the Folk Festival: full steam ahead! We are going to have a building to cook in this year. The design (Syvverson Monteyn) is fantastic but I will be a little bit sad to let go of my tent in the bush. There is something very empowering about saying that you cooked dinner for 5000 people in a tent in the bush. We are working on the menus (so if you have any desires/suggestions/needs, say them now), planning our guerilla kitchens (popping up next to you at any given moment), Alex's mainstage act, maybe some wine pairings, and a few surprises, too!

So, off to work and play I go!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The long distance reso

I am out and about today, running errands, schlepping children to activities, tending to life and an event occurs that takes place about once a week: someone recognizes me and tries to book a reservation.

When we first opened and this would happen (occasionally people would call us at home, strangers as well as friends, and do the reservation that way), I would happily agree to the reservation and remember to write it down when I got to work. I guess a few things have changed since then. Every night, we have multiple reservations for every table and so knowing what is available can be daunting. The other challenge is that I now have to remember 5000 pieces of information; the quantity grew exponentially as the restaurant grew. I often feel like my thoughts are like sticky-notes with no stick left. I have no place to put them and they just fall off.

So, I try to be gracious about resos taken on the fly but I really cannot remember what we have available for Tuesday, February 16th. I also can't be trusted to remember to put your reservation in the book unless I am standing in front of it with a pencil in my hand.

Of course, I can remember the really important things like what the woman on table 4 was drinking last Thursday. Oh well, better than nothing I suppose.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

What's in a name?

On average, I think I meet ten new people every day. There are days when it is only a few but most days it is many people. Or, I re-meet people: someone I met three months ago, I am reintroduced to. Now, 3 years ago, if you had asked me, I would have said, "Oh yeah, I'm great at remembering peoples' names, no problem." Now, I stare blankly at my best friend and think, "Wait, give me a minute, I'll get it."

I have been thinking about ways to up my stats. I want a better average in remembering. Maybe I should get one of those brain games for my kids Nintendo systems. Or, maybe I'll up my intake of brain foods like spinach, soy beans and chocolate (I know, I know, wishful thinking...) I read in the paper this week that weight-lifting increases your brain capacity. I love lifting weights, I love having pipes, so that'll be easy.

Often, we use a team approach at the restaurant. The servers will caucus to quickly discuss what someone's name is. Sometimes it is a brief moment because one of us remembers right away. Other times, it is a little debate and squabble and we disagree. So, if you see us having a little moment, you know what we are up to.

I do have my own techniques, it's just that they seem to be faltering from the high pace of incoming information! I love mnemonic devices and have used them often. In fact, I used a mnemonic technique just this weekend when I met a couple who were at the restaurant for the first time: David and Jennifer. So, in my head, I thought: okay, David and Jennifer, David and Jennifer, Dan and Lisa. Crap. How am going to remember their names? (They very clearly said they would be back and I believe them, they loved it!) Oh, I know, we have regulars that come every Saturday for lunch and were the first table cooked for in 2010: Dave and Jennifer. It's the same, I can do this.

Of course, this whole stream of thinking is going on while I'm talking to these new folks and I fear I seem like an idiot! I am also keenly aware of one being a Dave and the other a David. I just now that is going to trip me up. When the new couple comes back I know I am going to stand, looking at them and smiling, silently panicking as I search my brain for their names and have a fight with myself about wether it is Dave or David.

It's hard to explain how important it is to me to remember people's names and stories. Actually, I have an easier time remember their stories. That relationship moment is incredibly important to me and it drives me crazy that I lose a piece of it (the name) the moment I walk away.

I think my new plan is I'm going to take photos of people as they come in and carry around a binder with people's information in it.

Or, I'm going to hand out name tags. I don't think anyone will object.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Really?

Tonight was busy, very, very busy.  Surprisingly so.  We had thought that it was going to be slow but we were wrong.  We had thought we would make a 10:20 movie but we were wrong about that, too.  It was fun, lots of interesting people (thank you to the lovely woman from the U.S. who talked about my blog...)

At about 7:30, when things were really hopping, a gentleman came in the door.  I asked him if he had a reso, he said no and asked if he could have a seat for one.  I apologized, pointed to my crazy, football playbook looking map, and let him know that I wouldn't have room until 9:45.  To which he responded, "You aren't letting me come in because I looked at your breasts.  And now that you aren't letting me in I'm going to look at them again.  And, once more on the way out."  Then he left.

Really?  Okay.  

Alex says I should have introduced him to my big husband who is in charge of flames and knives... 

Happy New Year's!

Well, we survived it and I would say, it was our best one yet! Often New Year's Eve can feel like Valentine's Day: forced and eerily quiet. As soon as you have a group of people gathered together with expectations of merriment, the situation can go terribly awry. However, this year, everyone seemed relaxed and connected and happy to be out having dinner. Lots of tables talked across to each other and were very playful. The room looked so pretty, with silver stars and balls and garlands; all twinkly and pretty.

It was a busy one, too. The restaurant was basically full at 4:00 and stayed full until midnight. I think most tables turned 4 times and the kitchen did a great job. We had dinner specials (that I assume Alex will blog about) of lobster and veal, with a fantastic appetizer of oysters - they were so yummy, I think I had six at the end of the night! Our drink special was so popular we went through a bottle and a half of Red Alize. I was feeling particularly proud because I made it up and it had what we call "high poundability" which essentially means the drink is easy to drink and goes down like beer on a hot summer's day. Sometimes cocktails can be big and complicated but this one was simple and yummy.


Champagne Martini
1 oz Red Alize (passionfruit liquor)
1 oz cranberry juice
Shake in a martini shaker until it's nice and cold and frothy. Pour into a martini glass.
Top with Champagne (we used Prosecco but a Spanish cava would be lovely or go for the real deal and use Veuve Cliquot! - my favourite)
We garnished with blackberries and raspberry but you could use strawberries or frozen pomegranate pips.

So now that 2010 is upon us and the party is over it is one of my favourite times of the year. I spend a great deal of time running between commitments and feeling like I never quite accomplish what I need to in any given day. The beginning of the year is often a great time for me to contemplate the path ahead and get my ducks in a row. This contemplation comes at a time when the restaurant seemingly slows down (although last January was ridiculously busy so I think it is a bit of an illusion - it just seems slower compared to four turn nights like Thursday!)

This year, I have a new office in our home which feels like a delicious treat. There are six people living in our home and space can be at a premium. We love living in this cozy, hectic environment but it sometimes translates to highly makeshift arrangements like my tiny desk and filing cabinet about a foot from where I sleep at night. My desk is moving into the music room! Yeah! Move over banjo, guitars, basket full of weird Kindermusic instruments, piano (okay, I now that isn't happening), I am making space to think and work! Hopefully my schedule and instrument practice schedule are able to co-exist...

So the question is: what am I working on? Well, there seem to be a lot of rumours flying around (feel free to check out my previous blog entitled "Fish Bowl") and so here is the state of affairs from my perspective: Yes, we are thinking about expanding our space to include a lounge and a private function room. We plan to keep the two space mainly separate, connected by a doorway, in order to maintain the feel of the bistro. We are also looking at 3 other opportunities and thinking about writing more (I will write more about those as they come together). We both love to keep our brains going and feel engaged with life. And, given that it is January, we need to write those folk festival menus! We're also working with the festival to offer food in new areas. I want to put a Bistro 7 1/4 booth at the festival but Alex thinks I'm crazy (I always worry a bit when Alex thinks I'm crazy...)

This year promises to be another fun-filled adventure and I wish you all peace, health and happiness in your year to come!