Pre-Season

After months of selecting sauté pans, coordinating colors and worrying about wiring, we are finally beginning pre-season.

 

 

The next baby step is inviting friends and family to try out the restaurant. These are people who have been with us throughout our journey and are willing to work with us as we break in our new staff, equipment and processes. People who have been really, really supportive over the years and feel comfortable giving us feedback and understand what we’re trying to accomplish.  

 

 

On our second night of serving friends and family, a guest asked me why I was so nervous. She said, “this ought to be a lay up for you.” I didn’t know exactly what to say. 12 hours later, I realized that she meant a “slam dunk.” I guess it was a compliment – but I’m in new surroundings, with a new menu, new staff and new equipment – I’m not even going to attempt a lay up, let alone a slam dunk. And even though I’ve been in the restaurant business for a very long time – or maybe because I’ve been in the business a very long time – I know that there is no such thing as a slam dunk. We work hard at it every day, nothing is a given.

 

During this pre-season period, I’ve spotted some things that need to change. Everything from how we set the tables to where blinds are needed to block headlights from cars. And then there’s the lighting system. We can’t program the system until all the lights are in. We can’t put all the lights in until we put in the banquettes. We can’t put in the banquettes because they were measured wrong and are too big. This is exactly why we need “friends and family.” They may be coming into a new situation but are not experiencing us for the first time. They know and understand where we came from and are supportive and encouraging of our journey. They are excited to be part of the process. And that’s the point  – it’s still a process, a vision – and not yet a total experience. There are lots of gaps that are slowly being filled in and adjusted. 

     

 

 

We’re thrilled that everyone loves Amelia’s homemade sorbets and ice creams but the pastry area is not meant to function like an ice cream parlor. We would need a special ice cream holding cabinet to scoop 4 different flavors for one order. We’d also have to hire one person just to scoop ice cream all night. So, Amelia and I are using a solution we came up with years ago- individual “dixie cups” of ice cream. (The kind you used to get with the cardboard pull up lids.) Now when Amelia runs a batch of ice cream, she will portion some into the dixie cups and pop them into the freezer for easy turnout later. Guess what? Now we need to source and order the dixie cups.

 

At Alison at Blue Bell, if I needed someone, I could find him or her at a glance. At Alison two, we have lots of different spaces. I might go through the kitchen to find Tom at the same time he’s going through the dining room to find me. Or, he might be downstairs stocking the wine cellar or in the walk-in making ginger beer. Our intercom system should solve the problem  – but we learned that the intercom doesn’t work if all the phone lines are busy. We set up our phone lines the way most restaurants do – but since we don’t want a machine answering calls, we found we’ll need more lines. In the meantime, we’re using our cell phones to find each other. These are some of the wrinkles we’re trying to iron out.

 

 

The bartenders are working on timing too. We don’t use mixes – we muddle fresh herbs and spices – which takes longer to make the drinks. Of course they taste better too. But they still have to arrive promptly.

Then there’s lots of silly behind-the-scenes nuances. One guest asked for a side order of Brussels sprouts and another ordered half a drink. It took some time to figure out how to enter those in the new POS (point of sale) system so that we could communicate the requests to the bar and kitchen staff. How do you write “happy birthday” on the dessert plate if there is no rim? And, if the plate isn’t flat, how do you balance the candle? And then there’s the new tandoor oven. How do we make sure the tandoor bread is ready at the same time as the monkfish?   

Nothing is easy but making it look easy is another story. We work hard at making it look easy. Our bar is now open. It’s really exciting. We’re serving classic cocktails with a twist, beer and wine, and snacks from our bar menu. We’ll open for dinner starting October 16 and lunch on October 27.