Feeding My Passion

Because one side of the store is a market, I need to think about what we want to carry. The obvious stuff would be products that we need to use for the cafe and at Port 412, which will make the market a commisary for both restaurants. Which is a pretty cool idea since we don’t need as much dry storage if we’re using the retail store shelves for storage and can pull what we need from them. Port 412′s needs are more eclectic, but not as exotic, as Tulips cafe’s needs. The deli deserves a post of its own sometime soon too.

I’d like us to carry a couple of rice cookers, Read more »

When I submitted my resignation letters (3!), all of my supervisors had the day off, one of them was off for 2 days. I really hadn’t planned it that way, I’d rather they knew sooner rather than later. They’ve been encouraging and excited for me, though Jenny wanted me to be sure the cafe would be making the food quickly, which I didn’t really take as a dig on my lack of speed, but Jenny was a close observer and fair judge of my skill, and I was found wanting. I told Jenny I’ve been very honest with John about my experience and my current shortcomings, didn’t oversell myself, and my passion for the food is obvious.

(As a somewhat relevant aside: The tendency for sales people to oversell their products is a detestable practice. You could call someone overselling themselves as confidence, arrogance, or hubris.)

And there are the jealous folks too, but it’s a petty benign form of jealousy, they’re all great, and I think I’ve been pretty good to work with. Read more »

Met with John (my boss), Tom (the Port 412 chef), and Brandon (Port 412′s front-of-the-house guy) today, we went over to Tulips (that’s the name of the new place), looked around at the progress, which has been dramatic in the last 2 weeks.

It went from bare sub-walls and steel framed rooms to finished drywall in less than a week. And less than a week after that, they’ve put in the breaker box and the large hood, which is a beautiful sight to behold. Over the weekend, Brandon will be laying tile in the kitchen so that on Monday, they can install the walk-in on top of it.

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I’ve certainly worked more hours before, but never hours that messed up my sleep schedule as much as my current schedule does.

Front desk/Baking

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday: Off
• Wednesday: 2-10p
• Thursday: Noon-8p/9-1a
• Friday: 2-10p/10p-3a
• Saturday: 2-10p/10p-3a
• Sunday: 12-8p

I can say that the human being is a remarkably resilient organism and at the same time, the fastest way to go insane is be chronically and severely sleep deprived. I’m looking forward to working a semi-normal schedule (which in food service is approximately 11a-10p, Wednesday-Sunday) when I start my new job.

I’m dozing off at the computer as I write this. Time for bed.

The last couple of weeks have been surreal, I’m being propelled along at the speed of light by something really amazing.

So last year, at about this time, actually exactly this time, I was working to open up a restaurant in New Buffalo, the Happy Buddha Noodle Shop. It seems like almost a lifetime ago, and it was. The Buddha had a very short lifespan. It was born on 1 July and died by mid January, just 6 months later. So sad.

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