The first weekend

I am really not sure where to begin.  I should, I think, apologize in advance for spelling and grammatical errors.  I am quite sleepy and should be in bed.  We have all worked a tremendous amount of hours in the last week.  I know as an old fat man my body was in no condition to work 17 hours in one day.  But we did and we have survived and even in parts we have thrived.  We as a management team really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  When KJ said he thought we would do 700 a day in the opening weeks I scoffed at the idea.  I have no doubt that this weekend we will be hampered only by the pace at which tables turn. There was a line out the door and up to the street most of the day on Saturday and Sunday.  I expect the same to be true this weekend.  Make Reservations.  That is my tip to anyone who has read this far and put up with the late night ramblings of a sleepy chef.

I would like to give you an idea of what we are going through and how many things we are selling.  On and average day (which is on it's face sort of silly because how does one come up with an average day after being open for five days, however on an average day)  we are making 5 gallons of lemonade, three gallons of simple syrup(for drinks at the bar), we are squeezing about 175 limes (many of the specialty cocktails have lime juice and much to the chagrin of our wonderful bartenders they must squeeze the juice for each drink. I  think they will have hefty, powerful forearms before the summer is done. Happiness to their partners, lovers and friends, sadness to the folks they shake hands with.), we sold 60 fish sandwiches today, and we sold 55 Three Little Pigs, we have gone through 150 pounds of sweet potato fries and 160 pounds of regular fries since Monday.  This is nutty.  I told KJ today I have never bought so much product or sold so many things in my life.

I am not trying to toot my horn here, I am quite amazed.  I have for the most part been pleased with the quality of the food we are providing (on Sunday I was running out of things and it got to the point where we were not producing at the level of quality we demand.  So frankly we decided to pull to plug early.  As hard as that was to do I think it was the right decision.  I would rather we have everything right than Shoe it Out like a bunch of Chuckle Heads).  We have gotten good response back from the guests.  Mayor Coleman was in for at least the third time tonight and I also got to feed and meet Senator John Glenn, who is as much an American Hero as we have floating around Columbus today.  Meeting the Senator was a delight and his lovely wife Anna liked really liked the Chocolate cake which made me even happier.

I want to take a moment to talk about the fountain.  I looked out on Sunday, the sun was shining and hundreds of the children of Columbus were running through the fountain.  There were people on bikes, people pushing strollers, walking hand in hand, and frankly a few folks who may need to reevaluate their fashion choices( I am not judging, but this is a public park and you don't want to scare folks).  My point is that this city has come together in this park.  There was so much joy and happiness on display that it makes you forget the 100s of pounds of fries and the miles of tickets and pressure.  There was a city running through the sprinklers of their collective backyard.  Families camped on the lawn.  A true expression of what Civics really means.  Public and Private money coming together to provide a good for the population that created both.  This is a huge step forward for Columbus and all involved should be proud.
Good Night Columbus.  Christian