What happened on my day off

I met Jeff from Messer and the guy who was cutting the new trench drain into the concrete out back at 6:30 this morning.  That of course means that I was at the restaurant at 6:00 to make sure all was in line for the work they needed to do.  When we first came into the restaurant there was nowhere to put a walk-in. We could have given up almost half of the kitchen space or somehow done with all reach-ins.  With the amount of business we are now doing, if we had made either of those decisions we would have been screwed. 

So we built the walk-in outside.  That really cool looking white wall with the huge logo on it....yeah the whole reason it is there is to cover the walk-in and the trash (which is a whole other topic).  The ground naturally slopes towards the back of the space and so there was a whole plan with engineers and architects to deal with the slope and the water and the American's With Disabilities Act .  There is also a lake in the walk-in when it rains.  I remember one day splashing about in there first thing in the morning, we had worked really late the night before and it had rained over night. As I tried to deal with cooks getting food to start their day, drivers bringing deliveries and plopping them into Lake Walk-in I discovered I had a hole in my shoe.   Standing in a puddle trying to squeegee water up hill as it squished about my toes was, if I remember rightly, enough to cause me to question my involvement in the whole industry.     

So Messer tried a few things that had marginal or no success and today came through with the trench drain.  It runs the length of the walk-in and we are hoping it will catch all of the water as it runs down hill heading for the walk-in door. 

I am not the best person first thing in the morning.  6:00 am is early for a man who works mostly at night.  I came in, got coffee started and headed out back to move the 14 residential dumpsters where we put our trash, the two Pepsi sales display things that live out back for unknown reasons and the gigantic linen dumpster that was still really full from the weekend. 

Luckily Rumpke beat me to the restaurant so the trash was gone.  The pepsi things had wheels and were empty.  The linen dumpster was full to the top and weighed a ton.  As I moved it a few bags fell off the top, smacking into the wall and landing in a pile of bags of dirty laundry.  I had a moment, see it was also my day off, did I mention that? Yes I was in the restaurant at 6:00 am on my day off. So I had a moment, I decided screw it, those bags are heavy and they can move them out of the way when they go to cut the concrete.

Upon walking back into the restaurant to retrieve my coffee, keys and find my way back to the car, I heard a weird beeping sound coming from the office.  It was not the kind of thing you could just walk away from.  It was one of those beeps that says something is truly messed up in here and you had better investigate. The beep was high pitched and intermittent.  So with each set of beeps I got closer to figuring out where it was coming from.  Not the alarm, not the phone or someone's pager or PDA.  It turned out to be coming from the battery backup for the Aloha computer. The lights were out in the office, the phones were down there was no internet and the computers were all dead.

My first reaction was "blown circuit" .  After looking through all the circuits, and we have a few, I was stumped.  There were no obviously blown circuits.  It was a touch dark since the lights in the office were not working either so I was using the "flashlight" on my phone to look at circuit breakers..  Luckily the coffee machine was working so I got another cup and sent KJ a text that there was something wrong with aloha and good luck but this was not my problem.  So with coffee in hand I continued to poke about looking for blown circuits (this turned into a pseudo key search with me looking at the same circuits over and over.  Admittedly the blown circuit is the extant of my electrical know how)  Things were getting warm in the kitchen so I decided to flip on the hoods to get some air moving (the hoods hang over the hot line and suck out thousands of cubic feet of air) and oh s%*t, the hoods are not working.  This is most certainly my problem.  More frantic key style looking at not blown circuits. 

By this time Jeff from Messer had arrived so I shared my crisis with him.  He investigated the building next door where apparently all electricity originates and came up with no more solutions then I had.  Things had gotten serious.  With no hoods and no computers the restaurant was not opening.  It was time to bring Doug into this.  I sent him a text and waited for the call.  Pretty quick a sleepy grumpy Doug was on the phone.

We came up with a quick plan.  He called the General Contractor, I called the electricians.  Pretty quick we had folks jumping to come fix the problem.  I was worried that we would not be able to open for lunch.  Doug was on his way in.  It is also his day off and he has not had many.  Running two restaurants has meant that old Doug has been in one or the other pretty much every day since we opened.  It made me think of Pulp Fiction when Samuel Jackson asks his boss to say "you ain't got no problem Jules..you chill them out and wait for the Calvary which should be coming Directly ".  Well Doug was right there.  I had the crisis and he was on his way.

So a bit more coffee (yes I realize that is the third cup in one story but i drink a lot of coffee and it was 7:00am by this point).  I went out to watch the concrete get cut and talk to Jeff.  We were puzzling over the electrical problem when I saw an electrical box on the wall of the restaurant.    The big red switch was in the OFF position.  HELL I HAD NEVER EVEN SEEN THAT DAMN BOX WHO WOULD SWITCH IT OFF, THOSE BASTARDS,  THEY WOULD HAVE HAD TO GO BEHIND THE BIG LAUNDRY DUMPSTER IN ORDER TO FLIP THAT SWITCH, unless of course when someone was moving the big laundry dumpster and a giant bag of dirty laundry rolled off.....if that string holding the bag closed had hooked onto that switch, if that happened as someone, well I moved that damn thing then, well I would be responsible for this whole thing.

The electrician was coming in on an emergency call, the General Contractor got an early morning wake-up and  Doug was riding in from Pickerington on his white horse.  A bag of dirty laundry.  I made the calls, Doug was only a block away. The electrician was called off, an apologetic text to the GC Greg Callaghan. 

The hoods came on, the computer restarted, I got a pile of grief from my boss for bringing him in from the burbs and I found my keys, got some coffee and headed out to start my day off.

Gnocchi

I learned to make Gnocchi from Leather Storrs while we were working at the Bijou in Portland, Oregon.  I also learned how to say Willamette and to appreciate the great Pinots that grow there.  Leather had done a stint at the French Laundry and was one of the best cooks I met at culinary school.  I am not sure where he learned to make the gnocchi.  The method I learned from him was pretty close to what was in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry cookbook but Leather was also a pretty creative guy and may have come up with this method on his own. 

As with most things, I have over the intervening years tweeked this a bit.  Making gnocchi is something I love to teach Sous Chefs and cooks.  Adam Jones and Chris Chandler both learned this method at Halyards in Georgia, and I hope they are passing it along to the folks who work with them now.  After I left Halyards I saw that Adam had gnocchi on the menu in a style that was close to what we had done when I was Chef.  It was gratifying to know that he had thought enough of those dishes to expand on them and add his own style.  He never met Leather as far as I know, but has benefited from that original lesson all the same. Cooking is like that.  I once did a stage at the Cherokee Town and Country Club in ATL.  I still do a Chicken Terrine that I saw there on that one night.  It was one of the coolest things ever and I will pull it out now and again.

So a gnocchi is  a potato dumpling.  It sounds, and is I imagine Italian.  One thing to keep in mind is that potatoes did not grow in Europe before the 16th Century. Like so many things that are ingrained in our Culinary vocabulary the potato is native to the Americas.  To the Andes to be more specific.  Anyway, leave it to the Europeans to find a really cool application for produce they stole from people they violently conquered. 

The best gnocchi are pillow light and yet still dense enought that you can handle them.In our method the potato is baked not boiled. What we do is stab some holes into the potato with a sharp knife, rub it with olive oil, coat liberally with salt, Kosher that is.  We will then bake or roast (in reality for most things in the kitchen we say roast.  Generally speaking I would say that we "Bake" pastry, and "Roast" things that are savory.  There is however little difference between the two) the potatoes on a bed of kosher salt.  The holes, the salt and the dry cooking method are all designed to draw moisture out of the potato.  Less moisture equals less flour, less flour equals lighter gnnochi.

The next step is to rub the potato through a tamis. What is a tamis- well imagine that you have a round metal or bamboo frame with a window screen tight across one side and there you have it.  I prefer to use a tamis for this.  You develop less gluten in the potato and end up with a very fine grain of potato and no lumps. 

So after you have rubbed your potatoes through the tamis, which you should do when they are hot right out of the oven by the way, you give them a brief chop with a big knife to sort of spread them about on your cutting board or if you are lucky your really think wooden work table.  In this next part I am again outside the norm on this adventure.  I am going to season and garnish (think truffle or herbs or cheese) at this point and then ever so lightly dust the surface of the potato with flour.  How much flour you ask- my pat, trite answer to this is always "enough but not to much".  Do this twenty times and you will no longer ask the question.  One piece of advice would be that you can add more flour but it is really hard to get it out of the potatoes. 

I will often use a dough scraper for this since it is actually the perfect tool for the job.  What you want to do is cut the flour into the potato.  After you have cut in the flour we are going to add a small amount of egg yolks.  when I was making these I used ten potatoes, maybe 2 to 3 cups of flour and 4 oz of yolks.  It made 150 gnocchi. 

Use the dough scraper to again "cut" the yolks into the potato and then use it to gather the potato into a shaggy pile.  Take a moment to clean the are up a bit. Wash your hands and dry them well, I would also then dust your hands in flour so they are nice and dry.  Sprinkle the potato with flour and ever so gently begin to knead the dough.  It is not bread so you don't need to go at it with all your pent up gusto.  We are gently bringing everything together.  And No you cannot use a mixer for this, don't be so lazy you need to develop these skills.

So once you have a nice delicate little ball you will need again to clean up a bit, go wash all the floury potatoey mess off your hands. Before you make the gnocchi go set up your pan for cooking.  you can see what I did above was to line the little beauties up in a perforated hotel pan (I think this may be one of the part where I deviated from what I learned from Leather.  This is however one of my favorite parts.  Take into account that I am making hundreds of these little dumplings) I also put a hotel pan full of water on the fire as we say before I make the gnocchi so that when I am done I can cook them off, multi-tasking. 

To make the gnocchi I cut off some dough roll it in a log, by lightly pressing the dough against the board with the palms of my hands (this is for sure a departure from Leather's way.  He would put the dough in a piping bag and squeeze out perfectly round logs.  I stopped doing that over a lack of a piping bag, a desire to have one less thing to clean up and because it is really impressive when you can roll out a perfectly shaped log with your hands) .  Then I cut the little suckers to size and give them a little pinch (I saw this I think in the first Charlie Trotter Cookbook or it could have been the green one).  No I don't think you need to press them on a for, which was done to capture the sauce.  I think the fork thing looks cool but by the time you blanch and saute the grooves are shot and it makes the whole process take twice as long so I dropped it. 

Any way then I drop the pan into boiling water, turn the heat down a bit and wait for them to float (sometimes they stick and need a bit of encouragement to float, when that happens I use a spatuala).  I drain them and pop them into the walkin to cool down.

So why were we making gnocchi?  Well we are starting to put together ideas for fall menu and so that brings braises to mind and then of course Short Ribs come next and then gnocchi seems only natural. So I put some scribbles on paper, called Jerry Miller and Ordered some Beef and put the machine in motion. 

The beef is braised, the sauce has been strained a few times through a chinoise, the mushrooms are roasted the asparagus blanched and it is only a matter of bringing the thing together. 

Thanks Columbus, Christian

Belly, Belly, Belly

Belly, Belly, Belly

I was walking throughout the dining room last weekend and saw a nice looking African American couple sitting at one of the high tops in the bar (I only mention race as it comes up in the story later). As I talked with them the woman mentioned that she had been considering the pork belly but was not sure. I gave her a description and she mentioned that belly had been long used in the African American community (see I told you it would come up). I knew that this was the case and talked a bit with her about the way in which belly had been used in her family as opposed to how we were using it.

She had always seen it as a flavoring or fat adding component, think greens or beans. We are using the belly more as a stand alone main component in an appetizer. I offered to bring them one on the house and they were game. After it went out I checked back and they had really enjoyed it and were pretty happy. (I would like to throw in that their server, who shall remain nameless had actually dissuaded them from getting the belly. He is not a fan of the texture. As I was having coffee at Cup 'o Joe in German Village The unnamed server accosted me in an ernest attempt to "clear the air" . He was concerned that some how I had known he was dissuading folks from ordering the belly. Of course I had no idea of this until he told me. This reminds me of two lessons. First always follow your own interests when ordering and do not let someone else's bias move you off that. Servers can be great guides through the restaurant, but they arrive at the table with goals and biases. Also sometimes it is better not to clear the air as you may be the only one walking around with a cloudy view.)


So Pineapple Glazed Pork Belly with Pineapple Gastrique and Red Pepper Syrup is not something that we sell all that much of. On Saturday Eugenio told me he had six orders and asked if I would cut him a few more. I replied in all my wisdom, that we would not sell more then that. He was unconvinced and offered to bet that we would be selling more and did I want to put Ten Bucks on it. Now it was his first night on the station and I expedite more than anyone else in the place. So I see every plate go by and I am positive that there is no way we are going to sell that many Bellies. Oh Chef hubris is thy name. So we shake on it and and by 9:00 we have sold the 6 we had and there is debate as to if the bet was that we would sell 6 or 7. My feeling was that I am not really OUT until I need to cut more. The debate was immaterial since we sold 11 that night.

On Sunday I paid my debt. Happily. When i was a young Line cook at the Montgomery Inn at The Boathouse my Sous Chef, who was named Hollywood and I bet a hat on the Ohio State-Michigan Game. Well the Bucks pulled it out but Hollywood never paid up. I have never forgotten that. When you are the boss it is vital that the line be able to trust your word.

So anyway this whole thing is an intro to how we make belly at Milestone.







This is Polo. He does most of the Prep in the morning at Milestone. He is a great man very dependable and he makes really good tasting food. Polo came over from CBC. He has been with CBC for eight years I think. That is the kind of longevity you rarely see in our industry. I am ashamed to even think of the number of kitchens I have worked in over the past eight years. When I was his age, I was changing every year.

Anyway, when Polo comes in he seasons the bellies and sets them aside for an hour or two depending on what he has going into the oven.









Pork Bellies come into us from the Folks at Michael's Finer Meats and Seafood. Jerry Miller to be exact.






Think of this as fresh bacon if you will. To turn this into bacon you brine or dry rub the bacon. I prefer a dry rub. Then you smoke it. We are not per se "curing" the bellies, but rather just seasoning them. Bacon like many great things was, I imagine originally developed as a preservation method. Then we, as humans are want to do, made it taste good and kept tinkering with it until today.







We rub the Bellies simply with kosher salt and brown sugar. This whole thing is I should say, what I call a "Modified Momofuku" method. If you want to read a really good, simple discussion of how to prep belly along with a great restaurant story, get The Momofuku Cookbook by David Chang. So after we season it and let it sit at least an hour, and don't tell the folks from the health department but i really want to leave this out at room temp while it is seasoning, we are ready to get cooking.


So at this point I think lots of folks would rinse off or at least brush off the bellies and discard the liquid that has accumulated. I know Mr. Chang wants me too. I am tossing them in the oven.






Those are my sweet ass Blodgett convection ovens that we cook almost everything in. Some folks get excited about Sous Vide or emersion circulators (yes I am looking at you Chef Aaron) but we are really happy to have been granted the great fortune to have received these two ovens in the build-out.

The bellies cook at 220 for about five hours. When they come out they are tender to the touch, the pan is filled with fat and Pork Love Juice.







What is Pork Love Juice? Well I am glad you asked. See that bowl of jello down there.






Well this along with the fat are byproducts of cooking Bellies. You will also get both these things from roasting shoulders. The flavor is intensely sweet, salty and porky. In and of itself, I am not sure you will want to eat it. I am happy to taste the Pork Love but we really use it as a magical additive to soups, sauces and all things porky. When we pull the pork for the Three Little Pigs this juice along with a bit of fat and some Wickers (just to keep Dougy happy) goes into the shredded pork before it is portioned for the sandwiches.

After the roasting the pork is pressed and cooled. The pressing is important because the fat wants to expand when you are roasting and it comes across better when it is tight and compact. We cut it into cubes, trying to use the meatiest parts for the app and saving the fattiest parts for the sandwich.

The pineapple is expressed as both the gastrique (very simply a reduction of vinegar, but here is complicated into a reduction of pineapple juice, rice wine vinegar and a touch of honey), and also as a chutney (pineapple, garlic, onion, ginger, red and jalapeño peppers, rice wine vin and cilantro). The RPS is there for a bright splash of color and that is it all in all pretty darn simple.

Thank you Columbus. Love, Christian

Days Off, Fountain Photos, Temper Temper

Randomly the other day Doug told us the story of his visit to the Hoover Dam. It seems that there were two camps. One camp with folks who were working on the dam, and one camp with folks waiting for the folks to give up on working on the dam. The folks who were working on the Dam for the most part were carrying rocks from here to there. Apparently they only had three days off a year. I am hoping he was not sharing this with the expectation that I was going to volunteer for that schedule. Well any way, after working since the Fourth of July averaging about 15 hours a day, today I went in, did my ordering and ran for the hills. It is a good feeling time off. One of the great advantages that has been handed down by our forefathers is the 40 hour work week. I think France has gone to far and many countries have not done enough, but 40 hours seems right for how much a person should devote to earning their pay. Someday I hope to be able to join the ranks of the 40 hour week. But today I am a happy man with a few hours to rest and recuperate.

Well this is sorta what you see outside our door. Kids running around in the fountain. Everyone having a blast. I was talking with one of our servers yesterday who said it was rejuvenating just to watch.

I have seen a couple shockers including a completely naked child. Not really appropriate. This may as I stated earlier feel a lot like an extension of your backyard sprinkler. It however is not actually your backyard so you need to keep your pants on. There are changing rooms provided so lets make sure we are using them.

This has been a difficult and trying time for me. There have been a few times where I lost sight of one of our tenements, "that work should be fun". The human mind can only push so far until it pushes back, so I would like to extend my most heart felt apologies to my staff and the staff of the dinning room for those moments when my stress spilled out all over the floor, scooped itself up into a mind numbing rage and chased you from the kitchen with your third wrongly plated Chicken dish. You know who you are. Temper Temper Chef.

A little Bacon Wrapped Wild Gulf Shrimp with Slaw and BBQ to send you on your way.

Much Love Columbus Thanks for the support. Christian

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 

First Practice Dinner

The Chefs were in by 8:00, I joined them at 9:00.  It was a tough one getting up and I stopped to check email and do some organizing before I rolled.  Was not able to bike in since I knew there were a few holes I was going to need to fill from Kroger and riding a bike with four gallons of milk is a silly proposition. We brought in some of the AM cooks to get us a jump on the prep.  We were closed two days for Red, White and Boom, which is the annual fireworks display in Columbus and is in our front yard.  Catching up from being closed  can be a bitch so we were at a run most of the day.

One of my favorite things in Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook is the prep list at the end.  It is all scribbles and on a beat piece of paper.  It is also one of the more authentic artifacts from what I have seen of restaurant life.  Late night post 14 hour shift, beer, the back side of a menu and a note to the guy coming in in the morning.

So with the prep cruising along we, the management team sat down for "pit stop".  Many of us are Cameron Mitchell alums and this is a hold over from that time.  We went over the last few days and talked about what to do if the printers don't work (they did), what glasses were getting cleaned in the bar and which in the tank.  Pretty mundane stuff.  The Chef's cut out early and jumped back on prep.  I was shooting for about 20 of everything.  we were expecting 150pp and it seemed like nothing was going to push past 20.  Walleye needed to be cut, Pollack needed to be marinated, cakes to be frosted, lemon parfaits assembled.  I still needed to set up expo, make soup of the day (Watermelon Gazpacho with Avocado and Shrimp) and really get my mind set.

Vicente was on Saute, Nick (our Sous Chef you can see him in the background) was working grill because I had a few cooks out for a wedding.  Lilly, who wont pose for a picture, does not have a computer or the internet and seems pretty happy about that was working with Nick.  Out front Matt had Eric and Cesar. 

Myself (Christian) and Stacy were going to Expo.  I get little tickets out of a printer and coordinate the cooks activities by calling out orders, while Stacy receives the plates from them wipes the rims and gets servers to run them to guests.

About ten minuets before service I changed the presentation on the calamari. My friends in Georgia might recognize some aspects of this one.  Deep Fried Calamari and Jalapenos with Oranges, Cilantro and Sweet Thai Chili Sauce.  I had the boxes and wanted to find a spot for them on the menu.  One of our themes is the park so this makes me think of getting carryout and eating it in the park.  

A stretch? Maybe but it is fun and makes me Happy.

 After the Pollack was marinated (Ginger, Garlic, Scallions, Sambal, Lime, Nuac Mam and Sesame Oil) it was battered in Tempura and served with Diakon Radish Slaw, Siracha Mayo and there is a wedge of Lime skewered on top for squeezing.

  229 Burger- Ohio Proud Beef, Roasted Peppers, Mornay, Bread and Butter Pickles and Fried Onions

Three Little Pigs- Seared Belly, Pulled Pork and Really Good Bacon with Slaw, Pickles and BBQ

The Mac and Cheese comes in a skillet and is served with Bacon, Scallions and Tomatoes as garnish.  There is a bit of panko on top as well.  The boys had the salamander (that is what we call the broiler like thinnk you can see behind Vicente above) kicking and this one got darker and less uniformly toasted then one might have wished for but there you have it.

This is a real simple banana pudding that went over with all but one person who did not like the jar.  As you will see below I am a big fan of the jar so it is unliklely that I am getting rid of it now.  I actually had a group of ladies who ordered five to go and we sent them home with the mason jars with lids on them.  Really cool perp.

As you can see another jar.  It is a bit different then the other one so I am going to run with it.  Lemon Parfait- Lemon Curd, Whipped Cream, Lemon Soaked Pound Cake and Blueberries.  Gotta Like Lemon for this one.

Service went well.  Ticket times were good, only one recook.  There were some issues with salt.  I have some issues with salt which I will try to tone down.  There were a few Plates that still need some work but overall really a great first practice.  So at 11:00 the cooks went home, at 11:30 the chefs said good night and by 11:45 just shy of 15 hours I checked with Danielle and Stacy who were working on Liquor Inventory and left for the day.  No note for the AM guy, no menu to scribble on, but I am rolling back in this morning to check on things and get the whole thing started back up.  Christian

Red, White, and Boom at Milestone

Jeannie, Doug and I climbed the fence at Bicentennial Park for Red, White and Boom last night.  Well really I just convinced the police that I belonged in the restaurant.  After a bit they, the Police, knocked on the door and said there was some man trying to get in.  They were wondering if that would be OK with me.  It turned out to be my Boss Doug Griggs.  For a brief second I thought, "maybe I don't know him".  But no, I told the Policeman that yes it was ok to let Doug into his restaurant.

Things at the restaurant are really picking up speed.  At first it seemed to me that we had plenty of time and that we would be able to get everything done.  Now I have 130 people in for dinner tomorrow, and what I would like is just a few more days.

The Printer in the kitchen has a ghost in it.  Or maybe more truthfully the wires have some gremlins running around in there and they are not the nice fuzzy ones.  On thursday we were getting partial orders, double orders, sometimes it was printing in red and a couple times it sure seemed like it was printing in 1-point type.

I also am wishing I had spent last month writing recipes and not tasting wines.  We are going to get it together.  Don't get me wrong, it will be a push right up to the end but we are going to look at either rerouting computers or printer cables, I spent the day organizing and when I left Nick had just arrived to put in some work on his day off. 


There is Old Nick and Matt right there.  Not the greatest shot, but they are working so I don't want to

distract them.  Nick is on the right.  He worked at Ocean Club and was most recently KM at DVT.  He is working his ass off right now getting this thing opened.  He will be on grill tomorrow if you are coming in for dinner you should order off his station so he can get the practice.

Matt is on the left.  He is our sensitive Sous.  Dedicated, hardworking, always in good humor Matt has been, and continues to work some silly long hours for our company.  Matt came from CBC where he was Sous Chef for Brian Cook.  He gives us continuity to CBC.  Matt is our roots player.  He is going to be out front looking pretty for the people.  All salads, pizza and deserts will pass under his eye.  He also gets to have a radio in his ear that is attached to me.  One could only be so lucky.

All the sudden my camera and computer decided to start talking again.  So I have a few things backed up to share. So without further ado:

Chairs with a Backdrop of Miranova. Creative. Artistic. 

Cool looking lights from Brent and the boys to prove they don't just love black.  

These ones did not need any Scotch Tape.

One Martini, Two Martini, Three Martini, Floor

That's for Dave Snyder gotta know where you come from.

I thought we had more than enough.  These are all full.  I am wondering if I might be able to borrow some?  Any one who brings a five gallon bucket tomorrow gets a free tour of the kitchen.

All but one of our Tap beers are from Ohio.  We love Craft Beer and we love Ohio.  

Think Local. Drink Local

 

  

 Well it is not super clear but you get the Idea.  Next year this is going to be

the best spot to watch Columbus blow stuff up.

Even Columbus' finest took a moment to enjoy the show.  Very nice folks, thanks for your service.

Doug and Jeannie were enjoying the front row seats.  Jeannie is from New York and is Matt's Mom and Doug's wife.  She has a lot invested in our success.  She also has a very nice New York accent and a really cool daughter who is getting married soon.  Jennifer is the GM at CBC so if you see her congratulate her on her upcoming nuptials.

Opening day is right around the corner.  I hope to see you all in the restaurant soon.  That's all for now.  Christian