Det

[nuke'em ttg]

My Dad was a food/meat salesman, the whole time growin up he had story after story of failed restaurants, people gettin behind on bills, he could nail it to a gnats ass when the joint would close.He said the only ones that stand a chance are the ones that are up before the sun and burn the midnight oil.

So I'm in construction my whole life thinkin that's a hard life plus alot of drinkin till i built a Sports Bar and was drinkin with cooks and bartenders/waitresses those people looked like chit every single day, worked long hours and drank longer, turn over was crazy, i thought they'd run out of people but they didn't and they were all the same.

 

1- are you happy

2- how many hours you work a day

3- Do you feel like you have a life goin ouside of work

4- What part of this job do you like

5- are ya makin $ or just payin bills

6- What drives you to live in that crazy world

7- Food Channel competitions/restaurant stories/ Triple D all look like a burnout ta pull off day after day.

[detlef]

My Dad was a food/meat salesman, the whole time growin up he had story after story of failed restaurants, people gettin behind on bills, he could nail it to a gnats ass when the joint would close.He said the only ones that stand a chance are the ones that are up before the sun and burn the midnight oil.

So I'm in construction my whole life thinkin that's a hard life plus alot of drinkin till i built a Sports Bar and was drinkin with cooks and bartenders/waitresses those people looked like chit every single day, worked long hours and drank longer, turn over was crazy, i thought they'd run out of people but they didn't and they were all the same.

 

1- are you happy

2- how many hours you work a day

3- Do you feel like you have a life goin ouside of work

4- What part of this job do you like

5- are ya makin $ or just payin bills

6- What drives you to live in that crazy world

7- Food Channel competitions/restaurant stories/ Triple D all look like a burnout ta pull off day after day.

1) Depends on the day. Many days are fun as hell. But it just takes one or two to make it all come crashing down. Be it because some idiot waiter decided to go rogue and piss someone off for no good reason and now I've got to genuflect or because some a-hole got a bug in his ass and decided to take it out on me on-line. I must say, the on-line world of Yelp and such makes it much harder for me to enjoy myself. All of us make mistakes and if those reviews were just limited to that, it would be one thing. But, on top of that, you have a-holes who don't know what they're talking about carving places up as well, and that gets pretty old, especially given the allure of being a "celebrity blogger" making people prone to exaggeration. Nobody wants to read about you being vaguely dissatisfied or generally pleased with your meal. Thus, everything is either unbridled genius or abject failure. Even if what you're talking about is the iced tea. "I thought the pork dumplings were good, but it's not as if they changed my life or anything." That is basically a negatively toned critique on a very simple thing that the reviewer admits were good.

 

2) I actually don't work crazy long hours on a regular basis. All told, I'm probably going about 50-60 hours per week, but usually closer to 50. I nearly always get Sunday off and often get Saturday off as well. At this point, it's not really all that bad.

 

3) See #2. I'm home about 5 evenings a week and I have plenty of irons in the fire outside of work.

 

4) Putting together beer or wine dinners. Hands down, from the tasting and menu creation to the night itself. Everyone always has a great time, so that's cool as well. That and the fact that I get to try so many foods and wines and beers and such. As a wine buyer, I may taste up to 100 wines a week (usually closer to 30-50 though). That's a luxury that many other enthusiasts aren't afforded. They've got to go out and buy whole bottles of stuff. That's a nice perk to be sure and I'm spoiled in that regard. Times I end up with a whole batch of samples and we just invite friends over. If you don't like what's in your glass, pour it out and try something else. Who cares, it was free and we're not going to be able to drink it all anyway.

 

5) Restaurant #1 was just ramping up to a business level that was about to pay me above and beyond my somewhat pedestrian base salary when the recession hit, then we took a big step back and have been pretty much treading water and are just starting to poke our heads up a bit. Restaurant #2 is less than 2 years old and seems to be getting to where we were hoping it would get. I will be making my first distributions to investors this spring and, of course, have my rather pedestrian base salary for that one as well.

 

6) It's what I do. Plain and simple. Since I was 15, it's been the only thing that I've ever felt all that passionate about. Work-wise, of course.

 

7) First off, I hate a lot about food channels. People like to think that they're responsible for the higher level of awareness about food in this country, but I actually think they're a product of the same. That people were already heading that way and these just came along to exploit that vibe. What they do, is sensationalize parts of the industry that aren't really all that crazy. They also foster the same "know-it-all" BS that on-line critique sites foster.

 

Just stop and think for a minute if, every single day, you had 100 or more people coming to buy what you sell, any one of whom (and likely several) are emboldened by something they saw on TV, ready to rush home to the computer and critique what you did. It's the most unnerving part of my job. And if it was as simple as just trying to do your best, that would be one thing, but it's a moving target, because each of these people have their own version of how it supposed to be in their head and may crucify you over something that someone else, who just doesn't happen to blog, absolutely loved.

 

I do just want to make one clarification: I don't mean to imply that, if you're not an expert, you should shut your hole. Anything but. It is my job to make food that people like. And if food is truly good, you should be able to enjoy it even if you don't know why. It is one of the greatest sins of restaurants to forget that fact and start making hyper-intellectual food that nobody understands. My issue is when people start pulling things out of their ass when they write a critique to try and make themselves look smart at my expense. "My issue with the mole was that I couldn't pick out each of the flavors individually." Well, that's effing great, because that means it was good you dumb-ass. Problem is, I can't count on everyone who reads that understanding that dude obviously has no idea what he's talking about if he says that.

 

So, there you go. Thanks for asking.

[nuke'em ttg]

sounds like ya like it and have a life, can't ask for more then that....have many places bit the dust around ya?

[detlef]

sounds like ya like it and have a life, can't ask for more then that....have many places bit the dust around ya?

Absolutely. Plenty.