Opening and running a small restaurant
Two excellent print articles this past week on opening and running a small restaurant grabbed my attention. If you're jonesing for the next Olallie Update (fortune cookie says you will soon be rewarded for your patience, my little pretties), these stories will keep you company during your wait.
First, an article in last Tuesday's Chicago Trib describes a typical 18-hour day in the life of superman chef Otis Lebert as he struggles to serve 120 meals a day with a 7-person skeleton crew (that number includes the waiters and a 14-year-old kitchen apprentice!) at his humble 48-seat bistro Le Taxi Jaune in the Marais neighborhood of Paris.
Second, today's SF Chron features the heroic tale of a local restaurant crew overcoming all the shit that went wrong on one particular day early in the life of the recently opened Tinderbox, an experimental American bistro in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood.
For an exclusive insider's perspective (ah, the beauty of blogs) of opening a restaurant, check out my friend Shuna Lydon's exciting stories on Eggbeater chronicling the opening of Sens, a new Southern Mediterranean hot spot scheduled to open in a few days (or weeks?) in San Francisco's Embarcadero Center.
These three pieces, especially Shuna's series, are all making me itch to get back into the kitchen. I've helped other people open three restaurants over the years, but, as I'm sure you can all imagine, I'm most looking forward to the possibility of opening a fourth: my own.
Comments