February 20th, 2012 by ~ 1 Comment

The Importance of Failure

Dear Young Chef,

You’re going to have a night like this.  Trust me, it’s going to happen. Better to spend your effort on deciding how to deal with it rather than fretting over how to prevent it.  Your best laid plans to do so will get squashed, leaving you without a well formed answer.

The standard ebb and flow in the season of our business is that in the winter, Friday is typically our busiest night, and in the summer, Saturday gets the most traffic.  We assume this is due to the fact that folks don’t want to venture back… more »

February 12th, 2012 by ~ No Comments

Between Quality and Preference

Chefs are notorious for flying off the handle when it comes to criticism and rejection. It’s partly due to the fact that it takes vulnerability to cook food and set it in front of a customer.  It’s the same feeling I got as a child in 4H club, entering a piece in the woodcraft category at the county fair.  I wanted to return to the exhibit hall and see a blue ribbon on my entry, not a pink or white one, which was just an acknowledgment of participation.  I wanted to know that the judges thought I did a good… more »

February 5th, 2012 by ~

Are you open?

Why bother staying open on a day like this?

Good question.  And it’s one that I actually learned how to answer several years ago, long before I entered the restaurant business.  It was a lesson in decision making that I remember from my days in college.

I don’t know why it made such an impact on me, but I was listening to a man lecture on time management and he made this statement that stood out and stayed with me these many years.  He said:

Make a decision and make it right

He explained that we should not put so… more »

January 16th, 2012 by ~

The Chef & John Coltrane

If you were to compare some of the music of John Coltrane to the world of food, I think you would be safe to place him in the category of today’s gastromolecular chef.  Both produce a distinct, out-of-the-ordinary experience for its prospective audiences.  Both are easily misunderstood. And I would add that both probably felt a compulsion to create that drives them beyond the norm.

Coltrane was a contemporary of Miles Davis in the late fifties, just at the time Davis was exploring the cool jazz sounds that would reach forward decades later and put his fingerprints on artist… more »

January 7th, 2012 by ~

24 albums to set the mood

Music is an important part of creating an environment of hospitality. Just as the food and service must be consistent in quality, it’s my personal opinion that the music heard in a restaurant needs to have a consistent genre or vibe to it. What you hear develops expectation, however subtle or subconscious it may be.

We often get the question, “who’s that playing right now?” So I decided to list 24 of my favorite artists/discs that set the mood for the bread&cup experience. Most are available on iTunes, Amazon or the service I primarily use, eMusic. I have listed

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January 2nd, 2012 by ~

We’re not leaving until this gets done

I’m one of those people that love this time of year.  I love lists of Best of’s, Top 10’s, The Biggest and Worst, etc.  I like remembering where we’ve been, but I also like to think about where we’re going.  Now is a great chance to do that kind of thinking and reflection.

I’m into making goals and resolutions, so if you’re not, bear with me. Maybe I can make my point without being that guy.

One thing I’ve learned this year about leading people is the very thing that The Gallup Organization has figured out years ago; everyone has… more »

December 24th, 2011 by ~

The Constant Work of Assembling a Team

Dear Entrepreneur,

There is an old proverb that says “Where there are no oxen, the barn is clean, but much increase comes through the strength of the ox.”  I take this to mean, if you don’t want a mess, don’t have any animals in the barn.  But if you want to get work done, you can’t have one without the other.

You can’t grow your business without doing the work of finding, adding and nurturing good people.  It is and always will be your most difficult challenge in building your business. And yet it will provide you with some

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December 19th, 2011 by ~

2011 New Year’s Eve Dinner

Here is our prix fixe menu for New Year’s Eve. This year we are offering a chef’s wine pairing with each item of each course. I always get excited when I look over a finalized menu. It’s as if I have been cooking mentally for days and am ready for you to enjoy it right now. But we’ve got to wait a few weeks.

This event filled up quickly last year, so I encourage you to make plans soon. We’ll set the table; you

New Year’s Eve

6PM and 8:30PM
40 dollars per person – 60 dollars w/… more »

December 7th, 2011 by ~

No Trespassing

Every industry encounters trends and changes that require understanding and thus, adaptation in order to stay current and relevant to its market. Awareness of technology, customer attitude, and economic health are three factors to which I pay close attention as I seek to grow and sustain my business over the long term.

My industry certainly has its ups and down, but one thing that settles me and makes me glad is that at least you aren’t able to download a meal, nor does it appear that you will be anytime soon. The need for food is still a fundamental human… more »

December 1st, 2011 by ~

Saying Yes When Everyone Else Says No

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the TEDxLincoln event, telling a bit of the story of how bread&cup came into existence.  The link to the presentation on YouTube is below.

http://youtu.be/S3P9R0MgVjA