kevinshinn's blog

When people see how close we are to Memorial Stadium, the typical response is always the same; "Wow, you must pack 'em in on Game Days."
Not so much.Being the closest watering hole does not bring us business by default. Football Saturdays have proven to be some of our worst sales days. Location, Location, Location applies if your business concept matches the demographic. The Sea of Red that flows by my place like a wandering river does not seem to step out of its banks, except to grab a cheap beer and Fairbury hot dog.
One thing I have learned from this: don't deviate from your plan. I tried cable TV's, beer specials, cheap food. Nada. I stopped trying to figure it out, mainly because of last night.

Customer feedback is extremely important in understanding how you are delivering your product, but it’s also essential to be able to sift through those comments to discern the difference between personal preference and a legitimate beef.

If you own a business, and do not have a plan to garner customer feedback, all you need to do is a Google search of your company’s name and see if there is anything out there in cyberspace written about you of which you were unaware. There are a handful of sites I monitor regularly and use with my staff to address issues that might go undetected.

One component of my writing is to try and give you a peek inside the world of professional food, to affirm and dispel the romance that surrounds the idea of being a chef, propagated in large part to the media driven image seen on the ubiquitous televisions shows that puff the celebrity and make cooking look like the cool, hip profession you’ve always longed for.

Let me make it clear; you did not want my job last night.

Every Saturday, usually around 4PM, a cloud of anxiety begins to form over my head, mostly from a knowledge of all the unchecked boxes on the list of prep that may or may not get finished on time because of that late afternoon crowd that shows up before we make the transition in the front of the house from lunch to dinner.

You haven’t seen Karen around the restaurant in the last couple of weeks because she has not been feeling well due to the fever she developed after the third treatment. You know how a fever can take any body ache and multiply it. Now add to it the joint pain from the Taxol and you have an idea what she went through.

Fever is a sign of infection, and especially in a cancer patient undergoing chemotheraphy, it is a cause for concern, since the white blood cells may not be adequate in number to fend off the infection. The cause of the fever is not certain, and the degree is fairly low grade, which has her doctor puzzled. But she is feeling much better now, and ready for this next round of side effects.

With the pace of business increasing since he got here, I’ve failed to post his proper introduction.

Welcome, Erik Hustad.

Erik joined our staff about four months ago and has immediately proven he was worth the risk in hiring him. When people ask me how I find such good people, I do have to admit that occasionally they find me.

Sustain. Sustainable. Sustainability. All buzz words of the current generation that get tossed around with such ease and abandon like chips on a craps table. But what does it actually mean to sustain.

The last three months of business have been a daily encounter with change and growth unlike what I’ve had in the first three years of operation. In this short period I have added two full time salaried employees, a new menu, some new equipment, an interior facelift, along with a new service attitude. Sales continue to be going in the right direction and I have more time now to concern myself with these types of matters.

But something still doesn’t feel right.

I’ve not posted anything about Karen lately since there hasn’t been much to report. There have been a few hiccups along the way, with some significant aches and nausea this past week. It did keep her away from the restaurant during our anniversary week, but not entirely and she was still able to meet and greet a few days. I am so grateful that the success of our business has been a mental diversion from the disruption of her treatment.

Did someone get the number of that truck? As I passed beneath the undercarriage, I managed to glance back and seem to remember seeing the license plate reading 3.

3 as in “Three Years.”

If you ever wonder what it takes to be a good chef, I would explain my journey like this. I believe the path to great food is not as much a matter of sheer talent as it is being a collector of great ideas.

I am proof that you can open a successful restaurant without experience or culinary training. It was for this reason that I was encouraged by many to take another route. Some suggested getting experience first by working for an established company or starting a smaller operation to see if I could do it or not. While I appreciated the validity of each point of view, they were not true to my original vision, which was inspired by one compelling Idea I held in my mind for over eleven years before ever attempting to do anything with it.

...but the prettiest fruit does not always translate into the most spectacular dessert.

Let me give you a Farmer's Market tip. Chef's who know what they are doing realize they don't have to buy the perfect specimen. Instead, they know to buy what tastes best. Most farmers end up having imperfect fruit at their stand due to travel, bruising, heat, etc. The problem for them is that it doesn't look appealing to the average customer, so they can't sell it. Find a vendor who will make a deal with you. Tell him you will stop by at the end of the day and buy all his seconds. If you are looking for tomatoes, ask for "canners." The grower wants to make to make a sale, and most likely will be glad to give you a deal on perfectly good fruit, even though it may not look perfect.