Knife's Edge - Restaurant Rants & Raves

Connections

Connecting over food is probably the oldest way to network. How quickly you learn what another person is about by eating with them. The GM says as restaurateurs we get to see what their mamas saw in the high chair and this is pretty true. As a dining companion people are usually more guarded, but you can still tell how people treat others, how they handle disappointment, how they express joy, whether they're patient, and how generous they are all within the course of one lunch.

As I figure out my changing role at the restaurant I realize my job is to be connecting people to our restaurant. And having them connect it others. What connects you to your favorite places?

Comments

to all you nice folks who have left comments, I'm not just an a-hole who didn't approve your comments. For some reason I haven't been getting notifications that I have comments pending approval. And since I've been so inactive on the blog I haven't checked Typepad. So keep those comments coming.

What's on Your Plate?

Heading to SF for a few days of eating. Anything new people would like to share?

Berkeley Steak

A couple of weeks ago. "Ordering tofu, medium rare."

I kid you not.

Method Man

I've just finished both "The Devil in the Kitchen" and "Alice Waters and Chez Panisse", which when boiled down, are about people who cannot, or will not compromise. Marco Pierre White takes the brutal, macho approach while Alice Waters does the passive-aggressive Northern California thing.

I, on the other hand, compromise too easily. I'm too attuned to how people are feeling, and too sensitive when they are feeling poorly. While I would not want to be either Marco or Alice, I could be a bit more firm. Perhaps firm, isn't the right word. Opinionated is better. As in, there's a right way to do things. Myself, in the kitchen, I show a cook how I do something and then tell them, "I'm not attached to this particular method, just these particular results. If you have another way to do this, and it comes out the same, that's fine by me." This usually works out well, although sometimes the method influences the dish and things don't turn out the same.

Maybe I need to say, "This is how we do this." Whatever this is at the time. Probably not, because seeing how other people do things is how I learn and adopt new ideas. Because usually (not always), the method doesn't matter. For my entire adult life I have favored long-sleeve, button down shirts and put them on the way most people do, buttoning each button singly. I watched "Chicago" a few years ago, and there was a scene where a guy is trying to get out of the room before the jealous husband arrives and he slips his shirt, which was already buttoned, over his head like a t-shirt. I immediately started putting my shirts on this way. It's faster, you never miss a button, and the result is the same.

What I really need to do is be attuned to when the method makes the difference, and insist that proper procedures be followed. In fact, that's my homework for the coming week.

Pottery or Leather

Tonight was our nine year anniversary of opening the restaurant and unlike years past we didn't have a big event. Truth be told we were having a hard time coming up with ideas that would top the last two years and were reserving our planning for next year. Ten seems like a good year for a bash.

We had a normal night of service, with a few special guests, Chef John Ash came in for dinner, as did some local wine makers and a radio personality from Santa Rosa. Some people from Vacaville who always bring us gifts came with an embroidered chef's uniform for the Sardine, with his name on the hat, the restaurant's name on the coat. A former employee who is now expecting (she called to tell us "you're going to be grandparents') came in and had dinner with the GM & Sardine.

In many ways it felt right. Just another night, but with reminders around of the lives we've touched, the people who have helped us get where we are and the people who will help us get where we are going.

Mentor

I was going to post about mentors today, then the GM and I watched the interview with Thomas Keller on the special features of Ratatouille. He talks about his mentor, and I thought "maybe I won't post about it because the GM will just think I'm doing it because Keller said something." The truth is this has been on my mind for a while now.

I need a mentor. I'm looking for someone wildly successful both personally and professionally, from whom I can learn. I've had plenty of role models and lots of friends I have learned things from. I learn new things from my employees every day. But since I am now in what is for me uncharted territory, I could use a little more guidance than I can get from friends and role models.

The ideal candidate will be a well rounded person, with varied interests that arouse their passion, the ability to balance those interests healthily, who is willing to give advice to someone who doesn't take advice well. Ideally this person is a restaurant owner, manager or chef and a parent.

Know anyone?

Fromage Fort

is something you don't see much of these days. At least not in this country. For all I know it may be served at comptoirs all over Paris. So how can you sell it? Because I made some. Not much, I didn't have too much leftover cheese. I know what will happen to it. I'll eat it.

2008

Will be the year of balance. 2007 saw me fully make the transition out of the kitchen, onto the floor and into ownership. In 2008 some changes are coming. The GM will return to work one night a week (Friday), giving me a night with The Sardine. For at least the first few months of the year, I'll be in the kitchen one night a week, as my steadiest cook is in Mexico for the winter. I'll be in the office a couple days a week and on the floor a couple of days. I'll work 4 days and be off 3.

Our sous is really more the chef de cuisine at this point. He has really stepped up to the responsibility well. A month ago he left a note on the walk-in reminding the crew to do some basic things and telling them "I want fresh food, make small batches". I grinned when I saw it because it wasn't me writing it, but it's what I would have said. He's also taken on doing the small errands that I used to have to do, like picking up things at the store.

Our office manager has also really taken on more than we've expected. Just as the chef de cuisine has taken my role in maintaining standards, our office manager (who is also a waiter) is using the voice of the GM, looking over paperwork, and managing the myriad details of invoicing, discounts, comps and proper procedures.

What I need to keep in mind is that this only happened by the GM and I stepping away, creating the need for someone to fill those roles, and giving them the opportunity to grow into them. More than ever, our jobs are to develop people. We used to develop people more in a personal way, turning around the troubled teen, giving a safe haven for the misfit to discover self-worth and earn a living. We will always do this I'm sure, but now we can also develop people professionally, helping them become leaders themselves.

Right now though, it's time for inventory.

Poet

1

It's always interesting to taste someone's food. It becomes more interesting when you've shared a meal or two with them, and even more so when you read them regularly. On our last ill-starred trip to the city (yes, there's more than than getting sick) we had dessert at Sens, new home of Shuna Lydon.

We rode the cable car from our beroached Indian dinner, to our car parked downtown, on the way passing a display of HUGE Christmas ornaments in front of a downtown building. The Sardine pointed and said, "Bubble." Indeed, they looked like giant red bubbles.

One of the biggest problems facing Sens, like Splendido, and the Monte Cristo, before it, is visibility and signage. Unless, you absolutely know where you're going, you wont find it. There is a small, barely visible sign on the Embarcadero side, but I don't think it's going to do much to bring people in. Also the Embarcadero Centers are singularly ugly buildings that don't invite strolling, browsing, or otherwise discovering. So, they will have to create significant buzz. I've read they've hired a muscular PR firm, so hope that does the trick.

It was lovely to come off the escalator and immediately see Shuna's space. Bright, clean, organized and festively, but subtly decorated. I got to get a peek at her Rolls Royce ice cream machine through the window. The restaurant itself is lovely, a welcome change from the Embarcadero Center and it looks like they've kept most of the decorative elements from Splendido intact, which allowed them to make a pretty good impression for less money than completely redesigning the place.

Our host was gracious and gigantic. When we asked for Shuna, he wasn't sure if she was still there and asked if it would make a difference whether we stayed. I assured him it wouldn't, she is after all, pastry chef, not pastry cook. The food will be the same whether she is there or not.

It was late, so there were only two other tables in the restaurant. A relief for us since we didn't know how The Sardine would fare.

The house started us out with two tiny scoops of sorbet; green apple and plum, though the green apple was more the consistency of granita, which it might have been. Our server perhaps wasn't clear. While I was pleased to see Latinos as waiters, ours wasn't doing the house any favors with his pronunciations, like prounouncing the "t" in pot de creeeem. He also was a bit of the used car salesman. When the GM asked him for his favorite on the savory menu, he listed every dish, describing each as "fabulous" or "amazing". While I'm nit-picking, note to the house. Your wine lists are almost as big as the deuces and really awkward. There's no room to put them on the table.

I loved the green apple, the Sardine was having none of either. Having a hard time choosing among the desserts, we tried the
pistachio gift
vanilla phyllo wrapped pistachio frangipane
with mastic-rosewater ice cream

rosemary caramel
slow roasted hazelnuts, supple semolina, rosemary-caramel ice cream
& candied valencia orange

honey-cumin pot de creme
& heirloom apple-walnut-white fig salad

and a special that the GM was really into and so I didn't really get to try and can't tell you much about.

So let me say that I was disappointed to read that Sens decided to take the poetry off the menu and go for more straightforward descriptions of the desserts. I know why they did it, but think they should've kept it. Because Shuna is at heart, a poet. A poet with a palette. She may front off as a drill sergeant to her crew but she don't fool me.

Being a poet, some of her combinations and flavors are subtle and even when she's being bold she's restrained and elegant. My favorite of all the desserts was the cumin pot de creme. The plating was impeccable, modern but not contrived, monochromatic but not stark, and for me, the dessert with the boldest flavors. I didn't get so much rosemary in the rosemary caramel for example, although the GM (who is more sensitive to rosemary than I) did. I also don't remember any candied orange, but it was a rough couple of days afterwards and my memory may be faulty.I'm not sure what mastic tastes like so I'm not sure if I tasted any mixed in the rosewater.

I'm looking forward to going back and seeing the desserts in the context of an entire meal there. Seeing how the savory elements repeat, conclude and accent the meal. Seeing if the plating of the main courses is as well-thought out. Seeing the context.

When we left Sens and hit the street The Sardine looked up and said "Bubble. Where is she?" throwing up his hands. We walked him a few blocks back to the ornaments, marveling that his tiny mind kept that thought for the hour or so we were having dessert, loving each other and full of the spirit of the season.