Basildog

FYI I patented "bread" many years ago , and i,m just waiting for the royalties to arrive.

How important is the dress of the serving staff to you people? i ask , because my wife has stopped work at our place ( 4 weeks to go till the birth) and i have taken on her duties out front.I wear chefs whites because i,m still cooking , but after reading this thread, shoud i be worried?

As you know, I'm not one to brag, but i did appear in a German TV Film.Well, my hands did, i was a hand "double" for an actor who had to chop up veggies quickly.Great fun to see how others work and i even got a trip to make up !.I'm ready for my close up now....

Put me down as all 3 John

World record for slow eater was a chap who ate crab claws with knife and fork, instead of diving in like his friends did. I think he took about an hour to finish his starter! Because i spend my time in and out of the kitchen and were so small, its easy to keep tabs on whats happening .And , were are serving simple food and were not turning tables.it's not a headache

Just to keep you up to speed with the throbbing restaurant scene in Padstow, Brocks is no longer open, but will reopen with new owners (no idea when). And do book well in advance for the Summer as all the quality places will be full.We will never have enough places to forfill the demand in the summer

The tempo of a meal is an important aspect to me.Long delays between courses are not what people want, nor do they want instant changes.Our policy goes as follows... As soon as a guest is seated, then bread , butter ,olives ,menu and a wine list.Also offered something to drink.then the table can be left alone for a while to settle.We don,t serve elaborate food, so theres no real delay before starters are served,, and we don,t aim to have a huge delay before the main course.We in the kitchen rely upon the front monkeys to keep us informed about slow eaters, so that we can adjust things accordingly. We always offer a small break after main course is cleared, and this is taken by a huge majority of our guests. Bills are not taken to the table untill they are asked for, or we notice that little clue of a credit card appearing on the table..If you want a long drawn out meal..tell the waiting staff of your plans.it does help! And when i was a kid , we had to take turns for the Parsons Nose

My place is Margot's in Duke Street Padstow.Adam you are forgiven.

Adam.why did you not say hello when you were down at Easter? I feel snubbed, hurt and rejected......Next time round , make yourself known! And my reccomend RIPLEY'S in St Merryn (2 miles out of Padstow)

Cabrales...its not a problem with my place .i don,t turn tables. My customers , tend to be very fair to me, mostly because i'm fair to them.I do spread the bookings over the evening..20 people turning up at the same time makes the kitchen grind to a halt

I do believe the world has gone mad...Restaurants allowing a certain time to eat...and then "on ya bike!".Why do customers put up with it?????????????? Its all become a very silly game..book for 4 people..get a better time..try and book for 2 and get less choice of time.So people book for 4 and only 2 turn up! MAD MAD MAD! Is it all down to ££££££? We all need to make a living but still....OR do we get the service we deserve? And why is it the "better restaurants" have the most demands on there customers?

Lord Lewis...this incident at the Fat Duck, was it before he became mega famous? Sounds outragerous ! In the last 3 years i have had my place , ive yet to ask anyone to leave , and we have had some pretty " interesting" people in. I have warned some people about there manners, language etc , but never thrown anyone out. And , no , this is not a challenge to you good people of e gullet to see how far you can push me!

i must confess to being "inspired" by a dish i had at another restaurant.Pity that the dish read well , but was appalling in its execution.But it did make me think that it was a good idea, if done with some fresher ingrediants.Will i go to hell? :confused:

Competion??????.....not really. Theres more than enough to go round, and yes he has done a fantastic job on promoting the town.We have a nice friendly rivalry with all the quality restuarants in town..3 Stein's and 2 others.We all help each other out when we run out of stuff and i share one member of staff with the great man.sshhhhh. Only fly in the ointment is the guy who i had lined up to be my 2nd chef for this season. decided to stay where he was (for more ££££££) and didn't let me know. I had to ring him up on the day he was due to start , to find out! what a shit! PS this chef is not from Stein...Any other questions.....??????

ok ok i,ll come clean....i run Margot's in Padstow North Cornwall.Web site is www.margots.co.uk when its working,which is not all the time!

North Cornwall UK...Don,t want to advertise here

OK i,m back after a hard day at the stoves .....where do i start??????????.. The 300% mark up does not go all the way threw the wine list..the more expensive wines are a better deal for the customer, with less mark up.I run a set price menu, so there is an inbuilt "unfairness" for people who choose cod to turbot, goats cheese to scallops.But i,m playing for an average, and luckily i,m blessed with a clientel who choose what the fancy that night, not what the best deal is.My food costs run higher than average,mainly due to not serving anything "tired" ,but i trade that off by not having huge wage costs..i work my ass off! My job is to make people happy, with food, wine and service and i'd hate to feel that people thought they were ripped off at my place. As for working out complicated capital costs equations and formula for a "fair" system.....lifes to short and my brain not that big.A far worse practice in restaurants than high mark up on wine ( at least thats in black and white on a wine list) is re-sitting tables and rushing people to get the next ones in. When you book a table at a restaurant.it should be yours for the night.(it is a my place) Anyway.thanks for the response, sorry it was on the wrong board (i,m a new boy) and let the games commence............ PS..service charges.thats another bloody rip off!

i originally posted the following in another thread,but thought it might warrant a new one... Just a wee message to say that 300% mark up on wine is what i charge at my small Bistro.I wont bore you with the details, but after the vat, staff, insurance, maintance, income tax, accountancy fees, bank charges, credit card charges,wages,rent, national insurance,buisness rates and feeding the dog.NET profit runs about 10 %. So a bottle of wine i buy for £3 and sell for £9 makes me a net profit of 90p Unfair?????? Discuss :confused: :confused:

Just a wee message to say that 300% mark up on wine is what i charge at my small Bistro.I wont bore you with the details, but after the vat, staff, insurance, maintance, income tax, accountancy fees, bank charges, credit card charges,wages,rent, national insurance,buisness rates and feeding the dog.NET profit runs about 10 %. So a bottle of wine i buy for £3 and sell for £9 makes me a net profit of 90p Unfair?????? Discuss