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Basildog

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Everything posted by Basildog

  1. Money is not great.I don't earn a great deal, just about enough to cover the bills.I drive a very old car, we plan to have our first holiday in 4 years in the autumn.Don't get me wrong , i ain't complaining, i get to live in a very nice part of the country,work 5 days a week, and have got a decent balance of home/work.If you want to make money, open a StarBucks, if you want to have fun, open a bistro.Best of luck with your plans.
  2. My belief is that if you do the prep, work hard, and don't cut corners, the Culinary Gods will help you, no God can help you if you fail to to do these 3 things.
  3. We had a visit from The Brothers Grim
  4. I wished we had been asked! all i get is the annual "Do you want to appear on the next series of Kitchen Nightmares" ie are you shit?
  5. Interesting point from Fat Guys original post ..who do chefs hook up with longterm to have children with? I met my wife when she was a student, then she went into retail,then she became a waitress so we could spend time together.Then she became a Mum
  6. Great topic. Father of 2 (Becky turns 5 next week, Daniel is 17months exactly).It's all down to the Mums, lets be honest.If your a hard working chef, doing the hours, then the mum is doing eactly the same.I'm in the position of being my own boss of a very small bistro, so i been able to change some things to make the time to be a Dad.I take B to school every day, so we get a few mins to talk.Actually, she sings, i listen.I don't work Sundays,(family day or Dada Day as Becky used to call it) and we go swimming on a Monday night, my other day off.The whole family come to work most days after school,so we can see each other, and occasionally Becky come to work with me for a couple of hours on a Saturday to make bread and hang out.Tuesdays is "Rainbows" so she come to work after school, has dinner with me, and then i walk her up the road to her group.We close for about 6 weeks a year,January and late November, so that does give us some time.I don't think my situation is that bad,not many Dads get to do the school run every day, plus i get all day Sunday and a half day with them Mondays.Not complaining.Mums don't get a day off.
  7. We take bookings, and stagger peoples arrivals so we can look after guests properly.Yes we could double our turnover by resiting tables, but i,m sure one of the resaons we are so heavily booked is that people aren't rushed through.We are very small only 22 max, with one chef, one KP and one waitress, it works for us.When you have a larger place, you are more flexible in seating people, possibly having bar as a holding pen, or a room for people to take coffee in after their meal.We don't have that luxury. I'm sorry to be pedantic, but when people make comments on how restaurants operate, i feel compelled to tell people my story
  8. "Every restaurant has "seatings" whether it's stated explicitly or not. No restaurant owner would expect to stay in business only seating each table once per evening unless they were selling some sort of overinflated tasting menu at $200 per head. If you and your dining companions came in at 6:00 PM would it be unreasonable of the restaurateur to rebook your table at 8:00 or 8:30 presuming you'd be gone? Two and half hours for a table of two to six persons is not rushing anyone. If your dinner took any longer than that I'd suspect folks would feel they were waiting too long between courses. And no doubt they'd then complain about that." Sorry, not EVERY restaurant.I do one sitting
  9. Simon, could you post the new menu here.Save your phone bill!
  10. I work in a semi open kitchen, the advantages are that i can see 7 out of my 9 tables.Keeping an eye on guests from the kitchen is important for me.You do work better, cleaner , if you know people can glance up from the table and see you working .Also i do tend to get the flames jumping if there are kids watching Guests have to approach my kitchen door which has a slatted window in it to go to the bathroom, and 99% of them look in to see whats going on.
  11. When the queue of people waiting for a restaurant to open at just before 7pm are the staff.
  12. OOOOOHHH Nice Touch! enjoy the rest, i'm sure they will look after it well, sleep well!
  13. Nice article in today's Caterer on Andrew Porter, but they still have you as owner Gary.
  14. At this time we have some space all next week,(full this Friday and Saturday evenings)
  15. Slackers shop/bar.click How long are you down for? I would again reccomend Number 6 in Middle St (their website is currently being updated, but it does give you an idea)Number 6
  16. Yeah, that's not the right way to manage that sort of thing. The right way, in my humble opinion, is to overbook by 15% and thank your guest for taking the time to call and cancel. Anticipation on one side and hospitality on the other, that's how the restaurant world works. ← So what happens on the night when 100% of your bookings turn up and your 15% short of space.Then we will have another thread about how you had a contract with the resturant which they broke.Ever feel like this is a no win situation?
  17. You know when your bored when you start counting how many guests are booked to come ...700 people are booked to come from April 1st untill end of July.
  18. Oh sweet jesus thats kool! I thought mine was different cos i had it painted blue That's gonna start a whole lot of pimping man! Excellent work!
  19. I,ve been in Margot's kitchen for 11 years today.see site for the full story
  20. Damn right! Cost of veg is minimal.As i said to guest last night when i put their veg on the table, "we are not posh enough not to serve veg" Same as charging for bread, olives etc.Just add into the menu price.
  21. I'v been at it for 20+ years and i have offended some.
  22. Last minute cancellations for small places are a big kick in the bollocks, it hurts.BUT ,"thanks for letting us know" is the only answer.You then return to the kitchen and curse the KP, Waitress and the wall and take it out on them.
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