ramodeo

My favorite kitchen tip - to get garlic or onion smell off your hands after chopping, just wash immediately and thoroughly with cold water and soap. The soap cuts the smelly oils and the cold water rinses it away. Warm or hot water "melts" the oils into your skin and then the smell lingers forever. Blech - nothing worse than smelling stale garlic smell on your hands when you're trying to go to sleep.

Oops.

I've got a question for those working in restaurants. How many places actually ring up takeout $ under a tipped servers sales? We own a small place that does sit-down service and takeout, and we've always just kept a different server code in our (rather primitive) cash register for take out. That way take out sales are separate and no one is expected to report tips on them. We do have higher wage host/hostesses to pack up orders, so servers only have to help with that occasionally. I'm honestly quite surprised at how many people say they tip on take out orders. We see it only very occasionally. We would never expect it. And I hate tip jars for counter service. The only time I would tip a counter person is if I really felt they did something special making my latte or ice cream cone - and then I would want to give it directly to the person who helped me - not the staff in general. Also - how many places actually pool all tips? I know that most places have tip-outs for food runners and bussers, but one big pool of all tips divided between all servers, bussers, runners and hosts? Don't think I like that much. Might as well just institute a service charge. I make tipping decisions carefully - and usually generously - but I don't want a 30% tip to my really great server to be shared with the one I watched chatting and flirting and neglecting their tables all night.

I gotta chime in here, too. Mel - I know exactly where you are and I really appreciate reading your description of it. My husband and I were there and we have been through the process of start-up/success/settling in that you are experiencing. I think you're going to be just fine, and so are your employees - and if they're not fine, they weren't the right ones in the first place. Just from this blog, I can tell you're experienced, intelligent and thoughtful, and if you apply those qualities to the decisions you make in your business, you'll come out okay. As for taking time for yourself vs. burning out? To us, it's always just a question of priorities. Right now, our main priority is to build a business that supports our family, pays off our debt, provides good work and pay for our employees, and has the potential to grow in the directions we feel are right for us. We could cut back the hours we put into it, but we'd just have to pay someone else, and right now we'd rather put that money into paying off our property. (We have decided to have our accountant do more for us this year. We can afford to put some $ into that service, we've decided we really like and trust the guy, and I hate, hate, hate bookeeping!) The best thing we've done for our time off/sanity quotient is to find and keep a couple of employees that we can leave in charge if we want to get away. We left for six days last spring break - and left the restaurant open! (In the past, we had only taken vacations during our annual week long July 4th shut-down) That was a HUGE step for us. We feel lucky to have the employees that we do, but I know it wasn't just luck that brought them to us. Or that keeps them from going elsewhere. They work for us because we treat them as well as we can. They know they can make decent money doing something they enjoy in a positive environment working with people they like for employers that care about them. We'd like to be able to pay them more, but as another poster said, the economics of our business don't really allow that. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we can do to give them more without having to spend more $ we don't yet have. We do a lot of flexible scheduling - we have lots of students/moms/etc who need to change their schedule frequently. It seems to help. But NONE of this happened the first year - it all came along gradually. Anyway - good luck to you - and congratulations on your success. Just try to stay healthy - stay away from those with viruses, keep your immunity up, take your vitamins, eat as healthily as possible - you probably have your own set of defensive strategies....Things will settle into a routine (hopefully a busy one!) eventually and you'll be able to devote some time to yourself

I use the CI method because I do like the overall result better than just boiling with water and salt. I haven't broken out individual steps and tested them, though. I do use two pans - I get the toasting going in a non-stick skillet and put the water and milk on in a sauce pan at the same time. Hot toasted oats into nearly simmering liquid seems to speed up the whole process. The oats absorb all the butter, and I just wipe the non-stick skillet and put it away. Not too much trouble, really. I don't feel a need to add more butter to the cooked oats - and I usually do to other hot cereals. I don't know if that's because the oats are just so satisfying, or if that couple tablespoons of butter at the beginning provides enough flavor because it is soaked into each grain and toasted, KWIM? As for the salt - the CI article has an explaination that says salting at the beginning of cooking prevents some of the starch and gum components of the oat grain from leeching into the cooking water, which would make for a less creamy cooked cereal. I like using the milk cuz I prefer the taste, and because we always seem to have extra milk to use up in our house. And then I don't have to add any at the end. I have also found that this method works well for making big batches (6-8 servings). I put the extra in the fridge and microwave reheat portions for several days after.

I have always used bulk organic steel cut oats from my health food store, so I can't really compare varieties, but I think they're probably a medium size. They stay pretty chewy and pop a bit in your mouth. I use the Cook's Illustrated method to cook them, which toasts them first in a little butter, then simmers them in a milk/water mixture. The toasting makes a huge difference in flavor, I think. Can't eat plain, regular cooked rolled oats anymore.

Best lesson learned about employees who show up for their first day of work in flip flops? Don't send the home to change their shoes - just send them home for good - it'll save you having to fire them weeks (or months) later when you realize that their choice of footwear really is an indication of their overall intelligence.

I'm loving this discussion! We own a small breakfast and lunch place that is quite busy, and we have never taken reservations or done call ahead seating. We never even thought people would expect that, but we get all kinds of calls for it. We have a sign in list and we seat the next party at the next available table that will fit them. Period. Counter seats are first come, first served. We have been absolutely consistent with that policy for years, because we think it's the most fair to everyone, but we still get people who think we ought to treat them specially. We don't make exceptions for regulars or friends or family or even celebrities (if we ever got any ). We only have 14 tables, and taking reservations would kill us. We have to keep our tables full, and averaging only about 45 min/turn. When we have a waiting list, our tables only sit empty for a minute or two - as long as it takes to clear it, wipe it and call the next party. We want our customers to know that we are working to get them seated as quickly as possible and most people are very understanding. The biggest issue we have is that when we are busy and on a wait, we insist that an entire party be present before we seat the table. If everyone is not there, we move to the next party. The partial party stays next on the list until everyone shows. I'd be curious to know what others here think of that policy, because we have some customers who have told us they think it's wrong, unfair and even "insulting" (???) to them. I don't get that. We can't even trust people when they say their other party is "just parking the car" - we've been told that and then they don't show for 20 minutes! If we have a day where lots of parties take an extra 20 minutes at their table, it really makes a difference in our sales. Not to mention the servers' tips. The other irritating issue is people who manipulate our system by signing in as 3 when they know they will be 4, just so they can get seated faster, then they wait to order til the 4th person gets there. Actually, I think our system works pretty well, but I am always amazed at how some people see it differently.

Wow - I just found this place accidentally, but I am so glad I did. It has been a real treat to read this thread. As an owner - (with my husband) - of a small breakfast/lunch cafe and a former pastry chef, I have really enjoyed a feeling of comraderie with you, melmck, and I'm so glad to hear things are going well for you! Just reading your story feels like validation for the way we run our place. Hard work and a comittment to quality ingredients and customer service combined with a little smarts and you've got a successful business! It does work! Our place has been open for 4-1/2 years now, and things have settled into a fairly predictable pattern - hard work, long hours, government/tax/financial irritations, employee surprises, customer compliments and complaints, etc., but everyday I still feel like it is infinitely better than working for someone else. I never want to go back to that. Ever. I consider it one of the biggest blessings of our lives that we get to earn our living this way. I had to laugh at your descriptions of the merchant services vultures. That's really the only word for them, isn't it? We just went through another round of confirming our decision to not accept cards. We're going to hold out as long as we can. We have a customer who is a rep and he set up a pretty good deal for us with a free machine, etc,etc, but so far, we just can't see where the cost is going to benefit us. We analyzed our transactions in detail, and the actual costs were going to be way higher than he estimated (surprise!). He kept telling us how many new people we'd get in if we just accepted cards, but we're full with a waiting list for the vast majority of the hours we are open, so where would we put them? I know we can always use new customers, but I just don't believe that's the way we need to get them. Anyway - it reinforced our belief that we have to stick to our instincts in such situations. Don't let anyone push you in a direction that doesn't feel right. Thanks for sharing your experience here - it's been great!