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Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)

gfron1

By gfron1
in Restaurant Life

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
41 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

The pantry is in the carryout delivery button

 

Ah, I see it now. However, the delivery option still shows as unavailable when I go to check out. Is there something else I need to do?

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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gfron1

gfron1

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18 hours ago, Alex said:

 

Ah, I see it now. However, the delivery option still shows as unavailable when I go to check out. Is there something else I need to do?

That's delivery as in a car drives it to you :)  Since you want it mailed just do it as a carryout and leave a note in the comment section with your mailing address. And remember, we can't mail refrigerated items (cocktails, ketchup, BBQ sauce). But all the others are fair game.

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Kim Shook

Kim Shook

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Posted

Rob, this is amazing and truly thinking outside of the box.  A good friend of my daughters has a FB page for sharing information about local restaurants that my daughter is helping him to administrate.  They get posts from the public and from the owners/chefs also.  As far as I know, no one is doing what you are doing.  We've avoided some restaurants because we are not ready to dine in, but feel like the food wouldn't travel well to get home.  And eating in the car has always meant getting things in take out containers, which can be awkward to deal with.  Your solution seems so perfect.  I hope that you have great success with this to carry you through until things are safer.  Would you mind if I shared your story and perhaps links to your videos with the folks in the FB group I mentioned?  

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Kim

Kim's Cookbook

What Fresh Hell is This?

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gfron1 said:

That's delivery as in a car drives it to you :)  Since you want it mailed just do it as a carryout and leave a note in the comment section with your mailing address. And remember, we can't mail refrigerated items (cocktails, ketchup, BBQ sauce). But all the others are fair game.

 

Just placed the order. Please let me know the shipping cost via PM and how you'd like me to pay.

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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gfron1

gfron1

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Posted
On 8/10/2020 at 9:21 AM, Kim Shook said:

Rob, this is amazing and truly thinking outside of the box.  A good friend of my daughters has a FB page for sharing information about local restaurants that my daughter is helping him to administrate.  They get posts from the public and from the owners/chefs also.  As far as I know, no one is doing what you are doing.  We've avoided some restaurants because we are not ready to dine in, but feel like the food wouldn't travel well to get home.  And eating in the car has always meant getting things in take out containers, which can be awkward to deal with.  Your solution seems so perfect.  I hope that you have great success with this to carry you through until things are safer.  Would you mind if I shared your story and perhaps links to your videos with the folks in the FB group I mentioned?  

Please do. Time will tell if this will work. We've had a handful of people unequivocally state that they are not interested, which is disheartening. Y'all know I'm always about doing things that are novel and I've never had such direct dissent. Normally people are polite and just keep their mouths shut, but not this time. As I have reminded my staff from day 1 - we only need a small handful of guests to pay the bills and we're in a metro area of 2M. 

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Smithsonian magazine story

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, gfron1 said:

Normally people are polite and just keep their mouths shut, but not this time.


For better or worse, a lot of people are not wanting to accept this virus situation for what it is or are just plain tired of worrying over it. They don't like the disruptions and inconveniences it's brought to their lives. They don't like being told they have to wear masks and distance themselves from others. They don't like being told they can't do things they want to do. A percentage of those people are quite vocal about their dislike or disbelief of the whole thing and that percentage seems to be gaining supporters the longer this goes on. I'm not saying that's a good thing but it certainly is happening, you were bound to find a few of them in your market as well.

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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TdeV

TdeV

Posted
Posted
On 8/10/2020 at 8:18 AM, gfron1 said:

That's delivery as in a car drives it to you :)  Since you want it mailed just do it as a carryout and leave a note in the comment section with your mailing address. And remember, we can't mail refrigerated items (cocktails, ketchup, BBQ sauce). But all the others are fair game.

 

Rob, this looks enticing. Since I, and maybe others, have no idea what's refrigerated and what is not, could you please say?

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gfron1

gfron1

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2 hours ago, TdeV said:

Rob, this looks enticing. Since I, and maybe others, have no idea what's refrigerated and what is not, could you please say?

The BBQ sauce and ketchup need refrigeration since we don't can them. Anyone else who orders just needs to know that we're not set up for this so it will come in a second hand box with second hand wrapping :)

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Smithsonian magazine story

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Alex

Alex

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, gfron1 said:

The BBQ sauce and ketchup need refrigeration since we don't can them. Anyone else who orders just needs to know that we're not set up for this so it will come in a second hand box with second hand wrapping :)

 

Will it be wrapped in second hand news(print)?

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"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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gfron1

gfron1

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Can I just say that running a restaurant during a pandemic certainly teaches you to not cling on to anything. Open today. Closed tomorrow. Sorta open the next.

 

But we keep kicking:

Unplated podcast

Smithsonian magazine

 

 

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Smithsonian magazine story

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Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Can I just say that running a restaurant during a pandemic certainly teaches you to not cling on to anything. Open today. Closed tomorrow. Sorta open the next.

 

But we keep kicking:

Unplated podcast

Smithsonian magazine

 

 

Talk to us about sour (sauer?) corn!

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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gfron1

gfron1

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16 hours ago, Anna N said:

Talk to us about sour (sauer?) corn!

Sauercorn is simply lacto fermented corn. In the restaurant, our technique is keeping the kernels on the cob and instead of jarring/canning, we vacuum pack and store. By keeping it on the cob we have more options for plating - meaning strips of corn kernels v. individual kernels. You can control the level of sour by the amount of time you allow it to ferment (avg 2 weeks), and we love pairing it with traditional creamed corn, but mostly we use it on our version of pickle plates.

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Smithsonian magazine story

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Anna N

Anna N

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Posted
11 minutes ago, gfron1 said:

Sauercorn is simply lacto fermented corn.

That sent me down the rabbit hole and now I feel as if I am the only person in the whole world who has never heard of sauercorn. Fascinating. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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kayb

kayb

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Anna N said:

That sent me down the rabbit hole and now I feel as if I am the only person in the whole world who has never heard of sauercorn. Fascinating. 

 

I made it last year. Pretty good!

 

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Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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Smithy

Smithy

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Posted
6 hours ago, Anna N said:

That sent me down the rabbit hole and now I feel as if I am the only person in the whole world who has never heard of sauercorn. Fascinating. 

 

New to me too, Anna.

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Anna N

Anna N

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39 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

New to me too, Anna.

Thank goodness for that! However, since I do not seem to be cut out for experiments in fermentation , I will likely give it a miss.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

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Posted
8 hours ago, Anna N said:

I feel as if I am the only person in the whole world who has never heard of sauercorn.

 

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

New to me too, Anna.


I'm in the club as well, never heard of it before Rob brought it to our attention. Of course, now that he has, I want to try it but I seem to have bad luck with fermentation. I still haven't managed to get a batch of kimchi to ferment properly. 

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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gfron1

gfron1

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20 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

I'm in the club as well, never heard of it before Rob brought it to our attention. Of course, now that he has, I want to try it but I seem to have bad luck with fermentation. I still haven't managed to get a batch of kimchi to ferment properly. 

Cleanliness and stable temperature seem to be the most important variables. Our sauercorn is fermented at room temp in our kitchen so around 71ºF

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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Tri2Cook

Tri2Cook

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On 11/15/2020 at 3:50 PM, gfron1 said:

Cleanliness and stable temperature seem to be the most important variables. Our sauercorn is fermented at room temp in our kitchen so around 71ºF


Hmmm. Cleanliness definitely isn't the issue. Temp, I don't think so but possibly. It's rarely above 70 in my house during the winter but it's rarely below 65 so I think I should be ok there. I've never had a batch go bad, it just never really ferments. It ends up being a spicy cabbage salad. There's a point where I start to worry about spoilage and toss it in the fridge but I've gone as long as 2 weeks before panic fridging with no real signs of fermentation. I've had some very light bubble action a couple times but still never got that good kimchi funk. Anyway, don't want to steer the discussion off course but I am tempted to give the sauercorn a shot. Worst case, I just have the same success I've had with kimchi. Thanks! 

It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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lemniscate

lemniscate

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I made this sour corn version in my crock 2-3 years ago.  I was inspired by Sean Brock's mom on an episode of Mind of a Chef.   It was sweet and tangy.   I used it in salads and relish, or just like a pickle on the side.  I guess I didn't take any pics of it though.

 

I always liked the "recipe search" columns in the newspapers.

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gfron1

gfron1

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42 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:


Hmmm. Cleanliness definitely isn't the issue. Temp, I don't think so but possibly. It's rarely above 70 in my house during the winter but it's rarely below 65 so I think I should be ok there. I've never had a batch go bad, it just never really ferments. It ends up being a spicy cabbage salad. There's a point where I start to worry about spoilage and toss it in the fridge but I've gone as long as 2 weeks before panic fridging with no real signs of fermentation. I've had some very light bubble action a couple times but still never got that good kimchi funk. Anyway, don't want to steer the discussion off course but I am tempted to give the sauercorn a shot. Worst case, I just have the same success I've had with kimchi. Thanks! 

I'm forcing you to do it again ;) like the good ol' days. But be more patient. It's corn. It won't go bad. Worst case - you pitch it. But you know what sauekraut smells like so you'll know if it smells off.

 

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

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kayb

kayb

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18 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:


Hmmm. Cleanliness definitely isn't the issue. Temp, I don't think so but possibly. It's rarely above 70 in my house during the winter but it's rarely below 65 so I think I should be ok there. I've never had a batch go bad, it just never really ferments. It ends up being a spicy cabbage salad. There's a point where I start to worry about spoilage and toss it in the fridge but I've gone as long as 2 weeks before panic fridging with no real signs of fermentation. I've had some very light bubble action a couple times but still never got that good kimchi funk. Anyway, don't want to steer the discussion off course but I am tempted to give the sauercorn a shot. Worst case, I just have the same success I've had with kimchi. Thanks! 

 

I fermented cabbage for six weeks. Best kraut I ever made.

 

Sauercorn was really good stirred into some potato salad.

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Don't ask. Eat it.

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