Funky Fresh

I live in a small mountain town in Colorado and I love sushi. These two things do not always come together in the best of ways. Now, before coastal readers say that eating raw fish while inland is equivalent to gastral Hari-Kari, let me just say that I’ve had good sushi in Colorado.  

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I’ve also had amazing sushi in Japan – so I feel that I have a valid point of reference. There have been times, however, that mountain sushi has been not so good.
There was one local sushi restaurant in particular that I frequented quite often, mostly due to the close proximity to my home. The sushi had always seemed fresh and delicious – never great – but, generally tasty. As a few months of patronage at the restaurant went by I noticed that there appeared to be fewer and fewer diners coming in. The owners seemed to maintain the freshness and flavor of their product, but empty restaurants can be scary for not only owners, but diners as well. In fact, eating at an empty sushi restaurant is a lot like playing cards in an scarcely populated casino. You begin to wonder if it’s worth the gamble. The only difference is, when you lose at a casino you and your money are soon parted – when you lose at a sushi restaurant you could be recently departed. Such was my dilemma and it nearly cost me dearly.
I ordered a sushi platter to take home from the restaurant on my way home from work one night. After picking it up and arriving at home, I opened the container from the restaurant and noticed something different about the Nori. All my fish had been peppered. I had never seen ground black pepper on sushi before. I suspiciously lifted a piece of raw, peppered tuna to my nose. It smelled a bit like hot garbage wrapped in a used diaper. I threw out the sushi and never went back. Two weeks later, the restaurant had closed.
The takeaway here is that even when times get tough in your restaurant – which is unfortunately altogether possible in the current economy – you cannot compromise the quality or freshness of your product. Your regulars will notice and they will be disappointed! Yep – one surefire way to drive away even your most loyal customers is to make cuts where they will be noticed by them.
Sometimes in this business you have to take a short-term loss in order to produce long-time gains. As owners, chefs, and managers, individuals must be constantly vigilant in ensuring that corners are not cut in order to save a buck or two.
My dad always said, “watch the pennies and the dollars will follow.” That is very true, but it’s got to be done right. There are many ways to cut expenses that don’t leave your guests upset and your coffers dry. For more information on how to ensure quality during good times and bad, or to analyze your expenses to look for opportunities, please reach me at petegentzler@yahoo.com! Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Until next time…mangi bene e sia bene! Grazie!

Timing Is Everything

People say that in comedy, timing is everything.  It’s the same in the restaurant business, although we are trying to elicit oohs and aahs rather than laughs most of the time.  The most difficult part of finding proper timing in a restaurant is in reading the desires of the guest.  Sure, there are usually some givens.  For example, if you run a counter service restaurant, you can assume that your guests want to get in, eat, and get out.  If you run a fine dining restaurant, you can assume that people want to spend a longer amount of time enjoying every delicious minute to the fullest.  But, if your staff is not properly gauging the timeline that the guest would like to be on, they will soon be putting the “ass” in assumption.

As far as front of the house service is concerned, one of the most concise ways to ascertain the pace of individual guests it to encourage servers to simply ask them.  Of course, you don’t want servers to ask guests, “are you in a hurry, or what?”  There are more subtle ways to address the issue, such as:  “How are you two doing this evening?  Enjoying a nice evening out?”  At this cue, guests have an opportunity to tell servers whether they are at the restaurant for a leisurely dinner, or if they are trying to catch a movie in half an hour.  Be creative.  There are ways to ask the guest this question without seeming invasive or pushy.

Once the server is able to better anticipate the needs of the guests they can more properly pace the evening.  Timing is crucial to ensuring the satisfaction of our guests.  Just think of all the things that have gone wrong when you’ve been out to a restaurant.

The hostess misquotes your wait time.  You’ve been seated for ten minutes and have not been acknowledged by staff.  Your cocktail comes out after your appetizer.  Your salad is warm and your entrée is cold.  You’ve finished eating, but you haven’t received your check for fifteen minutes.  From the moment a guest walks in through the door until the minute they leave, all of these factors involving timing can make or break a diner’s experience, and ultimately, your business.

There is good news, however!  There are tried and tested systems that can help to develop impeccable timing with your employees in the back and front of the house.  Methods of proper coordination, communication, and awareness are the cornerstones of mastering this very important part of service.  To learn more, please email me at petegentzler@yahoo.com to discuss consultation and development.  In the meantime… mangi bene e sia bene! Grazie!

Brie & Olive Tapenade Crostini

This is a delicious and healthy vegetarian appetizer recipe that is sure to please even the carnivores at your party! You can use a lot of different components to make this – so, be adventurous and experiment with different herbs, olives, and breads. For my version, I started out with a beautiful, pitted Greek olive mix from the olive bar at my local market. You can use a variety of different olives, but do yourself a favor and buy some that have been pitted.
Here’s what I used:
8 oz. pitted Greek olive mix
½ Large yellow bell pepper
3 medium tomatoes, oven roasted and peeled
¼ Cup EVOO
1 Tbs. crushed fresh garlic
¾ Cup whole fresh basil
½ Cup fresh chives
Softened Brie cheese
1 Loaf of sourdough bread
First off, you need to roast your tomatoes. If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry – it’s simple. Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. While the oven is heating, blanch your tomatoes whole in a pot of boiling water. After five minutes or so, remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place them in a bowl of ice water. When the tomatoes have sufficiently cooled, remove them from the water and peel. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and place on a baking sheet into the oven. After about an hour, the tomatoes should be fairly dried out. Remove from the oven and crank up the heat to 350 degrees.
While your tomatoes are roasting, you may compose your olive tapenade. In a food processor, add olives, EVOO, yellow bell pepper, and herbs. Pulse blend this mixture to a semi-rough chop. When the desired consistency is achieved, put the tapenade in a sealed container and refrigerate. Puree your roasted tomatoes and stir them into the tapenade. If the mixture is too salty or acidic, add stir in granulated sugar to taste.
Now it’s time to move on to the crostini. In your oven, preheated to 350 degrees, place ¼ “ sourdough slices on a baking sheet. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread is nice and crispy. Allow the bread to cool and prepare to assemble the final product.
Take your softened Brie and smear a good amount onto the crostini. Then, take one to two tablespoons of tapenade and smear that on top of the Brie.
Now, the crostinis are ready to eat! I like to add citrus or grapes to my platters, giving guests something sweet to counteract this briny and savory dish. Enjoy!