Electric Weekend!
Sunday was Hannah's 9th birthday party, it was also our KNON event. Hannah's shindig was a pool party in our backyard. We tossed about 50 frozen water balloons into the pool; thankfully no one tried to throw them at each other until they thawed. After shooing everyone home we changed and headed down to the Kitchen to pack up our stuff for KNON.
We arrived about fifteen minutes before five and there was already a sizable crowd. The opening band was on stage and sort of noodling around. Fran was getting tables, warmers and the oven set up as quickly as I could haul them in. The first batch of peppers were in the oven. Chili and wings were in the warmers when the band fell silent. Our equipment had been plugged into the same circuit as the PA system. We unplugged our stuff, the band continued and a mad scramble ensued for extension cords and alternate places to plug in. After what seemed an eternity we were ready to begin serving. I looked up from our table in the back of the room and saw the line for food stretching nearly to the front door. Fran and I began to fumble with food tickets, serving bowls and lukewarm chili. We looked at each other with growing unease as the crowd loomed. That's when Paul stepped in and really saved the day.
Paul Wackym aka "The Baker Man" aka (on KNON's website) "Wackman" was with us to promote his cookies which we sell at the Kitchen. He was, of course, ready and waiting at the Pearl Room venue long before we showed up. Paul has helped in many ways; offering a table for the farmer's market, jumping in and helping us stock our large fridge after we had it moved in and giving us kind words and promotion.
Paul sensed our growing distress and positioned himself at the front of the line and expedited orders, collected tickets and handed out bowls and napkins. We finally got into a rhythm with me cooking peppers and warming chili (our warmers only hold about 10 servings of chili), Fran dishing up and Paul orchestrating everything. It took nearly two hours but we got everyone served and managed not to trip any more circuit breakers.
We got everything back to the kitchen by about 10:30 that night and went home exhausted. On Monday Fran went in and cleaned all the equipment. Today she went in early to make bison burger patties and stuff peppers. I got a call from an extremely stressed-sounding Fran. Evidently the workers gutting our new space had tripped a breaker (sound familiar?) and cut power to our refrigerators. Everything had to be thrown out. I suppose this is part and parcel of running a restaurant - disasters just come with the territory. The worst part is that Fran had to turn away some customers but as usual she had nearly everything back to normal by the afternoon.
We arrived about fifteen minutes before five and there was already a sizable crowd. The opening band was on stage and sort of noodling around. Fran was getting tables, warmers and the oven set up as quickly as I could haul them in. The first batch of peppers were in the oven. Chili and wings were in the warmers when the band fell silent. Our equipment had been plugged into the same circuit as the PA system. We unplugged our stuff, the band continued and a mad scramble ensued for extension cords and alternate places to plug in. After what seemed an eternity we were ready to begin serving. I looked up from our table in the back of the room and saw the line for food stretching nearly to the front door. Fran and I began to fumble with food tickets, serving bowls and lukewarm chili. We looked at each other with growing unease as the crowd loomed. That's when Paul stepped in and really saved the day.
Paul Wackym aka "The Baker Man" aka (on KNON's website) "Wackman" was with us to promote his cookies which we sell at the Kitchen. He was, of course, ready and waiting at the Pearl Room venue long before we showed up. Paul has helped in many ways; offering a table for the farmer's market, jumping in and helping us stock our large fridge after we had it moved in and giving us kind words and promotion.
Paul sensed our growing distress and positioned himself at the front of the line and expedited orders, collected tickets and handed out bowls and napkins. We finally got into a rhythm with me cooking peppers and warming chili (our warmers only hold about 10 servings of chili), Fran dishing up and Paul orchestrating everything. It took nearly two hours but we got everyone served and managed not to trip any more circuit breakers.
We got everything back to the kitchen by about 10:30 that night and went home exhausted. On Monday Fran went in and cleaned all the equipment. Today she went in early to make bison burger patties and stuff peppers. I got a call from an extremely stressed-sounding Fran. Evidently the workers gutting our new space had tripped a breaker (sound familiar?) and cut power to our refrigerators. Everything had to be thrown out. I suppose this is part and parcel of running a restaurant - disasters just come with the territory. The worst part is that Fran had to turn away some customers but as usual she had nearly everything back to normal by the afternoon.
posted by Randal at
1:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home