Guest Services

I hate the word, "customer".

This hasn't always been a thing, I used to sling the word around at work almost as often as I dropped "fuck" and "shit" in the kitchen (Restaurants are wonderfully lenient,  vocabulary-wise). For the longest time, people who came to where I worked were just faceless annoyances that helped keep me employed.

And then I started reading about fine dining restaurants in magazines. I visited a couple, to see what the big deal was. I thought of myself as a customer. But setting foot into those establishments, heinously underdressed in some instances? I was shocked. Not by the portion to price ratio, I expected that, but by how... welcomed I felt. I fully expected to be greeted with disdain, pretentious attitudes, annoyance. It's what I would have done back then, had I been in my server's shoes. I was always dining solo, my tip certainly wasn't going to make any significant difference in their earnings. I never got that blowback. Every time, I was greeted with grace, friendliness, and dignity. They took what could have been an awkward, stiff experience, and made me feel like I had been a regular for years. The sensation stuck with me. I wondered, how did they accomplish that and I couldn't? How were our restaurants so different?

I had to know. I had knowledge, and I was sick of working shitty sports bars. I needed to know I could do better. I wound up working at a Spanish wine bar with a service manager named Sean.

Sean is a larger than life personality, with a laugh to match and more blue checked shirts than is really reasonable. And he is the modern-day Dionysus, always ensuring anyone who encountered him had a smile. He had one steadfast rule, that anyone who crossed the restaurant threshold was a guest, NOT a customer. He felt that thinking of a person as a customer was too impersonal, and we were here to curate an experience for people. We were told to treat every table as if they were, in fact, guests in our home.

It brings a whole new aspect to people-watching thinking that way. And it turns what could be a very rote experience and makes it far more enjoyable. Guests become more accessible, more approachable from the server's perspective. And they pick up on that sentiment, and respond in kind. It creates a more jovial atmosphere all around, and it is the entire reason I have yet to get bored with my current job. I no longer work with Sean, but he did me a huge favor helping me adjust my mindset.

Return to the Blogosphere!

A good idea (in any field) is if you haven't got a clue what you're doing, you should absolutely stop and reconsider. Reorganize. Reboot. No shame in starting over, after all, if you don't have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it at all? (Thanks, John Wooden!)

I stopped writing for a year because I really didn't know where I was going... at all. My writing was aimless, my personal life was sloppy and inconsistent, and I needed to figure out what the hell I was really doing with my life. Ultimately, I'm still not 100% sure on that front. I've got a lot of options ahead and I'm thankfully in a very flexible field I adore. But life's definitely gotten more stable. My dog and I are in a cute studio I can comfortably afford, my bills are all paid mostly on time for the first time...frankly ever. I even have a human being who likes spending time with me on the regular! It's pretty exciting. And so delightfully average. I absolutely love it. And I feel comfortable enough to start writing again.

Writing about the cooking I'm doing, the events I work, the weird little freelance life I'm building alongside my day job. I can't guarantee this blog will always best filled with ridiculous stories and weird adventures, but hopefully it'll bring a smile to your face!

Cheers~

Chapter 2~

I've been in such a cool space lately! For the first time in months, things are honestly progressing on the up and up for me. I FINALLY have a place to live, and will be able to get my things out of storage for October. I have a job that I love, that challenges me in all of the right ways and actually supports me in my personal life. And while the transition is still a tad rocky, I'm doing well enough that I got to spend a week in New York City last week with some of my best friends on the planet. Even better, my current job will afford me the ability to do that more often, and travel elsewhere more easily! I'll finally be cooking at home again!!!

With that, I'm finally going to be able to bring a direction to this blog. At least once a week, I'll do a new recipe for y'all and the story that accompanies it. When I travel, I'll tell you about the amazing local products I find. And while I study for my sommelier certifications- well, you'll get an earful on how goddamn tired I am of drinking goddamn French wines, no matter how delicious they are. (Seriously, I love French wines now, but studying them makes me want to slam my head into their stupid limestone-laced terroir.)

It's a new chapter, and I can't wait to start writing it!

Middle Eastern Eating

To accompany my fascination with food, I follow a lot of chefs on social media, and constantly keep my ears to the ground for local and national food news. That being said, I also drink a lot and occasionally forget details or entire places and recipes I want to try, and that will occasionally end with me trying a place I had forgotten about. It becomes a weird, fun game of pseudo-dé ja vu. And I really win when it turns out that what I've tried is a pet project of acquaintances of mine!!!

Story time. I had never tried Shawarma before. Hell, I had only ever heard about it because of the Avengers movie. I have woefully little experience with middle eastern cuisine- my family, being career military, is not necessarily as open minded about that particular region. My first encounter with anything resembling that style of food was through a chef I used to work with in a Spanish restaurant and they let him do more Moorish-style cuisine. I learned about sumac and harissa, and was interested, but I didn't know where to find more stuff like it.

Now, a few nights ago I was jonesing for some tacos. I was also feeling incredibly lazy, and didn't want to go too too far for them. But as 8pm drew closer, and tacos steadfastly refused to appear, I hauled myself off the couch and ventured out into the Atlanta evening. I headed to Krog Street Market, knowing of a "Mex-Tex" restaurant there called Superica, but I wanted to check out the various other stalls to see if there were more enticing options to be had.

When I got there, half of the market was already closed for the evening. Lucky for me, the few stalls that weren't already closed were the more food-focused! No tacos, though. I was about to give up and just nab a sandwich from Fred's Meat and Bread (my second fave sandwich place), when Yalla caught my eye. Both Fred's and Yalla are projects of Chef Todd Ginsberg and his partners. I've accidentally been following Chef Ginsberg's career with my stomach ever since I first encountered him at Bocado. He's always headed kitchens with really solid menus, but I have to admit- Yalla is my favorite so far.

I ordered a Chicken Shawarma Pita, and was given a monstrous pocket half the size of my head. And it was LOADED. Chicken, spices, hummus, pickles- so many delicious things the pita literally couldn't hold the weight. As I chowed down, hummus and sauces tore through the bread and dribbled on to my hands. Usually, with something that large, I don't finish my meal. I pack it up, politely infer I'm saving it for later, and wind up throwing it out blocks away from the establishment. With the Shawarma, though... I couldn't get enough. I used a fork to shovel everything that had fallen out into my face. I licked my fingers and hands clean. And when the last bite was gone, I knew I could never go back to basic, boring pita sandwiches again, and tacos found themselves totally demoted in my pantheon of favorite foods. I have no idea how authentic Ginsberg's Shawarma is to "real" Shawarma. Frankly, I don't care either. I am now firmly in the "happy pita" camp.

Up in Smoke

August in Atlanta is a beast. Humidity hangs in the air, making frequent showers a necessity. Cicadas rattle through the trees in the hot sun, and storms breeze in and out in mere minutes. It's the last screams of summer, before the whole city starts to cool in September.

This summer back home has been great. I have finally begun to strike a solid work- social life balance. Granted, I'm still hanging out with cooks, but who else would I ever want to hang out with? I had the pleasure of introducing a friend of mine from California to a group of motley industry folk a few nights ago, at a proper southern pig roast! Twenty or thirty of us cycled in and out of this party throughout the night, and it was such a perfect example of southern hospitality.

For starters, we had SO. MUCH. FOOD. Our menu consisted of a 45lb pig, at least a dozen steaks, 2 whole chickens, corn on the cob, smoked potatoes, massive zucchini, oysters, and charcuterie out the wazoo. Someone brought salad, but the poor thing lay neglected on the table the entire night. Beer and conversation flowed, and paper plates were ignored in favor of just ripping the feast apart by hand like Vikings. Smoke perfumed the air, and strangers bonded over the picnic tables. Stories were shared, and true to the climate, the skies opened up for a brief downpour (Thank god for covered pavilions!). It was really energizing to be around such positive people just having a great time. It was the perfect end to my summer.

Now I'm getting ready to start working at a new place- a restaurant I have revered for years, and can honestly say I'm proud to work for. I'll be serving tables, but this won't be like other restaurants I've waited at: this is one of the greatest restaurants in the southeast (if not the country). This is my food nerd dream career step! So cheers to perfect closures and new beginnings! This fall is going to be fantastic.