Happy New Year to all! I know, I know, it's pretty lame to be here in the office on New Year's Day, but we've got a lot of work to do before we can open back up tomorrow, and we surely don't want to put it all off until then. Besides, this is the only place we know that is serving duck foie gras for lunch...
So, how'd it go last night? I must say, it went absolutely amazingly well. Sure, a few glitches, a few lessons learned, and a few tables whose food did not come out in the timeliest fashion, but overall, considering it was the first time at Brooks Tavern for all involved, it went fine. Around 8PM I actually starting thinking to myself, "Hey, we might just pull this off". It wasn't until I started saying it out loud (knocking on a table or two of course) that things started to skew off course a little. What things? Well, such as one 8 o'clock table's order that didn't get put into the register when it should have, and no one noticed it until the server commented that a second 8 o'clock table was getting their entrees while the first one still had nothing. We got them going right away, reversing direction on courses to speed things along a little, but still, that wasn't good and could have been really bad if the people involved had been feeling ornery. All the tables for the 9 o'clocks weren't ready at 9, which was mostly because I really didn't allow enough time for the 6-tops to turn, but it wasn't too bad - I think we sat the last one at around 9:10. One of them had a too long wait for their first course, and they weren't too happy about that, but once they got it, everything else followed fine. A few other issues - mostly service related - and some confusion in the kitchen, but no nightmares like we've experienced in the past. I wore my 2008 tiara, which got a few snickers ("Are you picking up radio waves with that thing on your head?") but I didn't mind. At 10:00 I was able to open a bottle of the Gruet Rose for us and we could start to celebrate the evening's mostly successful completion.
What was popular? Well, as predicted, we sold 47 orders of the baked oysters! But we didn't run out, we didn't run out of anything, which was amazing. Things were pretty evenly divided - the oysters were by far the most popular first course, with the shrimp consommé being the least. Entree wise, the lamb and the steak were pretty much neck and neck, while the duck lagged way behind, with the seafood selections fairly solidly in the middle. (Luckily we have duck on our regular menu!!) Desserts were very even - the ice cream with the salted brittle ran slightly ahead of the other two. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures - it was a little too hectic for that, unfortunately. Kevin and his crew worked very, very, very hard for two solid days to get ready and they really did a most fabulous job. They deserve a lot of the credit.
So, the Holly Daze are finally over. It was a good run this year, starting with that little Christmas Cartoon "Christmas comes but once a year " to be the overwhelming theme of the season. Slowly this week we'll take down the decorations, put away the Christmas CDs, finish up the eggnog and head into the thick of January. Before you know it, we'll be celebrating our first anniversary and the cycle of the seasons will begin all over again.
So, Happy 2008 to everyone, let's hope it's a good one!
So, how'd it go last night? I must say, it went absolutely amazingly well. Sure, a few glitches, a few lessons learned, and a few tables whose food did not come out in the timeliest fashion, but overall, considering it was the first time at Brooks Tavern for all involved, it went fine. Around 8PM I actually starting thinking to myself, "Hey, we might just pull this off". It wasn't until I started saying it out loud (knocking on a table or two of course) that things started to skew off course a little. What things? Well, such as one 8 o'clock table's order that didn't get put into the register when it should have, and no one noticed it until the server commented that a second 8 o'clock table was getting their entrees while the first one still had nothing. We got them going right away, reversing direction on courses to speed things along a little, but still, that wasn't good and could have been really bad if the people involved had been feeling ornery. All the tables for the 9 o'clocks weren't ready at 9, which was mostly because I really didn't allow enough time for the 6-tops to turn, but it wasn't too bad - I think we sat the last one at around 9:10. One of them had a too long wait for their first course, and they weren't too happy about that, but once they got it, everything else followed fine. A few other issues - mostly service related - and some confusion in the kitchen, but no nightmares like we've experienced in the past. I wore my 2008 tiara, which got a few snickers ("Are you picking up radio waves with that thing on your head?") but I didn't mind. At 10:00 I was able to open a bottle of the Gruet Rose for us and we could start to celebrate the evening's mostly successful completion.
What was popular? Well, as predicted, we sold 47 orders of the baked oysters! But we didn't run out, we didn't run out of anything, which was amazing. Things were pretty evenly divided - the oysters were by far the most popular first course, with the shrimp consommé being the least. Entree wise, the lamb and the steak were pretty much neck and neck, while the duck lagged way behind, with the seafood selections fairly solidly in the middle. (Luckily we have duck on our regular menu!!) Desserts were very even - the ice cream with the salted brittle ran slightly ahead of the other two. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures - it was a little too hectic for that, unfortunately. Kevin and his crew worked very, very, very hard for two solid days to get ready and they really did a most fabulous job. They deserve a lot of the credit.
So, the Holly Daze are finally over. It was a good run this year, starting with that little Christmas Cartoon "Christmas comes but once a year " to be the overwhelming theme of the season. Slowly this week we'll take down the decorations, put away the Christmas CDs, finish up the eggnog and head into the thick of January. Before you know it, we'll be celebrating our first anniversary and the cycle of the seasons will begin all over again.
So, Happy 2008 to everyone, let's hope it's a good one!
Barbara and Kevin, We had a wonderful time at new year's eve dinner with you!!We always do,dont we? Everything was delicious,and timely. The place looked lovely--your bells are great, as are the geese!!!
ReplyDeleteHere's to a peaceful and happy 2008.
Binnie and Eddie