That and This

• We get so many comments/compliments on the bread, from the ciabatta rolls that we use at lunch for bacon mozzarella sandwiches to the crusty loaves we serve with entrees at night. The hamburger rolls hold up so well to our huge burgers and the long rolls are perfect for the crab roll - we've even had "Mainers" tell us our crab roll is as good as the best lobster roll they've had on the Maine coast, partly because the roll itself was so good! Many people contribute to this cacophony of bread that escapes from our kitchen every day - the first person might mix up the flour measured out the night before, someone else will take the proofed dough and shape it into rolls or loaves and another cook will bake off the loaves at the end of the cycle. It's a team effort that results in bread we all enjoy.

• Some of you may be waiting with baited breath (bated breath...what the heck is that? Gotta love the internet - and gotta love the idea of "baited" breath too, eh?) concerning our switching credit card processors, a topic first introduced on July 1. We are still going to go with First Data; my contact Nick (poor guy, I bet he is sorry he was the one to pick up the phone the day I called...) has sent me comparisons of what we pay now and what we could be paying, to show we would save hundreds of dollars a month by going with First Data. Wow, that is impressive. And be PCI Compliant too? Oh, wait, that doesn't figure into it...and does this rate include Reward Cards? Oh. And how about if we manually key in cards? Still a lot more expensive, eh? Well, that's normal...but no statement fee, no nickle for that dime for this. But wait, the paperwork I'm about to sign and fax doesn't have the same rates as the email comparison does...oh, you made a mistake there? Okay. Oh, 2.86% instead of 2.74. Oh, that's not so bad, we'll still save hundreds, eh? See why this process is taking me over a month to complete? And now we have to pay almost a grand to upgrade our Digital Dining software to meet the standards of First Data, which we probably would have had to do anyway to become PCI compliant...and of course we are also going to be breaking our contract with Global, which means we'll have to pay the basic fees to them every month anyway until May 2010...But in the end, I hope, hope it will be worth it and we will actually save on Credit Card Processing, the land of no understanding.

• Tomatoes have been pretty good this year, don't you think? I don't know if that blight that has been affecting crops north of us has been found here, but so far so good in our garden.

• The recent training of new staff members is winding down; now it's time for the non-stop fine-tuning. I suppose training is really non-stop, for all of us. We are constantly trying new ways to make things work better; little things like using stations on week nights to help keep the servers organized, or bringing cocktails before talking about the specials, or putting an "extra plate" button on the salad page so you don't have to go somewhere else on the screen, all contribute to a hopefully better experience for the guest. But boy, that training of three-at-once new employees is very, very stressful.

• Kevin's recent Wednesday prix-fixe menu had a decided southern twist - from Creole tartar sauce on the catfish fingers (who even knew that catfish had fingers!) to the praline cream on the bread pudding. Delicious.

• And on a final note, we are certainly looking forward to the opening of LuLu's, in the space where our good friend Andy used to hang out. We understand the "brewhaha" (haha) swirling around the situation, but you know, we need a bar downtown and we need it to serve good food late night. It might not be "Andy's", but I am sure it will be fine. We will be there.