Look at Nicole, so serious in her role Thursday night as tray runner! And well she should be, since it was another very busy weeknight - Burger Mania! - and another night of difficult service. I am just not sure what it has been, these three nights running, it just feels as though our timing is off. On Thursday part of the puzzle - for me, anyway - was that we had four large parties booked: 2 eights and 2 sixes. (One party of six I had to put on the tall tops, since there was no other option for them at 6:30.) I really don't miss the old days at the Ironstone trying to manage reservations. There are so many variable, so many ways things can go wrong. Here at BT I try to schedule reservations at least one half hour apart - an hour on the weekends - so we don't double up on large table orders coming into the kitchen. But when one of those parties is late arriving or incomplete or doesn't show up at all, it can put a real strain on the situation and the stress level goes up and up. At least we had a full crew on - see the tray runner pictured above - but we still had a few service glitches that weren't fun to deal with...
Here's part of the reason it was Thursday mania - the Special Burger! Kevin (or Brittany, rather, under Kevin's direction!) made a chile rub for the burgers, and then topped them with our great BBQ sauce, some coleslaw and our house made bread and butter pickles. It looked pretty decent, and it was very popular. We sold out of burgers just minutes before the night ended.
So, how did Friday go? Well, once we got the day long problem with the internet and credit card validation solved - just barely in time for dinner service, at 4:45 - and dealt with the fact that one of the line cooks would be out (a HUGE thank you to Angie, for once again stepping up to the plate!), we ended up with one of the slowest Friday nights we have ever had! We could blame it on the weather - there were rolling thunder storms coming through the area all night long, some great lightening shows and even a perfect rainbow. We could attribute it to the first pre-season game for the Ravens. Or it could just have been one of those nights. What ever the reason, we made the best of it, got out early, and went home with a bottle of wine to unwind and wonder what Saturday will bring.
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