Be Careful What You Wish For

So last night starts out kind of slow.  We're all sort of twiddling our thumbs, thinking "Oh well, everyone must be over at the Hotel eating sushi".  We have a couple of early tables, and as the first hour goes on, a few more drift in.  By 6:00 we have possibly four or five groups, and the long night looms ahead of us. 

In the end however, the night moves on rather quickly.  The diners begin arriving, and by 7:00 we are in full work mode - many tickets on the line to be fired, many needs to be met in the dining room.  Every table but one is in use by 7:30 and everyone is hustling their little hearts out. 

 Except for the dishwasher who went AWOL, maybe around 6:30, right when we were starting to get slammed.  Megan comes up to me, "Barbara, I think _______ has left".  Interesting news.  He's only worked here a few weeks, and we like him very much, haven't had any problems, just gave him and his work partner dinner, what's going on?  Is he in the bathroom?  out on the loading dock?  Nowhere to be seen, no call, no nothing.  I am on the phone, desperately calling in the reserves.  Debbie had just given me her new cell phone number - now I bet she is sorry she did! - and I reach her at 7:00; she arranges to leave the laundromat and come to our rescue.  Thank goodness.

In our long and storied history with dishwashers, I can't recall one walking out on the job, in the middle of the shift. Cooks, yes, at least twice.  One of our favorite tales is about the fellow at KVI who says to Kevin,  "I'm going to go move my truck", and never returns.   But it is highly unusual behavior, and we hope to find out today what exactly is going on. 

Meanwhile, Kevin and his crew sent out a really nice Wednesday prix-fixe.  First course was a mozzarella crostini, with basil and ricotta cheese.  I know these were good, because I was quite instrumental in their development - I must have eaten four or five of the "prototypes", from the first draft on a crouton to the final incarnation, as pictured below:

Tilapia followed, garnished with black olives and lemon beurre blanc.  Dessert was a slice of chocolate angel food cake with chocolate sauce.  Overall a popular Wednesday night menu.

The swordfish looked pretty inviting last night too, with it's Mediterranean dress of pine nuts and olive oil.

We got a super large box of asparagus from Redman's this week, which Kevin served roasted with a blob of melted mozzarella on top on Tuesday.  This time of year you could pretty much eat asparagus with every meal.  Hopefully the drought we are currently experiencing won't interfere with the asparagus production...

In other news, here is another Taste of the Town reminder.  Sunday April 29th in Fountain Park.  We are going to be making peanut butter cookie ice cream sliders, featuring Kilby Cream vanilla ice cream and our own gluten-free cookie.   We are also going to be selling our latest t-shirt, which the wonderful folks at BayCraft helped us design last December when we did our annual shirt order for our staff's Christmas.  This fabulous t-shirt was actually years in the making, and it wasn't until we enlisted BayCraft's help that we were successful.  If you have never dealt with this small, independent Rock Hall business, you need to check out their website and see what they are doing.  They are a local treasure.

Burger Mania tonight!  Will it be busy or slow?  Life holds many surprises, and we'll just have to wait and see what the rest of the week holds for us at Brooks Tavern.  Will the mystery of the disappearing dishwasher be solved?  Can Kevin grind enough meat for the onslaught we expect for Burger Night?  Will some critical piece of equipment let us down?  can all of our staff make it in to work?  will all our orders be delivered complete?   Will we make it to the weekend intact?  We never know what will happen next, and that keeps us in a constant state of excitement. 

 We wouldn't have it any other way.