Opening a Restaurant. day seven {for me}

Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five & Six.

Day Seven (WED):

6:50 am: wake up 40 minutes before alarm goes off. I have a sneaking suspicion we might be in the paper.

6:58 am: yes. the secret is out. on the front page of SF Gate and in the very first paragraph, there it all is. name of restaurant. our names. location.

7:02 am: on the phone with Michael, bleary eyed and excited and nervous and everything. the pressure is on. the roller coaster is cresting. no longer a secret, now I can speak candidly, with Everyone.

{I want to extend my eternal thank yous to those people who guessed and kept it to themselves. You know who you are. XX}

7:30 ish. get off phone, post SF Chronicle's Inside Scoop, take shower, do hair and eat a bowl of cereal. I am not hungry, in fact I feel a little queasy, but I eat anyway, because I know it will help the rest of my day.

8:20 am walk to BART. a heatwave is expected and BART is free. I buy three newspapers and go to work. I want to tell everyone on the train, but I leave them alone.

8:55 as I get up the stairs I hear a favorite Johnny Cash song. being belted out magnificently by two punk rock rockabilly fellows. I give them two dollars, listen a bit and take it as a very good omen for the day to come.

9 am. meet the gentlemen who deliver ice cream machine. it's a fine day indeed. there are some issues as to whether the capacity for the ic machine is what it says it is, but in the end it works out. I meet the restaurant's electrician and we sort out the equipment's needs in my room.

9:30 am interview.

10 am clean ic machine

10:30 am find out that our embroidered jackets have come in from Cayson. O The day Just Keeps Getting Better and Better!!!!!!

11 am interview. although he is terrifically late, so its more like 11:30 am   
    I am now very happy that i ate a bowl of cereal even though I wasn't hungry when I did so.

12-1 pm start calling back people I've interviewed and offer them the job if they still want it.

1-2 pm putz around doing odd jobs, answering the phone, organizing things, start peach sorbet prep.

2-2:15 pm partake in having my portrait taken for the website. We've hired Andrea Scher.

2:15-3 ish pm organize others who are having their picture taken.

3 ish to 3:30 eat some staff meal. mmmmmmmm savory recipe testing!

3:30 to 4 ish pm make phone calls looking for product, clean pastry station, make lists, then more lists.

4 ish to 5:20 pm poach 3 cases of peaches for peach sorbet.

5:35 walk across the street to meet friend in front of Ferry Building. although quite hungry for salty food, make one splurge and get a vanilla custard doughnut. have dinner with A., and get home near 9 pm.

(WED) day seven: 9 am - 5:30 pm
meals eaten: 3

highlights of day seven:

seeing my name in the paper, on-line and then for real

rockabilly punk rockers singing Johnny Cash

BART is free

Cayson Egyptian cotton chef jackets that fit and the logo looks great

seeing the Sens signs being put up on the building

getting lots and lots of comments on eggbeater

telling people they have a job with me and making them overjoyed

seeing a brand new ice cream machine in my station

hearing that my favorite 1/2 sheet oven is on the way

making a date with Michael to go to restaurant supply tomorrow morning (think kids and candy stores)

making a mock schedule for the pastry department based on everyone's skill level and time constraints

seeing the owner beaming

feeling, yes actually feeling the energy shift in the kitchen because of the newspaper

seeing a friend even though work is starting to eat my life

putting product in containers and making plans for churning sorbet

attitude on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best: 11

*

obviously today was an exceptional day. although we all still had to deal with the day-to-day frustrations of opening a restaurant it felt like a day on the clouds. it's been only seven days of working and it feels like much more.

thank you for coming along. your support and comments buoy me.

Comments

[Susan]

Shuna, I've been following your posts about this even though I haven't commented before, and I'm so excited for you. And of course looking forward to eating at Sens!

[Lori S.]

The bombolini didn't even make the highlights? Damn, that's one fine day indeed! :)

I am really excited for you. And I'm also really looking forward to eating at Sens, because you only nailed my favorite food region ever and all.

[haddock]

Gathering steam. Good for you. One interview tip I didn't send to you earlier. We have one hard-assed rule. We don't interview late arrivals. Even if they're late by 5 minutes. OK we did once, because the young woman hit a deer on her way and she worked out fine, but as a rule, punctuality starts at the interview.

[nicole]

Wow, so exciting! Congrats! And I look forward to checking out the new restaurant, esp. since I'm super enamored with food from that region :)

[tbtam]

Congrats! The menu sounds so interesting. What a great day you had!

[Tommy]

Shuna - Congratulations! This is surely very exciting for you, as it is for all of us who follow your exploits. You will rock the place, I'm certain. Have fun in the candy store tomorrow! And of course this also means one less person moving to Portland... Whew! ;-) Not that we wouldn't love having you, of course! Cheers!

[Julie]

Shuna, I'm thrilled for you. I love these posts -- the sense of being tired to the core, but tired in the right way with work that is real for you, makes sense to you, makes you think and ponder and ask questions about the work itself and the profession, too, that have bearing on the whole industry -- and in other fields too, if people will only think that way...anyway, congratulations.

[sugarbuzz]

I guessed correctly but didn't keep my mouth shut. I'm sorry. It was a complete shot in the dark. Who knew I'd be right?

Anyway..congratulations to you.

[vanessa]

mercy. shows you how out of touch I am with the blogosphere. Your own restaurant? Congratulations. Many good thoughts are going your way. And please don't forget to feed yourself!!!