Hey Team! Saturday night at Fat Tommy's, one of our servers walked up to a four-top and said, "Do you want to see the dessert menu?" Flat. No eye con…
Hey Team! You spent six months building a relationship with a farm forty miles outside the city. You drove out there yourself. You shook hands with t…
Hey Team! Mediterranean menus are beautiful. They're also a minefield, and I say that with genuine respect for the cuisine. When a guest asks "does a…
Hey Team! Friday night at a tasting menu restaurant is its own kind of pressure. You've got eight courses, maybe ten, each one with a story that star…
Hey Team! Tableside service is one of the most powerful things you can do in a dining room. When it's done right, the whole room watches. When it's d…
Hey Team! A wrong dine-in order is uncomfortable. A wrong takeout order is a disaster nobody sees coming until it's already three miles away and the …
Hey Team! Family restaurants run on the same forty questions every week. You know them before I even say them. "Can you do that without onions?" "Is …
Hey Team! A guest sits down at your best table on a Friday night, looks up from the menu, and asks your server: "What's the difference between the ri…
Hey Team! Saturday morning at 8am and you've got a new hire on the espresso machine. A guest walks up and orders a cortado. Your new person smiles, n…
Hey Team! Your best server has been running tables since before some of your line cooks got their driver's licenses. She knows the menu. She knows th…
Hey Team! Rotating tap lists are one of the best things you can do for your bar program. They create regulars who come back just to see what's new. T…
Hey Team! Most servers are terrified of wine. Not because they're not smart. Because nobody ever gave them a framework that fits in their head while …
Hey Team! Saturday night at Fat Tommy's, maybe eight months ago. Table of four, peak service, every seat in the house full. Server puts in an order f…
Hey Team! I've watched a lot of wine programs fail quietly. Not with a bang. Just with servers who shrug and say "our house red is good" when a guest…
Hey Team! Every server gets asked this within five minutes of a table sitting down. "What's good here?" Four words. And I'd bet serious money that in…
