winter in april...

just when you thought spring had sprung... old man winter shows up for another kick at the can.

IS THERE NO END??
gratefully, cold pushes people through our doors... theory has it, it's warm & toasty in a bakery. We are, however, desperately looking forward to spring & summer and SUNSHINE and WARMTH.

we didn't get any snow that stayed this weekend - at least, not yet - so we can't complain a LOT... but it's biting cold out for the last half of April, and the wind is far too chilly.

And... we just bought new patio furniture to replace the old wooden stumps that have thus far passed as tables out there! I think so far just 8 people have tried it out.

Do come on down and visit - even if it's winter-like...
this CANNOT last forever...

can it?

welcome, amy!

Yay!! We've got an extra hand who also happens to come with a cheerful, helpful, humourous attitude and great work ethic. Her name is Amy and we're very happy to welcome her aboard.

playing with my head...

I suppose it's true... there IS a restaurant god... or a whole bevy of them.

And they're playing with my head these days.

Things were going along swimmingly... spring break was better than usual, easter weekend was great, and the week AFTER spring break & easter - which is traditionally a deadzone - was really quite busy (comparatively speaking). I was feeling really encouraged and buoyed by the idea that maybe we'd have a better spring than last year... (from which we're still recovering).

Then it all tanked. Sales went to HALF what they were in that week after easter... with no apparent reason why.

And they stayed that way.. it wasn't just a day or two, it was almost two full weeks!

Then today, just as I'm on the verge of panic (tho i'm trying really really hard to accept, surrender, trust and be thankful) we had a very acceptable day - a higher than average day for this time of year, in fact, a decent day for the busy times of year... so my hope and faith are stayed again.

Some days i get the feeling that the restaurant gods are just testing me...
to see if i have what it takes for this work.

i prefer the days when i'm confident that i'm at the head of the class.

taming the wild beastro

what's a wild beastro, anyway?

that would be me or ian after too many nights in a row of not enough sleep and too many mornings where lack of sleep caused stupidity and clouded judgment.

we've had a few of those lately... staying up too late discussing our future, our plans, goals & vision... and how we're gonna achieve them when there are not enough people coming through the door every day.

but WAIT - let me make one thing very very clear...
WE HAVE AWESOME CUSTOMERS. We would never have survived the first two years without the amazing, loyal, supportive, helpful people who come through our door on a highly regular basis... When I say "not enough people coming through the door," it is not meant in any way to discount the steadfastness of these people who've stuck by us through the winter doldrums that are part and parcel of the restaurant business.

Now that we have that settled... we could use some more of you!
It's been a rough year, and a particularly rough winter... financially anyway. We made some less than prudent choices in the past 12 months which are coming back to haunt us. Suffice to say, we're learning some hard lessons right now and we'd really like to be able to say we've LEARNED them so we can move on to the next lesson.

Sadly, that's not the case quite yet.
Right now we're learning - well, I'm learning - that there is no room in this business for people who are unfocused or undisciplined. My only resolution this year was to be more disciplined... and in some ways i am, but I'm noticing that my attention to that task has waned significantly since the beginning of the year.
Being more disciplined would help me get more done in a day.
Being more disciplined would likely help us get more customers through the door... because i'd have the signage fixed, and the advertising placed, and the tablecloths ironed, and the display cooler crystal clear and shiny... and so on and so on...

But instead... i'm here at 10:46 pm, waiting for a cake to chill so i can finish frosting it so it will be ready for pick up at 7am... and instead of doing something like build an ad, or design the signage, or print some menus, or create summer picnic packages... i'm writing a blog.

hm.
yep, i'm easily swayed by technology... i've been that way since at least 1983.
you could say it's my non-nicotine addiction... ian smokes, i hang out on the computer... they're probably equally as bad for us.

and probably what keeps us each sane.