We had the windows open list night. Love the vibe with the windows open.

I had a great day at the restaurant yesterday. We continue to improve. Our service gets a little better each day and we have fewer mistakes – both from the kitchen and from the front of house. I ask everyone to be completely open with the customers and our customers have been really understanding. Looking back I would done staff training a little differently. Specifically, I would like my people to know the menu better. We often (me included) don’t know the names of the menu items that we are delivering to the table. This is my fault for picking whimsical names but it’s important.

How long are we permitted to use “We are new” as an excuse? I figure we can go with that until the end of September and then we have to be completely up to speed.

There continues to be a long list of little things. Inventory control, for instance. Chef Ryan Moore has a good handle on the kitchen requirements (except for the mayhem caused by the invasion of the beet people). The front end, though, needs to get a system in place. Beer, pop, and little things like receipt printer paper need to get worked out.

And, we need a management schedule. Who is managing the restaurant when?

Both of these should be settled by the end of the weekend, I think.

I have been a little busy. So much so that I utterly forgot my son Arthur’s birthday. We did dine at The Flying Banzini and even got the coveted window seat. Happy birthday, Arthur.

(L to R: Arthur, Oliver, Heather, and me).

Sitting in the window seat I sent about three couples back inside with wine. Unfortunately, our liquor license does not extend to the patio, it is indoor only. This is because I filed the application very early but did not include the patio at that time because it did not exist, nor had I applied for it. The process of extending the liquor license to the patio is at least thirty days long so there will not be chianti sipped on the sidewalk until spring 2014. I look forward to that as I have always loved urban sidewalk patios. We will add some flower boxes too.

Dave