A big shout out to the sidewalk plough driver. Yesterday I arrived at work, the plough had been by, so I went out and shoveled the sidewalk in front of the restaurant to remove the snow that piles up against the building that the plough does not get at and to clean all of the sidewalk right down to the pavement. Almost the moment I finished the plough came buy for another pass and basically moved snow from the pile at the curb back onto the sidewalk?!?!? Argh. It wasn’t a lot (picured above). It was sort of funny, actually.

Reviewing sales figures, we have just finished our slowest week since opening. And, January is more than 50% lower than September or October. Uffda.

Talking with others in the industry, this is sort of standard. January is always the worst month for the industry – it’s cold and it’s just post-Christmas. But, this year is the worst in some time, I am told. Too cold for too long and people are really tired of it. They simply are not going out as much as they would normally. The restaurant industry is always off between Christmas and Feb 14.

On top of this, I think, is the timing of snow and ice. The Flying Banzini is in a walking neighborhood. It seems that every time there has been a respite from the cold that there has been fresh snow or icy conditions on the sidewalks.

March really, really can’t come soon enough.