When I first started out in the restaurant business, my big brother told me he would make me his Assistant Manager in his Sambo’s restaurant after learning how to do everything. And I do mean everything. From the parking lot, trash dumpsters, dishwashing, mopping, I mean I did not get one break from Ed. IContinue reading “Not in My Contract”
Category Archives: food service
Staying Put
I make no apologies for the way I am wired. You must take your complaints to a much higher level than myself. In the height of my career in restaurant management, I was flattered to receive several offers from other restaurants and I took five flights for interviews. The first was in Charlotte, North Carolina.Continue reading “Staying Put”
Choices
At least in a democratic society we are supposed to have many choices; that is what a democracy is all about after all. For some unknown reason, no one has ever approached me to ask my opinions on Roe v Wade. Here they are: Firstly, no man should be a part of the legislative processContinue reading “Choices”
Rainy Season
The painters show up for day two and they already have the walls, trim, and ceilings done with the first coat. So they are really going at a fast clip and it looks like we might get it wrapped up by Friday. One of the lads professes to be a Fighting Irish football fan. IContinue reading “Rainy Season”
My Favorite Sandwich
When I was training to be a chef in the Las Vegas casinos in the late 70’s I had to perform and master all the stations of a kitchen. My final exam for the boucher (butcher) station was the breakdown of a pig corpse into, well everything edible. Pork rinds to sweetbreads. Now breaking downContinue reading “My Favorite Sandwich”
Fringe Bennies
There are benefits that come with good (read: high-paying) jobs. Usually, the higher-paying the job, the better the bennies. Not usually, higher. I was fortunate in my chef career to have befriended and worked for several very rich people. Diamond Danny owned forty-seven restaurants around the globe, and all of them were in coastal communities.Continue reading “Fringe Bennies”
Tipped Employees
I am a good tipper. I was taught by my mom that you did not accept service from someone without compensating them. We always had money to go out AND tip for services rendered. And we weren’t rich by any means. Of the many jobs I worked in my life, it’s hard to beat musician,Continue reading “Tipped Employees”
The Bike Ride From Hell
I was thirty-two years old and had the body of a coke-fueled alcoholic on the fast track to The End. I had not lifted a weight since I was nineteen years old and I soaked my body nightly in Seagram’s VO, Elephant Beer, and other people’s girlfriends. I was dating my wife-to-be for all ofContinue reading “The Bike Ride From Hell”
Ice
Where would we be if there was no such thing as ice? Warm beer. (But if you know anything at all about beer, that is a good thing). But no cold lager. Them’s fighting words. Ice storms would just be storms and those old ice skates in your closet would never have been made inContinue reading “Ice”
The Return of Maddogg
We know the Satin Latin is back, but guess who showed up at an open mic tonight in the coolest little venue I have ever lifted a guitar in? Maddogg is back. Two days removed from the Cardiovascular post-op ICU I finally make my way out to a little town called Pleasant Plain. (I wishContinue reading “The Return of Maddogg”
