THE WATERBOY

Thank you

Just a quick note to say thank you to all who weighed in and responded to the Bread Blog.  Not the biggest deal in the world right now, but big enough, I guess.  I'm always humbled by the fact that people read my occasional rants and take tht time to offer their thoughts-insight-suggestion.  It's great.  This is what keeps me hopeful - This is what I love about my restaurant, my life.

-Rick

Water and Flour

Been thinking a lot about bread lately. Ours is baked every day by our good friends at Grateful Bread. We’ve had the pleasure of serving our customers their great, delicious Pugliese for 8 or so years now. That and some organic butter from Sierra Nevada Cheese Company. Here’s how it usually goes in the dining room. Your party sits down and maybe you order a drink, then your food, and shortly thereafter one of our bright young backwaiters stops by and asks if you’d care for bread with your meal. ( I make them ask; it’ll make sense soon enough)

Most folks accept the offer, some ask for more, and a small percentage say no. We’re more than happy to provide you with as much as you’d like - here’s the rub: I’d say at least 25-30% gets thrown away. Lots of it untouched. This breaks my heart (not really, it’s bread, but still...). People work really hard to make it. They pour their heart and soul into it. We pay for it. Quite a lot actually. I kid you not, the amount of bread that ends up in the garbage every evening in staggering!

I’ve toyed with the idea of charging for bread. Really, I’ve given this more thought over the years than anyone would believe. I know folks out there will say that the bread cost is built into the price of an entree - I’m not so sure. If you think about it, bread (and everything else for that matter) must be built into the cost of everything a restaurant charges for, i.e. PG&E, SMUD, rent, insurance, etc. The thing I’d like to accomplish is to elevate people’s awareness of how wasteful we can be if given the opportunity to not think about something.

At OneSpeed, we make focaccia every day, charge a really fair price, and use it all. Since day one, folks have accepted it and I never (well, hardly ever) see it being tossed. If a table doesn’t finish it, they take it home. Can’t see why it wouldn’t work here. It’s not as though I’d even mark it up ($1.00 per person) - just the idea that a person would be contributing part of the equation would be enough. I’m pretty sure the garbage can would see a lot less bread. Thanks all, just some thoughts. I’m not planning on doing this soon, or ever. I just wanted to get some dialogue going.

Thanks for your continued support of our little restaurant.

-Rick

Shootin' From The Hip

Read a story in the Chronicle last week about restaurants, their customers and special requests - the gist being it's becoming more and more common for diners to come in, sit down, look over the menu and proceed to create their own entrees based on their likes, dislikes, needs or current dietary whims or restrictions.  Several restaurateurs were interviewed and as you might imagine, lots of different thoughts all coming together to pose the questions...Is the customer always right?  Hmmm...nobody is always right.  I used to work for a guy that said "I'm not always right but I'm always boss".  My own take on the always right customer is "The customer isn't always right, but they usually get their way."

We have a great customer base: they've been with us for pert near fourteen years now and I get all tongue-tied with I look for the words to express my gratitude.  No way we'd be here without them.  That said, we Waterboys and girls are not completely shielded from the occasional knucklehead - It's just the way it is.  We can have a Third Thursday or special dinner menu posted for three weeks and we'll still get someone sitting down and inform us they're allergic to pork, carbs, garlic, salt, ice, etc. - you get the picture.  As service folk, we're here to take care of you, our guests.  It's what we do - it's who we are.  I'd just like to pass this along..If there is a special request, need, desire or change of a menu item, let us know as soon as possible: email, fax, tin cans with string attached - doesn't matter, we'll do our best to get you taken care of.

Hope you enjoy the new menu - it'll be the last spring offering so there's lots of peas, favas, strawberries, etc. before summer arrives.  June brings us corn and summer squash, more cherries, peaches, etc.

Talk with you soon, and as always thanks for your continued support!

It's become pretty common to walk into a restaurant, look over a menu and read all about (in every dish!) farmers and ranchers supplying the great ingredients used by the restaurant to produce their food.  This is a great, albeit over-done, practice.  I know, I'm guilty of it, I've done it, I'm trying to do it less because I'm beginning to find it distracting and also think it's becoming cliche; I'm just leaning towards educating my staff as best I can so they'll be well equipped to answer all the questions you, our guests, may have pertaining to where, how and when the ingredients were brought to us.

We'll always list a few of our long time food-love interests because sometimes it's just appropriate...but this month, for many reasons, I'd like to acknowledge an equally important part of this whole restaurant love-fest -- You, the customer.  It ain't a secret, restaurants and most other businesses aren't having easy times right now, most are adjusting, some aren't, some are closing, most aren't.  I could go on and on but lucky for you, I won't -- I'd just like to, on a very personal level (as personal as words on a blog can be) thank you all, you guests, friends and like minded folks, for your continued support of my restaurants and my staff. 

Obviously, we wouldn't be here and couldn't be here without you.  We don't, and never will, take you for granted.  Cheers to you and hope to see you soon.

-Rick