Have I mentioned that I’m helping to open a restaurant/lounge in the heart of San Francisco? I have not. A rather major oversight, you might say, but within the round-the-clock multi-tasking juggernaut that is my life, it’s really only one more ball to keep in the air.
My brother-in-law owns the place–it’s a great space South of Market, nearby clubs, galleries, offices, studios… The previous owner under-utilized it for years, and still made a profit. Now we get to see whether a complete revamp, organic Mediterranean menu, super-premium bar and different demographic target will improve upon the old concept, or stagger under the weight of its own ambitions. I hope it’s not the latter, since a lot of the new ideas are mine.
We did a pre-opening party a couple weeks ago, and I was pleased to discover that the locals are definitely the Ketel One and Patron Silver crowd. They drank us out of top-shelf liquor within hours. Excellent. I began calling my contacts within the super-premium liquor niche almost immediately. “Tastings? Theme nights? Food pairings? Use your imagination,” I told them.
Now–with about a month to go until the soft opening and the construction workers representing in full force–it’s time to start setting meetings, I think. Except. Our bar manager has professed a sudden aversion to specialty cocktails: “I’m a meat-and-potatoes bartender…I don’t know how to do this stuff.”
This is a 180 degree reversal from his position three weeks ago–at that time, he told me that everything on the specialty cocktail menu would be made with real fruit and fresh-squeezed juices, and that he was putting a permanent ban on Cuervo Gold and Jaegermeister.
I’m chalking it up to nerves. Tonight, we’re taking baby steps toward a cocktail menu. “Nothing needs to be set in stone right now,” I told him. We just need to have a basic concept. NOT one that has anything to do with potatoes. Leave potatoes to the chef. He’s a James Beard nominee, a Culinary Institute instructor and a diva, and though he can make me tear my hair out sometimes, his instincts with spuds are right on the money.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 11:29 am and is filed under Strategery, The Restaurant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
