Maybe we should call the place after our dog, Ruby. Lots of successful restaurants do that - Julia's in Centreville is one that comes to mind of course - it's a fun thing for restaurant owners to do. Espcecially owner-operators who know that their relationship with said dog will likely be changing dramatically with the opening of their eponymous House of Food.
We've been talking and talking our selves silly with this naming quandry. "Ruby's", cute as she is, is already taken, in one form or another. We've toyed with the Idea of using the historic "Ironstone Cafe" - which would be fairly easy, especially since there is already a listing under that name in the Phone Books, even though it was closed in 1997...(but that's another story...did you know you can keep a second listing for a business for years and years if you want to? even though said business is no longer in existence?) I can see the ads now - "As seen in the Phone Book for 20 years". However that would mean people would call that number under that listing and get a "wrong number", and what fun would that be? The logical thing, of course, is to work the Radcliffe Brand into the name for the Restaurant. So, until something better comes along, we've come up with Radcliffe Kitchen and Bar - what we call our "working title".
Along with the name game comes the menu descriptor. What kind of food is it going to be... That is one tough question that we get all the time and we just can't answer in a simple fashion. We need to get a phrase down. A sound bite. Something people can sink their teeth into, as it were.
Anyway, it's all about Buzz. There are people out there who follow the antics of people in the Hospitality Industry and all they do with an amazing amount of seriousness. And this Blogging Business has helped this trend along, IMO. I am a Blogger, obviously, and I also read/follow quite a few other Bloggers. My favorite Restaurant Blog is written by Frank Bruni of the New York Times; he's the current reviewer for the Times and his Blog is very well written and followed by lots of interesting, relevant comments contributed by his readers. Another NYC food blog is compiled by Jennifer Leuzzi, who's husband is a high-profile chef: her Blog is called Snack. And of course theres the Candy Blog... But it's not always about food - I also like to read Blogs that are put together by people who live half way (or all the way) around the world, like Vicky Todd from New Zealand who writes a Blog called Cannon Ball Mouth. She has her own adventures, and she doesn't mind sharing them with anyone who stumbles along. As you see, you can really get carried away with this Blogging thing, both writing and reading...
