Things are getting a little crazy these days down at the Mill. Crazy crazy crazy. The kitchen floor was poured on Friday, only to be unacceptable to the Health Department, in it's present, too gritty form. So, they will have to come back and add another coat of the epoxy, which will have to dry in time for the kitchen installers arrival...tomorrow? Meanwhile, the bar is being built even as we speak and the rest of the built-in furniture - booths and banquettes - will be arriving...tomorrow? Meanwhile we have our big Fortessa delivery...today...with no place to put it except in the back of the van...or the car. Luckily we've been able to postpone everything else that had been scheduled for this week, including the second date we'd selected for Kevin's so-call birthday party...'cause you know, we need lights and water and bathrooms for anything like that. Not to mention doors that lock and phones that ring and stoves that heat and walk-ins that chill. So, postponement is our friend. Still, it is very frustrating - we have very little control over the events that are controlling our life at the moment and not much recourse when things are delayed except to delay other things behind them. Calvin and Forrest are getting a little tired of us.
Today we were supposed to be up in New Castle training on our POS system at Delaware Business Systems, but, you guessed it - we postponed it...til next week. Instead we are hanging out at the site, waiting for pigs to fly. We've spent the last two Saturdays holding our "job fairs" in the hopes of attracting some employees who are ready to gamble on a new job. And that, so far, has gone very well. We've really had some terrific applicants for just about every position and we couldn't be happier about that. We've told them not to quit their day jobs yet; but in a week or two we should be able to get into the training mode. We'll be meeting again with the new Sous Chef on Thursday - she seems to be a very dynamic and energetic woman who is talking the talk, and she is very excited to be on board. We're happy to have her! Part of the excitement of this whole thing is finding the right staff, and around here that can be one of the most difficult aspects, as I believe I have shared with you before! We make sure we tell each new applicant how hard we are to work for, that we are very demanding. No reason for anyone to be surprised a few days (hours?) into their new job, eh? So far that hasn't scared anyone away, which is a good sign of their fortitude.
Meanwhile, daffodils are out and spring seems to be quietly approaching. Late winter, early spring, sometime or another, we'll get this show on the road!
Finally, if you check your links to the right you will see that the Brooks Tavern web page is up and "live". While it is still a work in progress, it is pretty exciting for us to see it on the air. It has taken months to write - and it is a pretty simple HTML site - but it has been a lot of fun and the results are there for all to see. Eventually we'll have email and forms and even the menus posted, but for now it's enough to get the thing off the hard drive and into the WWW.
