Subjectivity

This business is all about one thing, making people happy. That's it, very simple. It could be as straightforward as making a perfect cup of coffee for someone on an early Sunday morning or as elaborate as arranging a flawless event for someone to celebrate as special moment in their lives. While that may sound easy, the steps involved to make each person who visits the restaurant happy is numerous. Consider this, I had a guest last week who thought the food was fantastic but the sound of a servers shoes on the hard wooden floor annoyed her to no end and that little thing was a huge thing to her(note: he has new shoes now). Conversely, I recently had a guest who found the service by a particular staff to be gracious and warm, while another guest found the same person to be cold and inattentive.

The complexities of human interaction and the perception of similar circumstances and events are fascinating to me. These complexities pose a challenge to me and my staff and we constantly talk about how to "read" certain tables for clues on how they would like to be served. This of course takes experience and time as well as an innate ability to anticipate the needs of someone who you just came into contact with. What this also means is that everybody has different expectations, whether it be of the food, service or ambiance.

We are all formulating a subjective response to the situation. I strongly believe in the products, people and place that we have here at Spruce and when we fail to meet a guests expectations I am honestly very hurt. I also believe that we can't be everything to everyone. We are who we are and while some people may think we are great others may think differently and that's ok. All we can do is move forward and look at ways to become better and act accordingly. I think as a restaurateur you must be confident in your product and not be afraid to feel strongly about the services and products you provide. But, you also must be humble and admit when you were wrong and make it right. Till next time.

The next step

We have started to settle in at the restaurant and our days are becoming more routine. I have finally had some time to refine some of the dishes, look at possible new ones and more or less get back to cooking everyday. My goal was always to keep the food fresh and exciting and by that I mean not only on a purely product level, but continuing to evolve and change dishes as we go in rhythm with the seasons or just from inspiration.

A few new ideas play around the concept of our burger. While we think the Spruce burger is great, we all know that burgers can be a wonderful canvas for supporting many different flavors. I have always wanted to reference some of the great burgers I have had from other places and as such will start tomorrow with the introduction of the "Fathers Office" Burger. A homage if you will to the now famous Los Angeles Institution serving its burger with a caramelized onion and bacon compote with blue cheese and garlic mayonnaise. Stop in and tell me what you think.

My team and I have also started to explore foods and flavors of our childhood to bring back and put a twist on, so this week for brunch we will be featuring Blueberry Waffles with Real Maple Syrup, Vanilla Ice Cream and Homemade Streusel and Warm Buttermilk Biscuits with Poached Eggs and our Homemade Sausage Gravy.

Please feel free to ask for me if you have been reading the blog. I always love to meet new guests. Cheers!