Last night we held a buyout at The Pineapple Room. These big events do many things for our small restaurant company. It forces us to do something out of the ordinary.
We always create a menu that includes some things on it just to see if people might like it, and we always learn something. For some reason, the sausage orechiette with arugula was my surprise of the night. People liked it even though it was a very simple dish.
These events also require many bodies and it was most gratifying to see all the admin and support staff volunteering to help out to execute this enormous menu and event. It also stretches people’s minds as to what is possible. If you only see the restaurant running daily as it is, then you throw out this kind of event and menu, the first reaction is usually, “How are we going to do it?” Well, now they know we can.
An enormous amount of planning and communication needs to happen, so we also learn how do to get everyone on the same page. Bringing different facets of the company together and having everyone check their egos at the door also reinforces the concept of teamwork.
All in all, if the customer is happy, so am I. And if we push ourselves to do bigger and better things, we grow, and I am also happy with that.
~ AW