Dear Feastlings,
As someone who habitually finds every last wisp of dark cloud behind a given silver lining, it comes as no surprise to me that, just as Newtonian physics proclaims an equal and opposite reaction to every action, every negative comes coupled with a positive. I’ve just spent the past fifty-some years only noticing the negative.
If I had any sense- and I’m gradually acquiring some each year- I’d teach myself to focus on that positive. Today’s bike ride found me at a railroad crossing for longer than I wanted to be at one, craning my neck to try and find an end to the railroad cars as a train chugged relentlessly by and watching the shimmer of heat radiating upward from asphalt when I gave up and realized that I’d be further stymied by that other Newtonian basic, momentum. So I failed that test. I moped and groused. But as I sit down to tell you all about today’s wine tasting
and encourage you last-minute stragglers to attend, it occurs to me that that miserable heat is also a further enticement to abandon your hopes of eating on a perfect patio, or going on an afternoon stroll, against which a wine tasting or a light lunch at Feast appears suddenly rather more pleasant than it did a month or so ago.
I’m not proud of it, but long have I rooted for snow and sleet and other crappy weather in the Midwest and the East each November, in hopes of extracting another week of business from those of you who come to escape shoveling snow and staying indoors. The only difference in rooting for that miserable baking feeling that drives people into an air-conditioned restaurant is that I’m stuck in that heat myself. And really, I sort of deserve it after hoping for an early miserable winter elsewhere in the country to drive more guests to settle into their winter digs in Tucson.
Whether or not I’m a good person, though, the fact remains: today is an ideal day to come to lunch, or the wine tasting, and soak up the Great Indoors. Or even to just swing by, pick up your samples and bolt before the car heats up again, and run home to taste along with us when you log in here:
Topic: Acid test
Time: May 14, 2022 02:00 PM Arizona
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I’ll remind you now that the next few Sundays- we don’t yet know how many- we will be shuttered in order not to drive away the overworked staff who remain here as we try to rebuild some sense of normalcy and get our new folk trained and comfortable; this way, with any luck, you’ll continue to get the quality of food and service you’ve come to expect here over the years on the days that we *are* open, and before you know it, we’ll be back to a six-day week with a crew composed of happy people who only have to work five of them. Wish us luck; people have started answering ads again, though only a small percentage actually show up for their interview, and a smaller one shows up on day one if they’re hired. Yesterday, we talked to someone about coming in and getting started only to have him change his mind over the course of two hours and evaporate like David Copperfield. Maybe these people should consider careers in Magic.
Anyhow, we’re here today and gone tomorrow, only in the most literal sense, and then back again on Tuesday to get more people trained and inserted back into the Sunday roster.
In the meanwhile, today’s hot and unpleasant- the perfect moment to come say hello to us. See you soon.
Love,
Doug