Dear Feastlings,
While we’ve fallen behind a bit over staffing shortages, we’re little by little reassembling a kitchen crew, and some of them are actually people from the restaurant industry. I’ve been reading articles that confirm what I’ve long figured was fact, but knew only from a handful of firsthand interactions: according to this article, at least,
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/20/40percent-of-us-workers-are-considering-quitting-their-jobs-soon-where-theyre-going.html
48% of people leaving their jobs are leaving for a new industry. I’m all for people discovering the Thing They’re Meant To Do, but it means there’s a wellspring of incompetence, or learning curve, depending on your outlook on life, in nearly every industry. Including ours. The good news, though, is that Feast has historically attracted food nerds in the kitchen, and while we’ve had no small number of applicants whose background has been in shelf stocking, landscaping and chain restaurants, the ones who’ve shown up on days two and three are profoundly excited about food. So even though we’ll have to teach them how to use a mandoline without losing a fingertip, or the importance of spreading out the rice you just cooked into a shallow pan and cooling it immediately, at least they’re interested in learning and internalizing it.
Before long, we’ll be back on track, and we’ll have enough staff to reopen Sundays (not yet, though,) and get back on the calendar with our donation runs, and prepare for Ferragosto. In the meantime, we’re holding it together enough to continue our Saturday wine tastings, including this Saturday’s tasting, four picks by four of the people who bring us wine week after week.
and the Last Sunday tasting, a prelude to the aforementioned Ferragosto.
And for now, at least, we’re keeping the crew healthy and employed, which any of you who own or run a small business know is a tightrope act to be reckoned with. So Tuesday through Saturday, there’s lunch and dinner both to be had,
https://www.eatatfeast.com/dining/menus/lunch-dinner/
and a continued summer deal in the bottle shop on wine and spirits.
Now. Stay cool and healthy, and visit us when you can, and know that, twenty-eight months later, we’re still inching toward being recognizable as the restaurant we once were.
Thanks, everyone.
Love,
Doug