Dear Feastlings,
I’m not fool enough to believe that anyone has escaped having a crappy couple of years, nor am I blind to the likelihood that we’ve probably got another rough patch ahead of us, collectively speaking. I am, however, fool enough to believe that eventually, we mostly adjust to what good or ill fortune has been handed to us.
Like anyone else, with each new threat to Feast’s well-being, and to that of my friends and coworkers here, fear and anxiety have ballooned in my head until my eyes were bugging out, but after a time, the swelling goes down whether the stimulus remains or not.
I had a conversation the other day that began the way a lot of my conversations begin: “How’s the restaurant?” And all the same things are going on- it’s summertime, so it’s quiet; Covid is still circulating, so it’s still working it’s way through the staff; people are still job-hopping, so we’re still short-handed; food and labor costs are still going up all the time, so we’re still robbing Peter to pay Paul. What’s different, I noticed, is that it’s not jarring to me anymore- it’s just part of running a restaurant. Like most of us have done, I’ve settled in.
What used to induce panic and insomniac nights now maybe gets an eyebrow lift in mild consternation. I know we still can’t seem to get open on Sundays. I know we don’t have the staff to put together another donation run. But I know we’ll get back to that point sooner or later. We still have enough support, both that of guests who’ve made the effort to come support us in our slow season, and that of staff who’ve either continued to work overtime or left us but still dropped in to help us out in a pinch.
So when you come in next, you won’t need to ask how the restaurant is doing, you’ll know. You can ask how it’s going, I’ll shrug, and we’ll all lean our collective shoulder into pushing things back into some semblance of normality.
Case in point: as if it were an August like any other, we’ll have a wine tasting today, and you’re still welcome to jump in on it.
If you’ve already got your samples in hand and you’re joining us through the magic of technology, you’ll need this:
Topic: Ferragosto di nuovo
Time: Aug 13, 2022 02:00 PM Arizona
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87295770456?pwd=THBjc0hRZEt3ZzNRMWtHLy9qYTVKdz09
Meeting ID: 872 9577 0456
Passcode: 381363
And then tomorrow, despite our summer staffing difficulties and our hopefully short-lived moratorium on opening Sundays, tomorrow will be spent saluting the Italian food and wine culture with a special menu:
The dinner hour is looking a rather thickly populated, but we do open at 11 am, and what is linguine alla carbonara, really, but breakfast pasta? You can make a reservation for tomorrow’s festivities, or for today’s wine tasting, by calling us at (520) 326-9363. Live a little.
And thanks, all of you, for keeping us afloat in this *still* difficult and frustrating time. It’s nice to have friends.
Il vostro buon’amico,
Doug