Dear Feastlings,
The moon, far away as it is, exerts a massive pull on us all. Tides rise and fall. Our sleep wobbles. Our blood pressure changes. And we’re bonkers.
Speaking as someone who’s worked in restaurants for over forty years, I’ve watched it nearly five hundred times now. I see it with guests and with staff, with sales reps and delivery drivers.
Emilia was right when she said it to Othello: “It is the very error of the moon. She comes more nearer earth than she was wont. And makes men mad.”
I stepped out into the chilly night air Monday night and felt my spirits sink. There was the moon, *nearly* full. the menu was set to change yesterday, and today a wine dinner. And I knew it would go sideways. By seven-thirty the next morning, I’d gotten a text from the fourth person to call in sick for the day, and we hit the ground running, but not running fast enough to get my own job done. So that first-Tuesday email you usually get extolling the virtues of the new menu never came,
https://www.eatatfeast.com/dining/menus/lunch-dinner/
and I didn’t get the chance to remind you who were on the fence that we have a wine dinner tonight
(though now we’ve had four cancellations, so there’s room for up to eight more of you if that approaching full moon has sent a ripple of whimsy through your brain.)
We also hope to put together a wine tasting this weekend,
to remind you about Christmas food that should be ordered sooner than later, especially if you intend to have some Christmas Goose,
https://www.eatatfeast.com/events/categories/holiday-menus/
and grab one of the five remaining seats at the second Rogue Theatre benefit dinner, a proprietary interpretation of Babette’s Feast, the first one having sold out already.
Meanwhile, I’ll get back into the kitchen, where we’re down only three today rather than four, and we’ll make this tasty wine dinner, plan whatever else we can, and hope for our small crew of walking wounded to come limping back to the line and prep tables, sharpening their knives, icing their bruises, and tightening their bandages to hunker down and work through this last stretch of the holiday season.
Love,
A moon-rattled Doug and the remaining few who came in to work today