Dear Feastlings,
Our days have been looking more or less the same as ever. Two people are leaving Feast, one of her own volition and one against his, and two new people have started and seem to know what they’re doing. We placed another ad and the floodgates opened- applicants aplenty, though the majority of them have their experience in nail salons (nail tech,) dispensaries (trimmer,) hotels (housekeeper,) warehouses (the same forklift operator who’s applied to three other posts,) and on and on. Of the first seventeen applicants, four have worked in restaurants, and of those, two have worked in a restaurant for more than three months at a time.
That said, two years ago, you’d have had to mop my tears of joy from the floor beneath me had seventeen people applied to a job post. We were desperate to hire anyone with a pulse. Anyhow, little by little, we’re replacing the people who need to take a break outside to smoke enough pot to get them through the evening without risking a moment of sobriety, and replacing them with people who seem to be genuinely excited about food, so I’ll regard 2024 as getting started on the good foot.
We survived the holiday season here, and the restaurant is blessedly calm just now, and I should have time this week to post the menu for the wine dinner we have coming up on Wednesday the 17th, and maybe getting a head start on some other upcoming events in January February, March and April- another benefit dinner for the Rogue Theatre, a Tablas Creek wine dinner, a dinner both here at Feast and down at Callaghan Vineyards if we can get that put together with Kent and Lisa Callaghan, and another benefit dinner at Midtown Farm with the amazing people of Flowers & Bullets.
Until I have a few moments to get it all committed to paper or pixels, though, and until I hear back from my seafood rep about the seaweed I’ll need to make laverbread for the Rogue (sorry, Cindy and Joe, I still have yet to hear back,) I’ll just post what we’ve already got taken care of and leave you with the promise of more. What have we already got taken care of? Well, there’s the January menu, which, yes, includes the dish everyone appears to have a special fondness for: Lobster, corn and scallion bread pudding.
https://www.eatatfeast.com/dining/menus/lunch-dinner/
and there’s this Saturday’s wine tasting, a handful of Portuguese treats.
And here are a couple of save-the-dates:
Wednesday, January 17th: dinner with importer and producer Rinomata Cantina Tombacco
Sunday, January 21st (private event- the restaurant won’t be open but for this dinner): Under Milk Wood benefit dinner for the Rogue Theatre
Thursday February 29th: wine dinner with Darren Delmore of Tablas Creek
TBD in March: wine dinner with Callaghan Vineyards, once at Feast and once at Callaghan Vineyards
TBD in April: benefit dinner for Flowers and Bullets at Midtown Farm
Also to be determined is when we’ll be able to open again on Sundays, or seat until 9:00 pm instead of 8:00, but we’ll get to that as well, with any luck sooner than later.
Happy new year, everyone.
Love,
Doug