Dear Feastlings,
Restaurateurs are voyeurs. Not that we’re spying on anything untoward, mind you- the thing that we secretly watch is this: parking lots. Each Sunday, when I’m off, and each evening when I leave, and on every errand that I run, I either steal a furtive glance or openly gawk at the parking lots of every restaurant I see, and count cars. I don’t have what I would call a competitive spirit, and when we’re busy, it often doesn’t even occur to me to ogle someone else’s parking lot, or, in a more invasive moment, to peek in through their windows. If we’re busy, my mind is on what I need to accomplish in the limited time I have before the dinner rush, or before a big catering job or a wine tasting.
July is another story. I want to know how every restaurant is doing; I chat with other people in the industry, I look at everyone else’s business, and I alternately panic over why another restaurant has a packed parking lot on a night that I’ve left early because we were so slow, or sigh a sad sigh of camaraderie when it appears another restaurant is as quiet as we are, or sigh a relieved sigh when we’ve had a busy one and someone else clearly hasn’t. Summers aren’t as gruesome as they once were, but I find myself sighing more than panicking lately. It feels like we’re all in this together, this dearth of monsoon weather and of humanity. I’d reckon people are headed back to town soon, but I don’t blame them for leaving now. My plan, for now, is to pepper the summer with reasons to come in, and while some of those reasons are fleeting, like this week’s wine tasting of off-the-beaten-path Italian wines,
or the event to which it’s a prelude, Ferragosto,
But there’s also a reason to drop by whenever it’s convenient for you- our summer wine deal continue all the way to Labor Day, so you’ve got a month and a bit to avail yourself of generous pricing on all of our wines.
There’ll be more reasons as well- the menu changes a week from today, and we’re working on inviting winemakers and importers for special dinners, but winemakers are beholden to the weather, and to harvest, so until they know what they’re harvesting and when, we won’t know when they’ll have a moment to visit us. But know it will happen.
In the meantime, take advantage of this time during which you can pop into nearly any restaurant in town and plunk yourself down for a tasty meal and some pleasant idle banter from a bunch of pleasant, idle banterers.
We hope you’ll join us.
Love,
Doug and all the crew at Feast