Restaurants and Institutions

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Timelines & “Stu-Do’s”
April 30, 2007

At about a month out from opening (from my lips to Saint Laurence’s ear--he’s the patron saint of cooks), let’s talk about where we are, what’s going on and what’s left to do.

I’ve been working with my front-of-the-house manager/restaurant-and-hospitality management extern to get all the necessary paperwork together for everything from opening and closing checklists to the employee manual, payroll files and interview questions [sample application and server interview form]. We’ve placed an ad for servers, bartenders, bussers and hosts on a local online-classified service, put an employment link on the Terroir Web site and begun the weeding-out process for prospective staff. Back-of-the-house interviews will commence next week.

I’ve also been making sure that the remaining equipment—smallwares, plateware and flatware (including everything from steak knives to salt-and pepper-grinders—are ordered. Basically, I want—dare I say, need—to make sure everything still is on track. I also have a meeting later today with Lori Randall, our PR person, to see where we are to date and to make final plans for the opening. Yes, we can still make changes, but it’s getting very close to the announcement date, as you can see below on our tentative opening calendar.

One more item on my agenda: I’m going out to dinner this weekend, because it looks like it will be one of my last chances to actually have a “date” with my wife.

And the journey continues.

Posted by Stu Stein on April 30, 2007 | Comments (0)